After a volcanic eruption, people living near an isolated Mexican village begin to disappear. A pair of geologists, one American (Richard Denning) and one Mexican (Carlos Rivas), on their way to study the volcano, find a damaged police car, dead officer, and abandoned baby. They soon find themselves in the middle of the mystery given away by the title. On the less monstrous side, they meet the local ranch owner and hot woman, Teresa Alvarez (Mara Corday), so of course we have a romance blooming.
The ‘50s and ‘60s giant bug craze did not produce many original films and The Black Scorpion isn’t one. It is two-thirds a note-for-note rehash of Them! and one-third The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Hey, if you are going to copy, copy from the best.
Our isolated desert location has moved south to Mexico, where once again a home is found damaged and a child found alive—this time a baby instead of a catatonic little girl. I know all these films follow a formula, but that’s getting pretty close to plagiarism. Our hero soon teams up with an elderly scientist and strikes up a romance with the only female to get more than three lines—played once again by Tarantula’s Mara Corday. Once it is clear they are dealing with giant bugs, it is only a matter of time before they lower themselves into the monsters’ lair, and beat by beat, we follow the story of Them! The scorpions even make the same sound as the ants did. The one deviation from Them! is that the all-knowing, elderly, short scientist has a smaller part, and just pops up when needed. So we get a second young scientist to complete the triad, though for some reason, he never has a chance with the girl.
There is a child I quickly learned to hate who repeatedly runs recklessly into danger. The kid is stuck in to raise the stakes—putting a child in jeopardy is a standard, old-school monster movie bit—but it doesn’t work because the child is too stupid.
While most of the giant monster movies used puppets or men in suits, The Black Scorpion was one of the few to use stop motion, executed by Willis O’Brien, the man who brought King Kong to life twenty years earlier. In the final years of his career, he no longer had access to the resources he needed. Still, O’Brien’s work gives the film a magical quality most similar films lacked. He even uses some models left over from Kong. With passable acting, a reasonable pace, amiable characters, and O’Brien’s scorpions, The Black Scorpion is one of the better giant bug pictures.