I saw this film a couple of years ago on "Mystery Science Theatre 3000". Boy is it great. It was directed by Bert I. Gordon, the man who pioneered sticking an insect in front of a postcard and calling it terror. He used rather similar effects in "Earth vs. the Spider" and "Empire of the Ants" as well. His movies pop up on the Sci-Fi Channel all the time so keep an eye out for them.
BTW the MST3K version of "Beginning of the End" is being released on home video in March. Buy it, you won't be dissapointed.
What I learned from this movie:
- There are mountains in Illinois.
- You can't drop an atom bomb on Chicago.
I think it is appalling that the role of the University of Illinois, my home institution, in this terrible environmental tragedy has never been acknowledged! Some ill-considered agricultural research on growing giant crop plants by exposing them to radiation went horribly astray -- with the result that photographs of Chicago skyscrapers were at risk of being destroyed by nuclear explosions. The story has obviously been coverd up by the authorities. Also, I'd like to know where those movie mountains are, supposedly somewhere near Ludlow. I certainly have never seen any rising from our flat, flat plains! More cover-ups. I'm shocked, shocked! I must rush off now, to defend the suburbs of Paxton.
This movie is fun, I love it. The sight of giant grasshoppers walking all over pictures of "tall buildings" in Chicago is hysterical. You can actually see the grasshopper's feet "standing" on air. The best line in the movie comes when the Army decides that the only way to stop these beasts from devouring mankind is to drop an atomic bomb on the city. Quote - Ed: "You can't drop an atom bomb on Chicago!"
I saw BEGINNING OF THE END when I was in the fifth grade. We thought the fact that the mutant grasshoppers could walk off the side of a skycraper onto thin air was a power gained through radiation. Forty years have passed; we're older and wiser. Read my review of BEGINNING OF THE END on the Internet Movie Database.
I enjoyed this movie and taped it years ago. I thought eating the mute guy was sad too. When will Sci-Fi science ever learn....
An example of my favorite sub-genre of 50s SciFi: giant mutant insects. Bad acting, cheesy special effects, in short ... a masterpiece. I saw this movie on television about a jillion times as a kid.
Actually, car phones were around in 1956: they used
radio telephony. They were all "push to talk" devices,
and were only able to send a message or recieve it.
I'd have to see the film to tell you what's going on
here, but think of a CB radio inside what looks like
a phone and you've got the general idea. These were
pricey and experimental: the system had a lot of
money invested in it, but never caught on past a very
small set, in large part due to the cost and low bandwith
associated with radio telephony. Ma Bell never distributed
them too far after initial tests with selected customers
showed that they weren't all they were cracked up to be,
but there had been heavy advertising of the system
circa 1955.
If you watched this movie then you should watch Mystery Science Theatre 3000, they do a little take on the movie, way funny. I got it from teh library so you should too. "Oh my Gahndi, they've killed Frank!"
Ah, Bert I. Gordon. The man who later made Food of the Gods. A true American hero. This is one helluva bad flick and I liked it. Giant grasshoppers! Ahhhhhh!!! I give it 3/5.
Cham
Killing of Frank was not cool.
I have relatives in the mid-central part of Illinois, dangerously near to the towns mentioned, and from what I've seen, I think that this movie was really a documentary rather than a cult sci-fi!
I saw this on the "Creature Feature" when I was *really* small. I was so young, in fact, that the atrocious special effects were actually convincing. The threat of giant grasshoppers was all too real to me. Shame on me! A classic bad film courtesy of the one and only Bert I. Gordon.
The thing about this movie that bothers me the most is a huge, gaping, giant locust-sized flaw in continity. How come flamethrowers, tanks, and heavy artillery didn't hurt them at Ludlow, yet at least two locusts are killed by rifle-fire? I mean, Dr. Wainwright's just firing that tiny pistol, and it falls over dead! Come to think of it, why do scientests in these movies *always* have a pistol in their desk? And Audrey covered the Korean War, for crying out loud! Why does she scream and cower at the hint of a locust! AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHH! I should stop before I smash my copy of this otherwise enjoyable movie!
I`ve seen bad movies in my time, but this movie was baaaaad! The acting of Peter Graves and all the other human actors was so awful that I was rooting for the grasshoppers through the whole film. What`s next-giant dung beetles?
This is an awful movie. Locusts is good but grasshoppers? This is a rip-off to Them. The only good version is the MST3K version.
I saw this movie on MST3K. It was bloody hilarious. But the movie would have been better if 1. The grasshoppers could jump and smash people. And 2. Used a model of a building insted of a postcard when the g-hoppers were climbing the building.
The movie "Them" about the giant ants seemed to be a relatively big budgeted high quality sci-fi-horror production. I believe "Beginning of the End" was made after "Them" and appears to be a quick and sleazy attempt to cash in on the giant bug fad, which is a part of the "End" charm.
I first saw this giant grasshopper epic on TV as a small child 40 years ago and took it quite seriously. Later on as a more discerning adult I grew to love it for its unabashed tackiness.
Like many, I saw the MST3K version.
And was I the only one who noticed the edge of the cardboard cutouts?
Violence: *
Goofiness: *** The eating of mute man was priceless
Monster: **
Actors: *
Overall: **
I saw this this movie and it was terrible.The only good scene I can remember was when a locust busted in on a lady getting out of the bathroom.A weak atempt to rip off THEM.
Being born in 1950 has it's advantages. This is the kind of movies and movie effects we kids grew up with. It's just as much fun watching it today as it was in the late 50s and early 60s. I just purchased this film on DVD and am awaiting anxiously to see it again after many years. Newer generations laugh at this stuff and it's sad they don't realize all the effects used nowdays had to have their roots somewhere. I'm still a big Harryhausen fan and
love this old B movie stuff, too. So you younger generations should be appreciative of these early pioneers' efforts. They paved the way for the new CGI graphics and such. So there !
This movie sucks horribly. It shouldn't even be called a movie. More like a world when bugs will rule the world.
Again with the car reference. The snappy covertible Audrey is tooling aroung in is a 1956 Chrysler New Yorker, It was 4100.00 new. That book on Korea must have been a smash hit for her to pick up that little number.
My favorite line? "You can't drop an atomic bomb on Chicago!"
Well, of course you can dufus. :hot:
This movie is a guilty pleasure for me. I lived in Ludlow. The town that was eaten by the Grasshoppers. :teddyr:
hah! I watched Mike and the Bots this sunday. Still a classic MST3K.
And my favorite line?
Crow : "One weekend a month my ass!"
I think it sucks that handicapped people get killed by the monster. But whats weird is, I didnt have any complaint about the wheelchair guy in Friday the 13th Part 2 that got the machete across the face. He had hopes and ambitions and those were mentioned in the movie too. Maybe in spite of that, he wasn't a character the audience could really relate to, or maybe it was just some cheap shock gimmick. :lookingup:
Peggie Castle is soo hot.
But anyway, it's kind of bland until the view of the first grasshopper.
Then you can't stop laughing because it's just so ridiculous.
Watching grasshoppers climb a picture of a building. Ever hear of models?