Don't you hate it when you miss out on something cool for a stupid reason?  This happened to me (again) just the other day.  Apparently, we had a giant mantis stalking around outside of the Vault's windows, but I didn't notice because I was sharpening my pencils.  I know.  I know.  It sounds like the dumbest excuse ever.  But, you have to understand-- I use pencils a lot.  They're convenient and they have a classic appeal.  So, I was sitting in one of the Vault's towers with a large plastic cup full of pencils and my little electric sharpener on the table in front of me and my back to the window.

Beaumont, my zombie assistant, wandered into the room while I was working.  And to hear his side of the story, he apparently made it very clear that something was wrong, to which I replied, "Go away, I'm organizing my pencils," or some other lame comment like that.  He's lying.  I probably said something like "This better be good," or "Begone, fell beast," or some other remark that made me seem commanding and mysterious and cool.  Honestly, I think it was "Not now, Beaumont!  I've found a really cool bug!"

I should mention at this point that I found a really cool bug and was trying to coax it onto the tip of one of the pencils so that I could get a better look at it.  Beaumont's version of the story strangely leaves that detail out.  I can't resist seeing a cool bug, which is why the irony of the giant mantis outside my window weighs so heavily upon me.  I'm told that it was there for a good forty seconds, which I certainly could have spared.  (I wondered why there was so much screaming coming from the other tower windows).  That one was on me.  When I had finished arguing with Beaumont, giant mantis and the cool bug were gone, but at least I had a lovely collection of sharpened pencils to get me through the rest of the day.

At our last meeting, we watched the science fiction classic, The Deadly Mantis (1957).  For those of you who missed the meeting, let me tell you a little about the film.  A giant, prehistoric praying mantis, which has been frozen in the Arctic ice for centuries, breaks free, attacks a military base, and then starts to make its way south, looking for new sources of humans to consume.  This "big bad bug movie" has been recommended to me several times, and I'm excited we were finally able to watch it.  As a fun aside, the film was originally black and white (which is what we watched), but I do have a colorized version.  Let me know if you think that is something you'd want to watch in the future and I'll add it to the rotation at some point down the road.

Time for familiar faces!  We had quite a few this month, so let's get started!  First, we have Donald Randolph (Major General Mark Ford).  Donald was also in our October 2023 film, The Mad Magician as Ross Ormond, Vincent Price's corrupt employer.  Phil Harvey (Lou) was uncredited as Trooper Kennedy in The Thing That Couldn't Die (December 2022) and was Ben Gilbert in The Monolith Monsters (March 2022).  George Bruggeman (an uncredited Bus Disaster Observer) was an uncredited servant in The Strange Door (February 2018).  Fellow uncredited Bus Disaster Observer Chet Brandenburg has one of the coolest uncredited titles as "Police Office with Flamethrower" in The Indestructible Man (February 2021) and was a villager in Ghost of Frankenstein (November 2022).  Army Sergeant Floyd Simmons played the Ghost of Mathew Maulle in Twice-Told Tales, which we watched in June 2018.

Continuing on, we have Chuck Hamilton (policeman) who was in both Monolith Monsters as a "corpse in the back of a pickup truck" (yikes!) and in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (December 2023) as a policeman.  Alan Reynolds (uncredited guard outside of the Washington Monument) was Major Kimberly in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (November 2017).  John Close (uncredited engineer) was police aircraft pilot, Johnny in Them! (August 2018).  David McMahon (Captain Frank Carver) was an Air Force Sergeant in The Day the Earth Stood Still (May 2017) and Brigadier General Fogarty in The Thing from Another World (December 2016).  Both roles were uncredited.  George Lynn (an uncredited bus driver) was Colonel Ryder in The Day the Earth Stood Still as well as Inspector Gerlach in The House of Frankenstein (May 2023).

Finally, we have two actors who are not pictured below: Rudy Germane (uncredited Military Officer) and Ned Le Fevre (uncredited Announcer).  Rudy was a policeman in our May 2022 film, Curse of the Faceless Man and Ned made an appearance as a newscaster in Revenge of the Creature (September 2017).

[Donald Randolph, Phil Harvey, George Bruggeman, Chet Bradenburg, and Floyd Simmons--Image credit to IMDB and Avelyman.com]

[Chuck Hamilton, Alan Reynolds, John Close, David McMahon, and George Lynn--Image credit to IMDB and Aveleyman.com]
(Not Pictured: Rudy Germane and Ned Le Fevre)

There's something so fun about a giant bug movie!  And of course, The Deadly Mantis is not the only chiller to feature an insectoid monster.  If you're still looking for more, why not check out some of the other titles on this list?  Of course, this is not exhaustive by any stretch, but it should provide you with a place to start in planning your next movie night!  (As an interesting aside, I couldn't help but notice that all of these are from the 1950s...not intentional on my part, but certainly very curious!

Not all of these are in the library's collection, but many can be found through interlibrary loan or on YouTube.  I added links for titles that you can watch on Hoopla or DVD at your library.  If you want help tracking down the others, let me know and I'll see what I can do!

Them! (1954)  Atomic testing in New Mexico has an unexpected result as normal ants begin to mutate to gigantic proportions, turning into man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

Tarantula (1955)  A spider escapes from an isolated desert laboratory and starts growing to tremendous size.  Meanwhile, the scientists who were conducting the experiments find that their own bodies are becoming distorted and disfigured.

Beginning of the End (1957)  An enterprising journalist is determined to get the scoop on the enormous grasshoppers that were accidentally created at the Illinois experimental farm.

Black Scorpion (1957)  Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth to wreak havoc in the rural countryside and threaten Mexico City.

Monster from Green Hell (1957)  A scientific expedition to Africa discovers wasps that have been exposed to radiation and mutated into giant, killing monsters.

The Monster that Challenged the World (1957)  Okay, so possibly not a bug, but I'm including it as a freebie.  A horde of prehistoric mollusk monsters enter the canal system of California's Imperial Valley and terrorize the populace.

Earth vs. the Spider (1958)  Also known as The Spider.  Teenagers from a rural community and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider.

The Fly (1958)  A scientist experimenting in teleportation has a horrific accident fusing his DNA with that of a fly.

The Strange World of Planet X (1958)  Also known as The Cosmic Monsters.  A friendly visitor from space warns against conducting experiments with the Earth's magnetic field, as it could mutate insects into giant monsters.

Wasp Woman (1959)  The head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps.  However, the formula has an unexpected (and deadly) side effect.

Thank you for joining us for another piece of classic horror!  I look forward to seeing you all next time.  In our next film, a sailor and a group of scientists find themselves trapped in the lab during a hurricane, while giant, man-eating shrews roam around outside of the estate, waiting for their chance to strike.  Will humanity survive the night?  You'll have to join us to find out!