Jack Arnold's "Tarantula" is mostly your typical '50s sci-fi flick, this time focusing on a typical member of the family Theraphosidae* whom a scientist is using as a test subject in a series of experiments aimed at increasing the world's food supply: the experiments involve making animals grow really quickly. Sure enough, the arachnid gets loose, and so there's an eight-legged, 100-foot killing machine stomping through the desert, devouring anyone in its way.
The professor mentions that the world population was growing by about 25 million every year. Nowadays it's closer to 80 million every year (about the population of Egypt or Germany). The professor predicted a world population of 3.6 billion in the year 2000, while in reality it reached 6 billion the previous year, and reached 7 billion last year. It's predicted to be 9 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, resources are drying up. The professor would have to work a lot harder nowadays (preferably without releasing a giant spider).
OK, too much analysis. It's mostly the usual, fun sci-fi/horror flick from the era. Starring John Agar (Shirley Temple's first husband), Mara Corday (the October 1958 Playboy centerfold), Leo G. Carroll (Mr. Waverly on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."), Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale on "The Beverly Hillbillies") and an uncredited Clint Eastwood.
*That's the taxonomic family to which tarantulas belong.
The professor mentions that the world population was growing by about 25 million every year. Nowadays it's closer to 80 million every year (about the population of Egypt or Germany). The professor predicted a world population of 3.6 billion in the year 2000, while in reality it reached 6 billion the previous year, and reached 7 billion last year. It's predicted to be 9 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, resources are drying up. The professor would have to work a lot harder nowadays (preferably without releasing a giant spider).
OK, too much analysis. It's mostly the usual, fun sci-fi/horror flick from the era. Starring John Agar (Shirley Temple's first husband), Mara Corday (the October 1958 Playboy centerfold), Leo G. Carroll (Mr. Waverly on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."), Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale on "The Beverly Hillbillies") and an uncredited Clint Eastwood.
*That's the taxonomic family to which tarantulas belong.