Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writer:

Charles B. Griffith (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 February 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

From the depths of the sea... a tidal wave of terror!

Plot:

People are trapped on a shrinking island by intelligent, brain-eating giant crabs. Roger Corman directs.

Plot Keywords:

Island | Giant Crab | Exploding Airplane | Eating Brains | B Movie

Cast

Richard Garland	...	Dale Drewer
Pamela Duncan	...	Dr. Martha 'Marti' Hunter
Russell Johnson	...	Hank Chapman
Leslie Bradley	...	Dr. Karl Weigand
Mel Welles	...	Jules Deveroux
Richard H. Cutting	...	Dr. James Carson
Beach Dickerson	...	Seaman Ron Fellows
Tony Miller	...	Seaman Jack Sommers
Ed Nelson	...	Ensign Quinlan
Maitland Stuart	...	Seaman Mac
Charles B. Griffith	...	Seaman Tate
Robin Riley
Doug Robberts

Runtime:

62 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Los Altos Productions

Trivia:

Russell Johnson broke his toe while splashing around in the water during one scene. Due to the low budget of the film, director Roger Corman had a stage tech tape up Johnson's toe and immediately ordered him back in the water to finish the scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the scuba divers are rising to the surface (from the underwater camera shot), the water depth appears to be over 25 feet. Yet when the camera angle changes to above, the divers immediately stand up after surfacing.

Quotes:

Martha Hunter: But Doctor, that theory doesn't explain why Jules' and Carson's minds have turned against us.
Dale Drewer: Preservation of the species. Once they were men. Now they are land crabs.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Niñas Mal (2007)

The very best with the very least.

This movie was released with the lowest of budgets but at a time when similarly themed movies were made just as cheaply. Admittedly the last time I saw this movie was probably 1957, but it still stays in my mind because the monsters seemed impossible to defeat up until the end. Many movies of this type usually gave away their ending in the first 10 minutes - The heroes were definitely going to win or the monsters were just too powerful for there to be any hope. Among those films released in the same time period Attack of the Crab Monsters was more than a cut above the norm. In century of extremely sophisticated computer generated images, the special effects in this movie must be compared with those for the 50's (not much better). If you give it a chance I think you will give it a place in your collection as it is in mine.