The Semiquincentennial Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).
Week #28: Florida -
Details about Florida:
State bird: Northern mockingbird
State flower: orange blossom
State tree: palmetto
Additional historical trivia:
For drive-in fans: In Ft. Lauderdale there is a drive-in theater that has the most screens, with 14 of them.
Carabelle is noted for having the world's smallest police station. It's a phone booth.
The oldest continuously settled community in the U.S. is located in Augustine.
If you love golf, there are more golf courses in Florida than any other state. (Makes sense).
For fans of one of my favorite T.V. shows, In Search Of, Florida is home to Coral Castle. This structure was supposedly built by one man, and has some stones that weigh tons.
Famous people born in Florida: Tom Petty, Jim Morrison (lead singer of the Doors), Ronnie, Johnny and Donnie Van Zant, (brothers who fronted Lynyrd Skynyrd and 38 Special), Sidney Poitier, Wesley Snipes, Matthew Stafford, Deion Sanders, Janet Reno and Marco Rubio.
First thought: This movie should probably have been called Attack of the Giant Trash Bags. Of all the movies I have ever seen in my life, (and believe me I have seen a LOT!) these monsters are probably some of the most laughable (and that's even considering A*P*E*...). There is some interesting background to this, however. Roger Corman, always on the lookout to cut the budget down to the bare bones, had the guys who played the monsters design their own costumes. Zip! Why pay a costume designer when you can just get the actors, who you already are paying, to do the job for you?
Attack of the Giant Leeches was made for about $70. (Just kidding! It was actually made for about $70,000, but it LOOKS like it was made cheaper...)
It was directed by Corman stalwart Bernard L. Kowalski, who had more success as a TV director. He directed some episodes of Columbo, as well as episodes of Magnum P.I., Knight Rider, Baretta and Jake and the Fatman. This was his third big screen effort. He had previously directed Hot Car Girl and Night of the Blood Beast, both for Corman's AIP studios. This one was originally released as a double feature with A Bucket of Blood.
The movie starts out slam bang as a local poacher in the swamps fires upon a creature he sees. He pumps several bullets into it, but when he tells the locals, no one is able to find the body, so they assume the guy was drunk, and probably just shot an an oversized alligator. (All back country characters in these movies are alcoholics, did you ever notice that...?)
Apparently these mysterious creatures living in the swamp have resentment issues, because the guy turns up dead not long after.
The local game warden, Steve (Ken Clark) is of a mind that the culprit is a renegade alligator and goes out looking for it with his girlfriend, Nan (Jan Shepard), but comes up empty. Meanwhile the mysterious predator, (it is still assumed that there is only one), continues to ravage unlucky souls who find themselves in the swamp at the wrong time. Only the rest of the victims keep disappearing, as far as the local constabulary is concerned.
Steve thinks this "gator" is dragging it's victims underwater to some hideaway. The local sheriff (Gene Roth) wants to set off some dynamite charges to try to uncover the missing bodies, and hopefully kill the "gator" in the process. but Steve is adamant about preserving the pristine swamp and thinks that dynamite might damage the environment.
The next victims to fall prey to the creatures are the wife of Dave (Bruno VeSota), a local storekeeper, and her secret lover. See, Liz (Yvette Vickers) is the essence of a tramp. She has been cheating on Dave with his best friend, Cal (Michael Emmett). And you just know these two sinners are going to get what they deserve... Although maybe not the way that one would expect.
Dave figures out that Liz is cheating on him and goes looking for her and finds her in flagrante delicto with Cal. He is going to shoot them both, apparently, and Cal, being the cad that he is, tries to pin the blame all on Liz. Dave chases Liz and Cal through the swamp, and when he finally corners them near the water's edge he gets his revenge in an unexpected way as one of the creatures shows up.
No one believes Dave when he tells of seeing the creature, however. They assume, with reasonable assurity, that Dave killed them both and dumped the bodies in the swamp. This eventually leads to a couple of locals going out into the swamp hoping to find the bodies and get some reward money. And, no spoiler alert, they become victims themselves to the creatures.
Eventually Steve works out that the creatures are leeches, somehow transformed into giant size due to all that nuclear activity that is being done nearby. (Of course it's "nuclear radiation"... what other guilty party could be blamed in a 50's monster movie...?)
At one point the sheriff decides, on his own, to go against the advice of Steve and set off dynamite charges. And most of the bodies end up floating to the surface. Steve and a friend go underwater looking for the leeches and a battle occurs and eventually (maybe) the creatures are defeated.
One has to wonder: Are there only two of the leeches that were affected by the radiation? That's all we see. The movie ends, as usual, on a happy note that the threat has been vanquished, but I couldn't help but think: the swamp appears to be devoid of any creatures other than the leeches. It is never stated outright, but I think you are supposed to decide the leeches eliminated the other swamp denizens like the alligators. Did these two do all that all by themselves?
As noted above, don't go into this movie expecting some horrific monsters. Often those creatures look exactly like what they are in real life, just a couple of guys in decorated trash bags. The acting is not exactly top notch, either. Yvette Vickers, despite the fact that she is playing a stereotypical backwaters tramp, is about the best part of it. (And, yes, I am giving her some points for a scene of her in a bathing suit...)
At only 60 minutes in length, it won't use up too much of your time to give it a go. Admittedly there seems to be a few scenes where they are padding the scene and extending sequences just to get the movie up to a full hour. The scene where Dave chases Liz and Cal in particular takes up about 5 or 6 more minutes than might be necessary, and you can't help but wonder why the two couldn't put more distance between them and their pursuer. Especially since Dave has to stop every now and then to fire off his rifle or reload it.
I disparaged Teenage Zombies way back at the beginning of my movie review blogging for it's obvious efforts to pad a 45 minute TV show into a full length feature film, so I would be disingenuous if I didn't do the same here. But Giant Leeches has a phenomenally better acting output. (If you've watched Teenage Zombies, you know that's not hard to accomplish, but be that as it may).
So the end result is that Attack of the Giant Leeches is worth a watch if you appreciate cheesy low budget schlock like I do. Just don't go into it expecting Godzilla, or for that matter, The Horror of Party Beach. I think it's better to watch it for the unintentionally funny stuff than it is for its strictly horror output.
Drive safely, folks. Especially if you have to cross a swamp on the way home.
Quiggy
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