big bug – JOHNNY HAS THE KEYS

While investigating a series of mysterious deaths, Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) finds a young girl (Sandy Descher) who cannot speak. As Peterson joins forces with FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) and scientist Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn), he discovers that all the incidents are because of giant ants that atomic radiation has mutated. Peterson and Graham, with the aid of the military, attempt to find the queen ants and destroy the nests before the danger spreads.

THEM!

It’s been a while since we covered a Big Bug movie, so why not start with the one that started them all? Them! (1954) is a picnic basket of wonderful cinematic nostalgia and we all know what crashes a pleasant picnic in the 1950s: giant ants! Join us as we discuss why this film is a gold standard genre classic, including the star-studded cast (both primary and secondary), the script, and the fantastic (for the time) special effects. Listen, and Johnny Has the Keys goes deep down in the tunnels of Los Angeles, fighting enormous lethal insectoids, searching for the queen’s nest before the eggs hatch, migrate, and wipe out humanity!

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An attack on an arctic weather station and a USAF transport plane has the Air Force puzzled. Their scientists make little headway but Col. Joe Parkman enlists the aid of a paleontologist, Dr. Ned Jackson (William Hopper), who may have the answer: the culprit is a giant praying mantis. The creature is traveling south, and it’s a race against time to capture or kill it.

Episode 31

Welcome to the first of our coverage of three creature features in a row! The 1950s and the atomic age introduced a plethora of these big-bug type films, and The Deadly Mantis (1957) is a prime example. Join us as we discuss our history with this film and how it holds up in the modern age. Listen, as Johnny Has the Keys tracks a giant monster from the Arctic to DC, and finally, New York… bearing witness to the path of destruction it leaves.