The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

Classic "B" Creature Feature From the Closing Period Of Drive-In Horror
Ah those were the days, Rock'n Roll Music, Drive-in's showing the latest Troy Donahue or monster flick, hotrodders, and "making out", in quiet country lanes in "souped up" wagons. Gee the '50's must have been a gas! Well at least that's what I'm told it was like for teenagers back then as I wasn't around to know myself. Despite it's many faults 1959's "The Giant Gila Monster", is a real favourite of mine among the "Monster on the loose", genre of "B" movie making of the time. In every respect it's very much a product of the decade it was made in despite being released right on the tail end of the era that basically "invented", the teenager. By 1959-60 the gothic horrors dealing with Vampires and Wolfmen produced by the likes of Hammer Studios had largely replaced in popular appeal the 1950's Sci Fi/Horror dramas which usually involved some over sized creature, the result of misuse of atomic power, threatening mankind. Efforts such as "The Gila Monster", then were really the swansong for these type of monster films that had been so incredibly popular for the last decade. The title of this film is self explanatory but the film itself is interesting in that the "teenagers" in the story, just as in the classic "The Blob", are revealed as not the usual delinquents so often depicted in films of this era but instead as responsible and caring young people. The Gila Monster itself almost takes a secondary role here and is unfortunately rarely seen and underused and instead it's the human drama that keeps this story moving along. Front and centre to the action is the lead character played by good looking Don Sullivan, and while his character would appear to the cynical eye as being too good to be true he comes across in my belief as a very appealing character who makes this admittedly "B" level story much more interesting than it probably deserves to be.

Nobody watches these for the art, anyway
I assume nobody has ever watched this expecting Oscar material. So what if it's mostly a gila monster crawling through an HO-scale train set? Can't we just have some good, cheesy, fun once in awhile?

That kid was a pretty good singer, too. Too bad nothing came of him.

CAMP CLASSIC!!!
BUY THE IMAGE VERSION!!!
Nice, clean clear version of this classic involving teenagers, sock-hops, hot-rods, & a GIANT GILA MONSTER that pushes it's smooching head through the barn dance wall. Nitro-city!!!!
This is the absolutely BEST version of this film out there (& I have several).
Co-billed with THE KILLER SHREWS this was a double-feature to die for!!!
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!!!