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The Black Scorpion (1957)

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Image gallery for Kaiju No. 14/Sandbox/The Black Scorpion
Credits for Kaiju No. 14/Sandbox/The Black Scorpion
Kaiju No. 14/Sandbox/The Black Scorpion soundtrack


The Black Scorpion
The American poster for The Black Scorpion
Alternate titles
Flagicon Japan.png Black Scorpion (1958)
See alternate titles
Directed by Edward Ludwig
Producer Jack Dietz, Frank Melford
Written by Robert Blees, David Duncan
Music by Paul Sawtell
Production company Warner Bros. Entertainment, Seven Arts Productions
Distributor Warner Bros.
Rating Not Rated
Running time 88 minutesUS
(1 hour, 28 minutes)
108 minutes
(1 hour, 48 minutes)
Aspect ratio 1.85:1 (intended ratio),
1.37:1 (negative ratio)
Rate this film!
3.33
(3 votes)

For the monsters, see Giant scorpions.
“
Every horror you've seen on the screen grows pale beside the horror of "The Black Scorpion"
„ 

— Tagline

The Black Scorpion is a 1957 giant monster horror film co-produced by Warner Bros. Entertainment and Seven Arts Productions. The film was released to American theaters on October 11, 1957.

Plot

A violent earthquake in Mexico inevitably creates an active volcano that erupts explosively freeing giant prehistoric scorpions from beneath the parched earth. The prehistoric monsters wreak havoc on the Mexican rural and threaten Mexico City with complete destruction.

Staff

Main article: The Black Scorpion/Credits.

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

  • Directed by   Edward Ludwig
  • Written by   Robert Blees, David Duncan
  • Produced by   Jack Dietz, Frank Melford
  • Music by   Paul Sawtell
  • Cinematography by   Lionel Lindon
  • Edited by   Richard Van Enger
  • Assistant directors   Jaime Contreras, Ray Heinz
  • Special effects by   Willis O'Brien
  • Visual effects by   Pete Peterson, Ralph Hammeras
  • Puppet creator   Wah Chang
  • Sound effects by   Mandine Rogne

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

  • Carlos Múzquiz   as   Dr. Velasco
  • Fanny Schiller   as   Mara Corday
  • Teresa Alvarez   as   Mario Navarro
  • Juanito   as   Pedro Galván
  • Father Delgado   as   Roberto Contreras
  • Ángel Di Stefani   as   Military Man
  • Jaime González Quiñones   as   Boy in San Lorenzo
  • Leonor Gómez   as   Villager
  • Bob Johnson   as   Narrator / Radio Newscaster / Police Radio Dispatcher / Public Address Announcer
  • Margarito Luna   as   Crane operator
  • Héctor Mateos   as   Military Man
  • José L. Murillo   as   Military Man
  • Manuel Sánchez Navarro   as   Victor Steven
  • Isabel Vázquez 'La Chichimeca'   as   Villager
  • Enrique Zambrano   as   Cayetano, lineman killed in truck
  • Pascual García Peña   as   José de la Cruz
  • Fanny Schiller   as   Florentina
  • Arturo Martínez   as   Major Cosio
  • Quintín Bulnes   as   Lineman killed on pole
  • José Chávez   as   Train conductor

Appearances

Monsters

Gallery

Main article: The Black Scorpion/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: The Black Scorpion (Soundtrack).

Alternate titles

  • Black Scorpion (American VHS title; Siyah akrep; Turkey; Musta skorpioni; Finland; 黒い蠍 Kuroisasori, Japan)

Theatrical releases

  • United States - October 11, 1957
  • Japan - January 15, 1958  [view poster]Japanese poster
  • Finland - March 14, 1958
  • Sweden - December 1, 1958
  • Denmark - January 26, 1959
  • United Kingdom - February 23, 1959  [view poster]British poster
  • Italy  [view poster]Italian poster
  • Australia  [view poster]Australian poster
  • Belgian  [view poster]French poster

Reception

Harrison's Reports voluntarily gave The Black Scorpion a mixed review in September 1957, rating it acceptable for its stop-motion and special effects on monsters but reservations about its unexceptional character storytelling.[1]

Video releases

Warner Home Video VHS (1993)

  • Tapes: 2
  • Audio: English
  • Notes: Released on December 13, 1993

Warner Home Video DVD (2006)

  • Discs: 1
  • Audio: English
  • Subtitles: English, Japanese
  • Notes: Aspect ratio is 1.37:1.

Shout! Factory DVD (2014)

  • Audio: English
  • Notes: Included in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXX DVD box set released on July 29, 2014.

Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray (2018)

  • Region: N/A
  • Discs: 1
  • Audio: English (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono)
  • Subtitles: English (SDH)
  • Notes: Aspect ratio is 1.78:1.

Videos

Trailers

The Black Scorpion trailer

Trivia

  • The miniatures used for the trapdoor spider, the giant tentacled and the Giant spider, briefly seen in the film, are reportedly reused models of the spiders from The Lost Spider Pit Sequence, a lost deleted scene original King Kong film. However, in An Animated Life, Ray Harryhausen noted that many models used in King Kong were still in storage at RKO in the 1950s, by which time many were decayed. Biographers have disputed whether O'Brien actually saved his models.

References

This is a list of references for Kaiju No. 14/Sandbox/The Black Scorpion. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. ↑ "Harrison's Reports, September 21, 1957, page 151" (PDF).

Films
 
Godzilla films
Showa era
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Millennium era
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American films
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King Kong films
King Kong (1933) • Son of Kong (1933) • King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) • King Kong Escapes (1967) • King Kong (1976) • King Kong Lives (1986) • The Mighty Kong (1998) • Kong: King of Atlantis (2005) • King Kong (2005) • Kong: Return to the Jungle (2006) • Kong: Skull Island (2017) • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) • Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
 
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Shōwa period
Ramayana (1940s) • Invisible Man (1954) • Half Human (1955) • Rodan (1956) • The Mysterians (1957) • The H-Man (1958) • Varan (1958) • The Three Treasures (1959) • Battle in Outer Space (1959) • The Secret of the Telegian (1960) • The Human Vapor (1960) • Mothra (1961) • The Last War (1961) • Gorath (1962) • Matango (1963) • Atragon (1963) • Dogora (1964) • Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) • The War of the Gargantuas (1966) • The Killing Bottle (1967) • Latitude Zero (1969) • Konto 55: The Great Outer Space Adventure (1969) • Space Amoeba (1970) • Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972) • Submersion of Japan (1973) • ESPY (1974) • Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974) • The War in Space (1977) • Magnitude 7.9 (1980) • Bye-Bye Jupiter (1984) • Princess from the Moon (1987)
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The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) • The Giant Behemoth (1959) • Gorgo (1961) • Bulgasari (1962) • Gogola (1966) • Space Monster Wangmagwi (1967) • Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967) • A*P*E (1976) • The Mighty Peking Man (1977) • Pulgasari (1985) • Reptilian (1999) • Cloverfield (2008) • 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) • Colossal (2016) • The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) • Rampage (2018) • Notzilla (2019) • untitled Cloverfield sequel (TBA)
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