Jack Arnold was born on 14 October 1916.
He is probably the best director you have never heard of. Why do I say that? Because you have heard of his films. The earliest ones were produced by William Alland:
- It Came from Outer Space (1953)
- Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
- Revenge of the Creature (1955)
- The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
- The Mouse That Roared (1959).
He also directed two blaxploitation films starring Fred Williamson. The first was the action film Black Eye. The second was a comedy western, Boss Nigger, which was also written by Williamson. It seems that both these films are rather good. But I haven’t seen either. I hope to do so soon.
I like every film I’ve seen from Jack Arnold. But my favorite is Tarantula. It is one of the best giant creature films. I prefer Them! But that’s a very high bar.
The film suffers a bit in that the lab is clearly just a house. It’s similar to the “lab” in The Brain That Wouldn’t Die. But the reason I prefer Them! is its portrayal of scientists. There was a strong tendency in the 1950s to portray scientists as evil, fatuous, or both. For example, The Thing from Another World. Given how many problems scientists have solved, this tendency strikes me as particularly unwarranted.
In Tarantula, a scientist creates the problem. But he isn’t presented as a bad guy. Still, it is a film where a scientist creates a problem and the military solves it. Not exactly my experience of the world.
But it’s still a lot of fun. And Jack Arnold’s birthday is a great excuse to watch it!
14 October Psychotronic Birthdays and Releases
Filmmakers
- Lillian Gish (1893-1993): Iconic silent film star who worked into her 90s.
- Dorothy Kingsley (1909-1997): Screenwriter, especially of musicals like Girl Crazy and Pal Joey.
- Roger Moore (1927-2017): The second major James Bond.
- Udo Kier (1944-2025): Best known for the lead in Blood of Dracula. But he was in lots of other interesting things.
- Joey Travolta (1950-): Director of a wide array of lower-budget genre films like Hard Vice and Mel.
- Harry Anderson (1952-2018): Magician who became something of a star on the TV show Night Court.
- Max Thieriot (1988-): Actor known for My Soul to Take and House at the End of the Street.
Films
- The Phantom of Crestwood (1932): A blackmailer is murdered. Who of her victims did it?
- The Earth Dies Screaming (1965): A small number of survivors battle space aliens and their robots.
- Blood from the Mummy‘s Tomb (1971): The last of the Hammer mummy films — this day with a lady mummy.
- Starship Invasions (1977): Space aliens need a new planet and they’ve chosen Earth.
- Fade to Black (1980): A young film fan murders his enemies and stalks his favorite movie star.
- The Kiss (1988): An evil sister comes to visit the family of her recently deceased sister.
- Night of the Demons (1988): Teens have a party in an old funeral parlor and a demon shows up and kills them.
- Trancers III (1992): Jack Deth is brought back to the 23rd century to fight new trancers.
- Pulp Fiction (1994): Various stories surrounding a crime syndicate.
- Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994): Demonic force uses Freddy to come into our world.
- Mimic: Sentinel (2003): Castle-keep against mutant insects.
- SpiderBabe (2003): A young woman gets bit by radioactive spider and becomes a superhero.
- The Fog (2005): Remake of the classic.
- Brotherhood of Blood (2008): Vampire hunters go on a rescue mission.
- The Thing (2011): Prequel to the classic.
- Horror House (2012): Five moments of horror in a house.
Jack Arnold via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
I’m very psyched to watch Black Lagoon again! Just got it from the library. I think I saw it at age eight or so. The local paper had a promotion with a local TV station — they were showing a 3D version, and 3D glasses came with the Sunday paper. Very exciting when you’re 8!
I don’t know if I mentioned this in the article, but as I kid, I didn’t much like the film. And it seemed to play all the time! But when I watched it as an adult, I was blown away. It has no right to be as good as it is!
I wasn’t mad about it. But there were good things! Here’s a good short intro about the good things: https://www.wonkette.com/p/wonkette-movie-night-creature-from
Also, the guy who was in the rubber suit had to hold his breath AND swim in the suit during the underwater scenes, what a trouper!
Interestingly, there’s a bit where they’re on the boat, trying to reel in the underwater creature, and the winch they’re using slowly gives way and then breaks. It’s EXACTLY duplicated in Jaws! Almost shot-for-shot!
Okay. Now I have to research that! One of my favorite things here is my comparison of scenes in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Happening (link). And this sounds like a great opportunity to do something similar.
As for the guy in the suit, this is something that really bugs me. Another example is Gunnar Hansen using an actual running chainsaw in Texas. Nothing went wrong. But it so easily could have! And I think that Hooper and Henkel should be ashamed. I love film. But nothing is worth putting people in danger.
I think (I hope) that the guy in “Creature” was in a studio tank, so if he had any difficulty, they could have saved him quickly. But you know how things used to be. They didn’t exactly always make safety a priority.
Great scene comparison! I still don’t have the knack for proper screenshots (but am getting better). Although the number of images would break Substack. They put a limit on the file size per post.
I know you’ll be proud of me — I ALMOST hit the limit with a post about “Devil Girl From Mars” (with comparisons of different “cool lady in fetish leather + cape” images). I’ve come close a few times, but you’d approve most of it being “Devil Girl From Mars.”
First, I must read what you wrote about Devil Girl From Mars! That’s a wonderfully silly film!
On the image issue, may I recommend Image Compressor. I run all my images through it. And it normally cuts about 75% from the size. It’s amazing!
Thanks for the image suggestion!