Great Film overall

A Masterpiece!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Nathan Juran directed this reasonably effective monster yarn that sees a giant prehistoric preying mantis being accidentally freed from its arctic glacier tomb to kill and terrorize first the local population, then the world. A knowledgeable informed scientist(played by William Hopper) and a determined Army Col.(played by Craig Stevens) lead the fight to defeat the deadly mantis, before the human population is extinct... Although the plot is familiar("The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" comes to mind) and characters unmemorable, the model F/X of the giant mantis are quite good, with tense direction and good pace(only slowing down for the obligatory romantic subplot with Alix Tilton). Exciting tunnel climax compensates in this OK thriller.

As far as Universal-Internationals' genre output of the 1950s goes, "The Deadly Mantis" is engaging escapism if not on the level of the classics of the period like "It Came from Outer Space", "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", and "This Island Earth". It's based on a story by producer William Alland, who'd probably been brainstorming on species of insects & arachnids that had yet to be enlarged and unleashed on various unlucky humans.The praying mantis makes for an effective antagonist in this formulaic but still likable and enjoyable movie. It's unleashed from a frozen tomb in the Arctic and goes on the expected rampage, steadily making its way South towards a more tropical climate. Identifying the beast is eminent paleontologist Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper), and hoping to destroy it are Colonel Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) and General Mark Ford (Donald Randolph).There is an obligatory dose of romantic material here, as Joe strikes up some chemistry with Neds' associate Marge Blaine (Alix Talton), a magazine editor looking for a big story, but it doesn't really ever intrude on the action too much. Just like many other genre films of the period, "The Deadly Mantis" goes for a semi-documentary style, educating the audience on the radar fences spread throughout Canada, and the short lived Ground Observer Corps, a real life group of citizens that had been instructed on how to spot and identify various forms of aircraft.The result is quite a bit of talk, although there is still enough good praying mantis action to make the movie diverting. The special effects are mostly pretty decent, with the rampaging insect coming off as formidable enough, and definitely not easy to take down. The story is also not without a sense of humour, as we see Joes' fellow servicemen going gaga over the attractive Marge seeing as how they encounter members of the opposite sex so infrequently.The efficient direction is by Nathan Juran, a busy filmmaker of the period whose other credits include "20 Million Miles to Earth", "The Brain from Planet Arous", "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman", and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad".All things considered, "The Deadly Mantis" offers up a fair amount of fun, for fans of this kind of thing.Seven out of 10.

A giant prehistoric praying mantis, recently freed from the Arctic ice, voraciously preys on American military at the Dew Line and works its way south.This film is just bad. I like the map in the beginning, but after that it gets cheesy. Why is there a giant praying mantis? I mean, you know, just one? And why is it at the North Pole? And why did they steal footage from "S.O.S. Eisberg" (1933) to show Eskimos fleeing? If you like seeing a big bug fly across the sky for 80 minutes, this is your film. But, for me, it just was not as good as many of the other big animal pictures out there... it was not menacing, and really made no sense. The scientific attempt to explain it? Non-existent!

**SPOILERS** The movie "The Deadly Mantis" has the identical storyline of that of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". In that the big bug has been frozen alive in an arctic glacier and released by a violent geological shift, in the case of the "Beast" a nuclear explosion, under the earth's surface.Coming to life the mantis starts to fly south in search of food that's almost nonexistence in the arctic's frozen wasteland. Attacking boats planes and even an Eskimo village on its trip it's not until Washingto D.C Museum of Natural History paleontologist Dr. Nedrick "Ned" Jacksonn, William Hooper, positively identifies a broken off five foot appendage of the mysterious creature as that of a praying mantis that the USAF and Army goes into action in trying to bring the big bug down! That's before it destroys everything that's in its path on its flight down south! Which includes Boston Philadelphia Washington D.C and finally the Big Apple" itself the city of New York ! After the mantis was injured in an air to air combat confrontation with a USAF combat jet it hid itself inside the Holland Tunnel in New York City where the final battle between man and mantis was to take place in the movie. A battle that the very fate of mankind's existence hinged on with the US Army using it's most deadly and destructive WMD, Weapon of Mass Destruction, in its entire arsenal: A super powerful bug-bomb that it kept under lock and key as a last resort to finally stop and kill the thing!Despite it's gigantic and threatening size, some 200 feet long, the deadly mantis was more comical then scary. On the ground the big bug could barley walk and just slumped along barley being able to stand up straight. It's as if the mantis was still suffering from the frostbite that some 2,000,000 years of being frozen in ice caused it. When airborne the mantis seemed to be immune to rocket and missile attacks from attacking USAF jet planes, even knocking down a number of them, but for some reason a USAF pilot got a lucky shot at it and ended up bringing it down! That's after dozens of other rocket attacks had absolutely no effect on the mantis. It was also puzzling why the mantis choose to barricade itself in of all places the sealed off, from the both New York and New Jersey side, Holland Tunnel when it has so many other and safer places to hide in!P.S The most interesting thing in the movie was the face of the mantis itself that in the many closeups of the bug looks exactly like the descriptions and drawings of alien, with their wrap around eyes, from other space by those who claimed to have been kidnapped by them!