Customer Reviews
Fan of 50s sci-fi? This movie is FUN !!! 
2006-08-01
I love this movie.
Most people may think the acting is corny and special effects are lousy, but there is a certain kind of charm this movie has that stays with you. It's the kind of movie, if you saw it as a kid, you would never forget it.
I even think the Gila Monster is kind of cool .. Hey, he's cooler than some of those stupid Japanese monster movies (ever seen those Gamera flicks?)
The characters all have personality and charm (even the drunk is great!). The eerie music is great (it defines 1950s sci-fi), the hot-rods are cool and the low-lit scenes are great too. It just adds to the charm of the movie.
This movie is FUN, bad acting and all ... it's just a good time. Enjoy it!
Bad movie, but a lot of fun to watch 
2005-11-12
This is one of those movies that is bad but fun to watch anyway. A couple of teenagers and then the local garage owner disappear and it turns out the culprit is a giant lizard that somehow exists for weeks with no one noticing. No explanation is ever given as to where the lizard came from or why or how no one saw something that was big enough to derail a train with its head.
There is too much time spent on the main character and his problems and little spent on creating any actual tension with the lizard. The effects are what you would expect, a regular sized lizard walking aimlessly around a miniature set with weird music playing to let you know to be terrified. There are also two interludes where our hero sings. He isn't talented, even though the movie tries to tell you he is. The songs are terrible, have nothing to do with the movie and you will be praying for them to end.
The way the lizard is killed in the end is ludicrous, our hero is vindicated and everyone lives happily ever after blissfully ignorant of why their lives were interrupted for a few days by a mutated gila monster.
The Giant Gila Monster 2005-10-17
A real blast from the past, if you are into old monster movies this is a must see.
The Best Sci-Fi flick or is it? 
2005-07-01
When a giant gila monster gets on the loose in Texas you expect chaos to happen. Instead the monster makes many brief appearences throuout the movie and kills someone in nearly every one, and yet only the sheriff makes a big deal out of it while every one else just listens to annoying rock music that is more frightening then the gila monster even when it destroys a suprising good train miniture. The special effects are actually quite good. But is it the best sci-fi film ever? Or is it just a dud that`s famous as a b-movie? Watch THE GIANT GILA MONSTER and decide for yourself.
Fair movie. Horrible rock & roll. 2005-04-21
Monster movies of the 50's either take place in a crowded metropolitan city or in a tiny town in the desert. In the former, the monster of the hour can run amuck squashing any number of cars, wrecking buildings, and standing up very well to a barrage of weapons aimed at it.
In the latter, the "destruction" is usually minimal. Instead, we have innocent teenagers or senior citizens being picked off one by one until others in the area realize that "something is wrong."
It is this remoteness factor, I believe, that makes for a better movie. I think most people can relate to how they would feel if they were on their own fighting an unknown creature--as compared to being part of a company of soldiers shooting machine guns at it.
"Giant Gila Monster" is most definitly "B" movie material. The acting and writing are so-so. And that giant paw coming down on the hapless victims was rather silly. To complete the negative aaspects of this movie, the music was horrible. Whenever rock & roll music was being pretended to be played, what we heard was some generic jitterbug music. Perhaps the producers could not afford to pay the royalties to play Buddy Holly, Elvis, or the Everly Brothers. Whatever the reason, the record-playing music was good only compared to the "live" songs sung by the star of this movie.
The positive aspect about this movie is that in a strange way it was realistic. One might argue that nothing staring a "giant gila monster" could be "realistic." But consider that the monster did not go on a rampage of mindless and malicious destruction that is so often seen in other movies of its like. Instead, it caused death only because it was hungry--and nobody had instructed it not to eat people. And it caused destruction only because it was so large (too big to crawl under a train bridge, for example).
There are also some cool cars. I'm not much into pre-WWII cars and it was hard to believe that every teen in this movie seemed to own one. And the guy you "love to hate" drove a 1959 Caddy. Perfect automobile casting!
Classic "B" Creature Feature From the Closing Period Of Drive-In Horror 
2007-08-12
Ah those were the days, Rock'n Roll Music, Drive-in's showing the latest Troy Donahue or monster flick, hotrodders, and "making out", in quiet country lanes in "souped up" wagons. Gee the '50's must have been a gas! Well at least that's what I'm told it was like for teenagers back then as I wasn't around to know myself. Despite it's many faults 1959's "The Giant Gila Monster", is a real favourite of mine among the "Monster on the loose", genre of "B" movie making of the time. In every respect it's very much a product of the decade it was made in despite being released right on the tail end of the era that basically "invented", the teenager. By 1959-60 the gothic horrors dealing with Vampires and Wolfmen produced by the likes of Hammer Studios had largely replaced in popular appeal the 1950's Sci Fi/Horror dramas which usually involved some over sized creature, the result of misuse of atomic power, threatening mankind. Efforts such as "The Gila Monster", then were really the swansong for these type of monster films that had been so incredibly popular for the last decade. The title of this film is self explanatory but the film itself is interesting in that the "teenagers" in the story, just as in the classic "The Blob", are revealed as not the usual delinquents so often depicted in films of this era but instead as responsible and caring young people. The Gila Monster itself almost takes a secondary role here and is unfortunately rarely seen and underused and instead it's the human drama that keeps this story moving along. Front and centre to the action is the lead character played by good looking Don Sullivan, and while his character would appear to the cynical eye as being too good to be true he comes across in my belief as a very appealing character who makes this admittedly "B" level story much more interesting than it probably deserves to be.
Nobody watches these for the art, anyway 2007-07-05
I assume nobody has ever watched this expecting Oscar material. So what if it's mostly a gila monster crawling through an HO-scale train set? Can't we just have some good, cheesy, fun once in awhile?
That kid was a pretty good singer, too. Too bad nothing came of him.
CAMP CLASSIC!!! 2007-02-12
BUY THE IMAGE VERSION!!!
Nice, clean clear version of this classic involving teenagers, sock-hops, hot-rods, & a GIANT GILA MONSTER that pushes it's smooching head through the barn dance wall. Nitro-city!!!!
This is the absolutely BEST version of this film out there (& I have several).
Co-billed with THE KILLER SHREWS this was a double-feature to die for!!!
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!!!
Attack of the Defenseless Gila Monster! 2006-12-31
This movie is worth watching for several reasons. First, this movie actually had a somewhat plausible plot. Second, many of the Gila monster scenes were well done. Third, Fred Graham and Shug Fisher are in this movie; more on them in a moment.
There were many movies made for drive-in theaters that featured teenagers in weak plots with a poorly costumed actor as the monster. These movies were cheesy, but many of the teens that went to the drive-in were not really there to see the movie anyway, so everyone was happy. However, some of these movies actually tried hard to present a relatively coherent story and featured a plausible monster. This movie is one of those.
The monster in this case is a huge Gila monster. The movie glosses over the source of the monster, but the movie uses a genuine Gila monster on various miniature sets that generally match the full-sized locations in appearance. My only disappointment was that the Gila monster never appeared in the same frame as any of his victims.
Gila Monsters make poor actors. In one scene I could see that someone was pushing the Gila monster forward because sand was piling up in front of the Gila monster's legs. In another scene the Gila monster breaks through a wall, but the Gila monster appeared more enthusiastic about getting unstuck than breaking through the wall. I felt sorry for the Gila monster.
Our human actors are principally teenagers. The teenagers in this case are good kids who are generally misunderstood. There is more than a little conflict between characters because Sheriff Jeff (Fred Graham, a veteran actor of more than 200 films, including "Wake of the Red Witch," "The Horse Soldiers," and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon") is supportive of the misunderstood teenagers in opposition to wealthy Mr. Wheeler who believes the sheriff is incompetent and the teenagers are a bunch of hoodlums. The lead teenager is Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan, who also appeared in "Teenage Zombies" and "The Monster of Piedras Blancas") who sings several songs in the movie and has a sister who gets braces for her legs so that we have a bit of "aww" factor in this movie, especially when the Gila monster chases the sister in her leg braces. One of Chase's songs is passable, but I fast-forwarded through all of them.
The Gila monster makes regular appearances throughout the movie. There is the dramatic claw shot; there are the ominous Gila monster in the brush shots; and then there is the ever-popular Gila monster under the railroad bridge shot. This Gila monster is multi-talented. As is often the case in monster movies, most of the major characters do not know there is a monster lurking about until about two-thirds of the way into the movie. Once everyone finally realizes there is a giant Gila monster munching its way through the local population, including some passengers of a wrecked train, the sheriff and the teenagers are galvanized into action! The excitement builds as the Gila monster threatens a dance, which somehow includes Chase Winstead's boss Old Man Harris (played by Shug Fisher, a member of Sons of the Pioneers, who sang with Roy Rogers, and a veteran of many movies including "My Pal Trigger," "Mr. Roberts" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance") and then attempts to eat Chase's polio stricken sister as she runs in her new braces. Will the excitement ever end!
This movie is a study in contrasts. On the one hand the movie has very weak special effects. For example, the train scenes used film from at least two different trains, and maybe three. Also, the model train that wrecked was a poor match for the actual train used in the shots leading up to the wreck. While some of the scenes of the Gila monster were nicely done, others looked exactly like what they were, a genuine Gila monster walking around (or being pushed) on the ground.
On the other hand, the movie does play as a serious movie. The movie painted the teenagers as being a bit too goody-goody, but otherwise everyone acted reasonably typical for the era and the teenage parts of the movie refrained from the over-the-top nonsense that plagued many other teen movies of the era. I also admit that when I was a kid I thought this movie was really scary. I was probably ten at the time but I was impressed!
If you like old monster movies from the 1950's and 1960's, this one is certainly worth a watch. I have this one in my collection because I liked it when I was young and because it was cheap. It is also great for a Friday or Saturday night watch on a Halloween weekend or on New Year's weekend instead of letting a television programmer decide what you are going to watch.
Enjoy!
SORT OF A POOR MAN'S VERSION OF THE BLOB WITH A HOME-GROWN MENACE 2006-10-22
IN A NUTSHELL:ONE CAN'T HELP THINKING OF THE BLOB WHEN WATCHING THIS CREATURE FEATURE
Like the 'The Blob', 'The Gila Monster' takes itself seriously -- dead seriously. Watching this film makes my mouth water for an audience to lampoon this charming 50s creature-feature for, but that is just part of the fun. You see, this film approaches its subject with the same gothic intensity that the original 'Outer Limits' did in 1963-1964. The film opens with a missing couple, presumed to be eloping, but we all know otherwise. Gradually, the County Sheriff begans to notice the same pattern that the audience had, only a bit slower. People are disappearing and in increasing numbers. Since most of the adults are drunk in this film, especially the witnesses, it is up to the teenagers to assist the Sheriff in bringing this big lizard to justice.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: SO YOU NEVER SAW A 50 FT. GILA MONSTER?
Okay, so it's a bit corny and cliche, probably even when it played to drive-in crowds in 1959: small crowds, but crowds to be sure. It is played in earnest and the tension does build. Unlike the first feature, this film seems a bit drawn out, perhaps to be long enough to play for European audiences looking for new eclectic American productions -- perhaps not. Anyway, it seems as though this would have made a neat 'Outer Limits' episode if it had been tightened-up at bit with editing. Maybe a couple of country tunes could have been omitted, or maybe the serenade was important for the atmosphere of the film -- in any event it seemed too long for a very short film. Maybe we could have seen more of the Gila Monster, which Ray Kellogg, a Special Effects A-List veteran, expanded from a 2 foot reptile into a 50-80 foot long behemoth rather convincingly. All the scenes showing the monster were miniatures, but a full-scale set was made to make the transition from mini-monster to actual set with people pretty real looking for a low-budget thriller. Of course we don't see people and the Gila Monster in the same frame. For that kind of magic in 1959, you'd need Ray Harryhausen and about 3 years of his time. The film does start with a bang and then gradually builds suspense to a Nitro charged conclusion which is after all, all we want from a Drive-In thriller. From that standpoint 'The Giant Gila Monster' delivers as advertised, "ONLY HELL COULD BREED THE GIANT GILA MONSTER"!
BOTTOM LINE: GOOD CLEAN FUN -- NO BLOOD - GORE - NUDITY or PROFANITY
Okay, this is not classic cinema, but it is a classic drive-in creature-feature! There are some better entries in this genre, like 'The Blob' and 'The Killer Shrews', but in the end they're all fun to see and the variety now available on DVD simply gives us more opportunities to enjoy these B-creature-features of yesteryear in all their campy wonder -- again and again.
