Cast and credits:THE SPIDER (1958) An American International Picture; Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, Bert I. Gordon; Assistant producer: Henry Schrage; Directed by Bert I. Gordon; Story by Bert I. Gordon; Screenplay by Laszlo Gorog; George Worthing Yates; Makeup bt Kay Shea (hair stylist) and Allen Snyder; Special designs (makeup) by Paul Blaisdell, Jackie Blaisdell. Spider handler: Jim Dannaldson; Music conductor: Albert Glasser; Special technical effects by Bert I. Gordon and Flora M. Gordon; Special devices by Thol Simonson; Cinematography by Jack A. Marta; Original music by Albert Glasser. &nsp; (Actual movie title : EARTH VS THE SPIDER)

The cast: Ed Kemmer (Mr. Kingman); June Kenney (Carol Flynn); Gene Persson (Mike Simpson); Gene Roth (Sheriff Cagle); Hal Torey (Mr. Simpson); June Jocelyn (Mrs. Jack Flynn); Mickey Finn (Sam Haskel, Road Foreman); Sally Fraser (Mrs. Helen Kingman); Troy Patterson (Joe); Skip Young (Sam the Bass Player); Howard Wright (Jake); Bill Giorgio (Deputy Sheriff Sanders); Hank Patterson (Hugo, River Falls H.S. Janitor); Jack Kosslyn (Mr. Fraser, Camera Club Teacher); Bob Garnet (Springdale Pest Control Man); Shirley Falls (Switchboard Operator); Bob Tetrick (Deputy Sheriff Dave); Nancy Kilgas (Dancer); George Stanley (Man in Cavern); David Tomack (Power Line Foreman); Merritt Stone (Jack Flynn, Carol's Dad).

The Plot: Returning to the small, isolated community of River Falls after dark, Jack Flynn is trapped in an enormous spiderweb stretching across the road.
His teenage daughter, Carol Flynn, sets out with a high school friend, Mike Simpson, to find her missing father. In a series of caves some miles out of town, the two youngsters discover and barely escape the mandibles of an enormous spider.
As a result of their find, the spider is cornered and knocked out with DDT, then returned to the high school auditorium to await a scientific inquiry by men from the state university. But the monstrous creature revives unexpectedly during a rehearsal of the school swing band. It escapes from the building.
During this, Carol and Mike have gone back to the caves to look for a bracelet valued by Carol because it was a last present from her dead father, and lost there during their previous experience.
The revived spider terrorizes tghe citizens of River Falls and is finally driven off by the efforts of Kingman, the high school teacher responsible for bringing it out of the caves, returns to it's old lair, traps Carol and Mike inside.
Kingman and Sheriff Cagle, with a posse, dynamite the mouth of the cave to destroy the monster. Only after they have done this do they learn that Carol and Mike have been entombed in the depths of the mountain with the thing.
It becomes a race against time, the Sheriff's forces trying at Kingman's direction to tunnel into the cave from outside while Carol and Mike, inside, flee the voracious spider. After a series of close escapes, the two youngsters are saved by Kingman, who throws an electric arc through the body of the beast that seems otherwise invulnerable, and thus destroys it just as it decends on its victims from the roof of rthe cave above.

Top of Page