Forget the sensational title (although it does perfectly describe the movie contents). This is arguably the best of Roger Corman’s early horror films. It’s fast-paced and conceptually intriguing, although 63 minutes is not enough time to do all of the ideas justice. However, you won’t think about that until after the movie is over.
Tagline: “From the depths of the sea…A TIDAL WAVE OF TERROR!” [Well, there’s two of the crabs]
WTF Factor: ***
Notable dialogue (famous last words department):
- Marty [as Jim climbs into a mysterious pit]: “Jim, you don’t know what’s down there.”
- Jim: “What could there be other than earth, water, and a few land crabs?”
Synopsis: Cool credits.
We begin with a voiceover quote from The Bible:
And the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:7, King James version [uncredited]
A raft comes ashore with both sailors and civilians, including one beautiful woman (it is the Fifties, after all). They are looking for a previous group of scientists, led by Dr. McLean, that disappeared from the island. In response to an observation that the island seems desolate, we are treated to this existential statement (the first of several):
Jules [you have to read this in an outrageous, Pepe Le Pew “French” accent]: I’m not so sure you are right, Monsieur Quinlan. Maybe their bodies are gone, but who can tell of their souls, eh? Maybe if I call to them they will answer, their ghosts will answer. [shouting]: McLean! Hello!
The civilians head for a house on the cliff while another supply raft approaches. One of the sailors manages to fall overboard and when they pull him up, his head is missing.
Two seamen, Fellows and Summers (Beach Dickerson and Tony Miller), are camping on the beach with demolition supplies and lots of (normal) crabs. Meanwhile the scientists are setting up their equipment at the house. Lt. Quinlan (Ed Nelson) comments that there are no animal noises of any kind. He is leaving on a seaplane and will pick them up later. They are headed to the beach when thunderous noises start and the camera begins to shake.
Hank (Russell Johnson) provides us with a quick exposition to set the stage. The island was in the path of radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb tests and the scientists came to study the effects.
Hank: I’m no scientist. I’m a technician and a handyman.
He expositions the research team to the sailors: Dr. Karl Weigand (Leslie Bradley) is a nuclear physicist and expedition leader, Dr. Jim Carson (Richard H. Cutting) is a geologist, Dr. Jules Deveraux (Mel Welles) is a botanist, Drs. Martha (Marty) Hunter (Pamela Duncan) and Dale Drewer (Richard Garland) are biologists. The first expedition was investigating until there was a storm and they disappeared. Everyone gathers to watch the plane take off, which doesn’t end well when the plane explodes. And then a storm hits.
Hank is having no luck with the radio, so Dale suggests that the scientists look through McLean’s journal, the only thing left of the previous expedition. The journal describes finding a large piece of flesh, with similar composition to that of a five-foot earthworm. The scientists could not cut the tissue and the journal stops mid-experiment. More unexplained explosion noises.
The next morning they hear crunching noises but don’t see anything. Marty and Dale go scuba diving [very poorly, I might add] and check out the abundance of wildlife. They are apparently a couple.
A large pit has opened up along the path. Karl insists that it is too dangerous for Jim (the geologist) to climb down to investigate.
During the night, Marty hears McLean calling to her for help. She can’t find him but runs into Jim, who also heard McLean, but calling for him instead. Marty believes McLean is dead, but Jim climbs down into the pit to investigate.
There’s more rumbling and camera shaking, Marty passes out, and we hear Jim scream. The others arrive and hear Jim calling out that his leg is broken. Karl suggests that they go down by way of the caves, which should connect with the pit. He’s not wrong. Karl, Jules, and Hank head down. Fellows and Summers join them, saying a lot of the cliff came down on the beach.
Back at the house, Marty notes that McLean reported land changes occurring only at night. There’s more rumbling and the same crunching sound heard before. Suddenly Dale and Marty hear something crashing about in the lab. Dale goes to investigate and is attacked by something. Sensibly he beats it out of there.
Down in the caves, they hear Jim calling, but Karl advises caution. They find the end of the rope and blood, but no Jim. Karl insists that they go up the rope rather than back through the caves, and wait until morning to continue the search.
At the house, the noises have stopped but the electricity is out. The lab is smashed up and the mice are gone. The radio is in pieces, apparently deliberate, and Hank isn’t sure he can repair it. Karl hypothesizes that the creature is afraid of electricity.
Marty [staring out the window]: Once upon a time there was a mountain. Yesterday when we came to this island, there was a mountain out there. Today there’s no mountain.
Karl says he’s not surprised; he seems to know more than he’s letting on. He believes all of the phenomena are tied together and unnatural.
The team goes out to find Jim. There’s a cave-in and Jules loses a hand.
The seamen are gambling with sticks of dynamite when they hear the crunching sounds. Exit seamen. Then, Jules awakes to hear Fellows calling for him to come see Jim down by the pit. That doesn’t end well. Everyone hears the screams, and then Jules’ voice greets them. They discover that it is emanating from a metal ashtray by Jules’ bedside. ‘Jules’ says he will be back tomorrow night.
Karl: “No, I do not believe in ghosts. We are dealing with a man who is dead, but whose voice and memory live. How this can be, I do not know, but its implications are far more terrible than any ghost could ever be.”
The next morning they find the sailors gone along with most of the dynamite.
That night, Jules speaks through Hank’s gun, asking them to come see what has happened to him. Karl, Dale, and Hank head into the caves and follow the crunching sounds, which end in a mighty roar. A giant crab comes forth. They hit it with bullets and a grenade to no effect. Then Hank tosses some dynamite and the crab is killed by a falling rock. Karl severs a leg for a specimen. It appears to be an ‘ordinary’ male land crab but big.
Then they hear more crunching and guess what shows up.
Jules’ voice proclaims that by killing the crab, they have destroyed McLean and all of that expedition. Back at the lab, Karl finds that the crab’s molecular structure is “disrupted, with no cohesion between the atoms.”
Science!
- Karl: “It’s like a mass of liquid with a permanent shape. Any matter, therefore, that the crab eats, will be assimilated in its body as like solid energy, becoming part of the crab.”
- Marty: “Like the bodies of the dead men?”
- Karl: “Yes, and their brain tissue, which after all is nothing more than a storage house for electrical impulses.”
- Dale: “So that means the crab can eat its victim’s brain, absorbing his mind intact and working.”
- Karl: “It’s as good a theory as any other to explain what’s happened.” [It’s hard to argue with that logic.]
Hank asks how the crabs are destroying the island. Karl thinks that they are sending out waves of heat. Marty examines the photo that Karl took of the second crab.
MARTY: Looks like we’re on the verge of a blessed event… Notice the band of yellow fat around the base of the shell? It would indicate that she’s in a very delicate condition, and pretty close, too. I for one should not like to be around to hear the patter of so many tiny feet.
Karl would like to capture the specimen. Hank figures out that electricity reduces the crab leg to ashes. He then builds a “positive energy trap” to deenergize the crab. They will set it up in the caves, where the crab will step on it.
More camera shaking; apparently the crab is now using the dynamite. Hank and Marty go down through the pit in scuba gear to set the trap. If I’m not mistaken, Marty is flirting while they work and Hank is into it. They find the sleeping crab but when Hank tries to take a specimen, the crab awakens.
Hank and Marty swim for safety with the crab in pursuit. Dale shoots at the crab as it climbs out of the water.
Crab: “So, you have wounded me and I must grow a new claw. Well then, GOOD. For I can do it in a day. But will you grow new lives when I have taken yours from you?”
The humans escape but the island is shrinking rapidly from the explosions. Hank has the radio receiver working and is trying to get out a distress signal. There’s more flirting between Marty and Hank, who have a lot more chemistry than she has with Dale. Marty doesn’t seem very enthusiastic when she tells Hank that she will marry Dale as soon as his promotion comes through. Hank doesn’t seem too happy either.
Dale and Karl go down to the caves (what’s left) and find two trickles of oil. Each of them follows a stream, figuring they can hear the crab coming. Dale has a narrow escape. Karl manages to trip his own electrical trap and the crab gets him.
Hank tries to send a Morse code distress signal. Now it’s Karl’s voice threatening them. The house is taken out and all that’s left of the island is a rocky promontory with an electrical tower. Here comes the crab. Grenades are useless but then Hank gets an idea. He charges up the tower and then pulls it down on the monster, sacrificing himself in the process. The End.
Thoughts: It’s not often that a Roger Corman movie is overbrimming with concepts, but Attack of the Crab Monsters is an example. Written by Charles B. Griffith (Little Shop of Horrors (1960)), starting with the title, his directive from Corman was to include action in every scene and be quick about it. That he did. This was a picture that Corman did for Allied Artists rather than American International. He directed nine movies in 1957 in a multitude of genres. Three qualify as horror/science fiction: Not of This Earth, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and The Undead. Not of This Earth and Attack of the Crab Monsters were released on a very successful double bill. Even the filmmakers attribute some of this success to the movie’s rather silly title. Corman has cited this movie as one of his favorites and he refused to remake it later in his career, unlike Not of This Earth.
Aside from its relatively fast pace, there is some moody photography and several eerie moments. Clearly the earthquakes are simulated by shaking the cameras, with varying responses from the actors.
The acting is fine (with the exception of Jules’ “French” accent), although the nominal lead is probably the weakest link. Dale barely registers as a character. Marty and Dale come across as fairly wooden in their interactions, unlike the chemistry that Marty has with Hank in their scenes. Pamela Duncan and Richard Garland also starred in The Undead the same year for Corman.
The crab monsters are somewhat effective, although they work better when they are barely seen. The un-crab-like facial features are a bit goofy once the creature gets out in the sunlight. The crab’s body was operated with two men underneath the shell, usually Ed Nelson and Beach Dickerson. There are conflicting reports of how the crab body was made; alternately Styrofoam, papier mache, or fiberglass. Ed Nelson says it was heavy fiberglass and he ought to know best. There are very few scenes where the crab appears underwater because the crab shell insisted on floating in the tank, even when weighted down.
The movie incorporates a number of intriguing plot threads that never come to fruition. Examples of dropped ideas:
- For the first half of the movie, there are multiple hints that Karl knows more than he is telling, but later he seems fairly clueless.
- The crab(s) say that they are going to take over the world, but there is no indication how that would happen (are they going to swim for land?).
- What’s up with the piece of ‘earthworm?’
- What’s up with the oil streams?
- What’s up with the crabs speaking through metal objects?
- The love triangle between Marty, Dale, and Hank is not exploited, although Hank really becomes the hero of the piece.
This is an enjoyable little movie and a great reminder of how Roger Corman’s early horror/science fiction movies managed to entertain on a miniscule budget.
Quick bits:
- Russell Johnson went on to play another man of resourcefulness, the Professor, on Gilligan’s Island.
- The main locations for the film were Leo Carrillo State Beach (a Corman favorite), Bronson Caverns (everybody’s favorite) and Marineland of the Pacific for the underwater scenes.
- The original movie was too short for television, so the televised version was padded out with addition title cards, stock footage, and repeated shots, which didn’t exactly burnish the movie’s reputation. Watch the original movie version.
Suggested double feature: The original double bill with Not of This Earth is hard to beat.
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “The New Height in Fright”
