Dr. Hank Scott along with his associate Dr. Arturo Ramos help the Mexican government fight off an attack of giant scorpions that have escaped from a volcanic cavern. Dr. Scott also finds time to romance hot Mexican senorita Mara Corday in between giant scorpion attacks. Well done Dr. Scott.
Special effects were supervised by Willis O'Brien who had been responsible for animating King Kong. The Black Scorpion's budget for stop motion animation looks to have been a lot smaller than that film. Still O'Brien managed to squeeze a buck pretty well out of his limited budget. Some of the scenes, particularly the monsters in the cave look very icky.
The director Edward Ludwig had been associated with John Wayne and had directed Wayne in that great anti-commie classic Big Jim McClain. Richard Denning was a reliable work horse of an actor who played Lucillie Ball's husband in a radio show called My Favorite Husband. Denning was replaced by Dezi Arnez when the show moved to TV and became I Love Lucy. Mara Corday was a top model and Playboy Playmate who went on to star in that other science fiction classic. The Giant Claw.
The producers of The Black Scorpion had O'Brien add insert shots of the scorpion's face that was always drooling for some reason. These shots don't really match the stop motion animation but they have their own silly charm. The final battle with the monster and the little tank and helicopter models is a lot of fun to watch and must have involved a ton of work animating all those toys.
The Black Scorpion is not Ray Harryhausen but it's not bad.
88 minutes
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