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Attack of the Giant Leeches

 
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Attack of the Giant Leeches

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Attack of the Giant Leeches
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  • Director: Bernard Kowalski
  • AMG Rating: star
  • Genre: Horror
  • Movie Type: Creature Film, Natural Horror
  • Themes: Mutants
  • Release Year: 1959
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 62 minutes

Plot

This hysterical drive-in favorite pits a community of swamp-dwelling yokels against the silliest-looking monsters since the shag-rug aliens of The Creeping Terror. Despite the strange sucker-marks found on a dead trapper's blood-drained body, and a man's story of seeing his unfaithful wife and her lover dragged into the swamp by the creatures, the police refuse to acknowledge that something freaky is going on. Only after more trappers disappear does the local game warden decide to take action, which he does with a vengeance. When the leech lair is discovered in a cave beneath the swamp, explosives are employed to blow them to little rubber bits. It's hard to be too critical of this early film from prolific TV-director Bernard L. Kowalski (Night of the Blood Beast), since executive producer Roger Corman allocated a budget for this production that would hardly cover the catering bill on a major studio film -- even in 1960! Look carefully to spot the scuba tanks beneath the leech costumes. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Review

Obese general store owner Bruno Ve Sota is married to sluttish teenager Yvette Vickers, who is cheating on him with his best friend, Michael Emmet. The trio ends up in the swamp, Ve Sota literally hunting down the adulterers with a shotgun. That situation alone should have made for an interesting tale, a sort of humid James M. Cain for the beat generation. But this is a Roger Corman production and into the mix are thrown a couple of stunt divers wearing what appears to be small ponchos with tentacles, the leeches of the title, and a hunky game warden (Ken Clark), who displays a disconcerting ignorance of alligators, the game he is hired to protect. The results are uneven at best but the swamp locations, filmed at Pasadena's Arboretum of Tarzan fame, are certainly picturesque and the cave sequence, photographed, according to co-star Yvette Vickers, at the old Charlie Chaplin Studios, at least somewhat creepy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cast

George Cisar - Lem Sawyer; Kenneth Clark - Steve Benton; Michael Emmet - Cal Moulton; Tyler McVey - Doc Greyson; Gene Roth - Sheriff Kovis; Jan Shepard - Nan Greyson; Yvette Vickers - Liz Walker; Dan White - Slim Reed; Bruno Ve Sota - Dave Walker

Credit

Daniel Haller - Art Director, Bernard Kowalski - Director, Carlos Lodato - Editor, Roger Corman - Executive Producer, Alexander Laszlo - Composer (Music Score), John M. Nickolaus, Jr. - Cinematographer, Jack Bohrer - Production Manager, Gene Corman - Producer, Al Overton - Sound/Sound Designer, Leo Gordon - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

Attack of the Crab Monsters; Beginning of the End; Monster from Green Hell; Reptilicus; The Giant Gila Monster
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Wikipedia: Attack of the Giant Leeches
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Attack of the Giant Leeches

A promotional film poster for "Attack of the Giant Leeches."
Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski
Produced by Gene Corman
Roger Corman
Written by Leo Gordon
Starring Ken Clark
Yvette Vickers
Jan Shepard
Music by Alexander Laszlo
Cinematography John M. Nickolaus Jr.
Editing by Carlo Lodato
Distributed by American International Pictures
Release date(s) October 1959
Running time 62 min
Country  United States
Language English
Budget $70,000 (estimated)

Attack of the Giant Leeches is a low-budget 1959 science fiction film from American International Pictures. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski, produced by Gene Corman, and the screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film is in black and white, and runs for 62 minutes. It was one of a spate of monster movies produced during the 1950s in response to cold war fears; in the film a character speculates that the leeches have been mutated to giant size by atomic radiation from nearby Cape Canaveral.

This film was also called Attack of the Blood Leeches, Demons of the Swamp, She Demons of the Swamp, and The Giant Leeches.[1]

In July 1992, Attack of the Giant Leeches was featured as a fourth-season episode of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Contents

Plot

In the Florida Everglades, a pair of larger-than-human, intelligent leeches are living in an underwater cave. They begin dragging local people down to their cave where they hold them prisoner and slowly drain them of blood.

One of the first people to be so taken is the local vixen, Liz Walker, played by Yvette Vickers. After a couple of gratuitous displays of flesh (Yvette appeared as the centerfold in the July 1959 issue of Playboy), and some running around on her husband (Bruno VeSota), Liz finds herself a prisoner of the leeches along with her current paramour. Game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) sets out to investigate their disappearance. Aided by his girlfriend Nan Grayson (Jan Sheppard) and her father, Doc Grayson, he discovers the cavern.

The giant leeches are unrealistically portrayed by men in rubber suits, but they do provide suitably disgusting scenes when attacking their victims. The monsters are finally destroyed when Steve, Doc, and some state troopers blow up the cavern with dynamite.

DVD releases

  • 'Attack of the Giant Leeches' has received numerous 'bargain bin' releases.
  • The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the 'Collection, Volume 6' box set.

See also

References

  1. ^ ""Release dates for Attack of the Giant Leeches"". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053611/releaseinfo#akas. Retrieved 2007-05-19. 

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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