The Giant Gila Monster (1959) - Sullivan shines in Kellogg's low-tech Texas drive-in classic

♥♥♥

Stong colors, a giant reptile monster and rock & roll hits are promised on this poster for Ray Kellogg's The Giant Gila Monster

  
A giant lizard monster wrecks havoc in rural Texas, but local hot rod racing teenage mechanic Chase Winstead is intent on defeating the destructive killer!

The Giant Gila Monster is written by Jay Simms (The Rifleman (1960-63)), based on a story by co-writer/director Ray Kellogg (The Killer Shrews (1959)).
The film objectively speaking could be claimed to deserve a zero ♥ rating, but subjectively speaking this is an absolutely absurd and highly appealing piece of curiosa: Its interesting 'special effects' are based around a Mexican beaded lizard (a reptile that is only related to the actual Gila monster lizard the title refers to), as it attacks a model train in a key action scene. Constantly drunk, quite entertaining rednecks roam in the chummy sheriff Jeff's district. But star Don Sullivan (Seven Guns to Mesa (1958)) as Chase takes the cake! Qualifying as perhaps the cheesiest performance ever put to film, Sullivan is off-puttingly cutesy, gallant and helpful, but his singing is unforgettable: He sings three songs that he composed himself, which may make you laugh, cry or simultaneously laugh and cry. In The Mushroom Song he sings 'And the Lord said, Laugh, children, laugh ...' Hear the divine piece of nonsense here.

Watch an original trailer for the movie here

Cost: 138k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[The Giant Gila Monster premiered 25 June (Dallas, Texas) and runs 74 minutes. Produced by drive-in theater owner Gordon McLendon, the film was shot in Dallas, Texas around January 1959 back-to-back with The Killer Shrews (1958), also directed by Kellogg and starring Sullivan. The films were hailed as the first films produced and shot in Dallas and as the first films made to premiere as double features. The theatrical gross is unknown but could have been impressive, since the film received national and international distribution, reaching at least Argentina, Mexico and the UK. Kellogg returned with My Dog, Buddy (1960). Sullivan returned in The Rebel Set (1959); Lisa Simone (Missile to the Moon (1958)) in Wagon Train (1959, TV-series), The Dennis O'Keefe Show (1960, TV-series) and theatrically in her last credit, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) as uncredited 'French Party Girl'. 3,285 IMDb users have given The Giant Gila Monster a 3.5/10 average rating.]

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