The film that helped usher in Hollywood's giant bug craze, this isn't half-bad. Special effects are pathetic even for the time, but the story is gripping enough and the acting first-rate. Peter Graves plays a scientist working on food growth via radiation. Grasshoppers get at these plants and grow to the size of a bus. They find humans much tastier than their usual fare. They invade Chicago after tearing up the countryside, and it's a race to the finish to see whether anything can be done to stop them before the Army nukes Chicago. Morris "Colonel Fielding" Ankrum is a grumpy general, and Peggie Castle is a reporter investigating the story. Lots of fun. We never see the monsters actually come into contact with any of the humans they devour, but the closeup facial shots of various actors about to be eaten are priceless.
66 Reviews
Good, Cheap Fun
gavin694223 March 2014
Audrey Ames (Peggie Castle), an enterprising journalist, tries to get the scoop on giant grasshoppers accidentally created at the Illinois State experimental farm. She endeavors to save Chicago, despite a military cover-up.
Whether or not you will enjoy this film comes down to whether or not you are ready for good, cheap fun. Yes, the effects are not that amazing and in some cases are incredibly fake. The acting is nothing special, and there are some scenes that are most likely stock footage. But this is a fun, popcorn-eating film! Director Bert Gordon (a Wisconsin native) had his special niche, and he deserves more credit than he usually gets. Maybe some day we will see a nice box set of his work...
Whether or not you will enjoy this film comes down to whether or not you are ready for good, cheap fun. Yes, the effects are not that amazing and in some cases are incredibly fake. The acting is nothing special, and there are some scenes that are most likely stock footage. But this is a fun, popcorn-eating film! Director Bert Gordon (a Wisconsin native) had his special niche, and he deserves more credit than he usually gets. Maybe some day we will see a nice box set of his work...
(you may be...) Begging for the End
mstomaso14 September 2006
Thank you Bert I Gordon for making films which nobody else (except maybe Roger Corman) would dare to make, and for making them so definitively that no one would ever dare to remake them.
The Beginning of the End actually has a promising beginning. It follows Audrey Aimes (Castle) a young woman reporter who runs into a military roadblock and begins snooping around by introducing herself to the operation's CO, who happens to have read some of her wartime coverage and is willing to cooperate to a point. Weird and inexplicable happenings have been reported in a nearby town (site of the roadblock). In fact, we discover, the entire town has been wiped out. When Audrey finally gets to briefly tour the site, we are shown some footage of tornado devastation which is supposed to be the result. Then she meets Peter Graves (playing Peter Graves playing an entomologist working with radioactive plants). there is a decent enough amount of back-story, and the characters are all likable and interesting, but then theatrical disaster strikes - in the form of a totally ludicrous plot.
Two words - giant grasshoppers. And they are split-screened (poorly) into stock footage or scraps from some heavily edited war movie. I .... just can't go ... on.
As the absurdities continue to unfold, you will be impressed by the absolute seriousness with which the cast portrays their characters, and positively blown away by the enormously long cinematographic (un)dramatic pauses as we watch hordes of soldiers marching by in different directions with nothing going on around them, giant out-of-focus grasshoppers climbing up postcards of skyscrapers and sometimes slipping on the glossy surface, and 1-2 minute-long fixed frame shots of cars approaching from miles away.
I love giant monster movies, but this is definitely not one of the better ones. Still, it's harmless, more intelligent than the average sex comedy and more relevant than the usual political campaign.
The Beginning of the End actually has a promising beginning. It follows Audrey Aimes (Castle) a young woman reporter who runs into a military roadblock and begins snooping around by introducing herself to the operation's CO, who happens to have read some of her wartime coverage and is willing to cooperate to a point. Weird and inexplicable happenings have been reported in a nearby town (site of the roadblock). In fact, we discover, the entire town has been wiped out. When Audrey finally gets to briefly tour the site, we are shown some footage of tornado devastation which is supposed to be the result. Then she meets Peter Graves (playing Peter Graves playing an entomologist working with radioactive plants). there is a decent enough amount of back-story, and the characters are all likable and interesting, but then theatrical disaster strikes - in the form of a totally ludicrous plot.
Two words - giant grasshoppers. And they are split-screened (poorly) into stock footage or scraps from some heavily edited war movie. I .... just can't go ... on.
As the absurdities continue to unfold, you will be impressed by the absolute seriousness with which the cast portrays their characters, and positively blown away by the enormously long cinematographic (un)dramatic pauses as we watch hordes of soldiers marching by in different directions with nothing going on around them, giant out-of-focus grasshoppers climbing up postcards of skyscrapers and sometimes slipping on the glossy surface, and 1-2 minute-long fixed frame shots of cars approaching from miles away.
I love giant monster movies, but this is definitely not one of the better ones. Still, it's harmless, more intelligent than the average sex comedy and more relevant than the usual political campaign.
Big Bug Classic
Tommy-522 May 2005
This is one of the most enjoyable of the 1950s "big bug" movies. Filmed in 1957, in the middle of my favorite sci-fi era, this film enjoys a better than average cast than you would expect for B science fiction.
People begin to disappear in the surrounding communities outside Chicago. Photographer/journalist Audrey Aimes, portrayed by the lovely Peggy Castle, stops to visit Dr. Wainwright, the Dept. of Agriculture scientist who has used radiation on his plants to make them larger, only to discover that grasshoppers have feasted on them, thus making an army of giant sized locusts. This sounds pretty lame by today's standards but this was standard fare for 1950s science fiction, in the days when we were scared to death of having a nuclear weapon dropped on us and being taken over "from within."
After the discovery of what has happened and why, the rest of the story deals with what to do before the grasshoppers destroy Chicago. Fortunately for all, this did not happen. I won't give the ending away be will provide a hint: View 1963's Day of the Triffids.
Reviewers have not been kind to this film and perhaps rightfully so. However, within the context of the preposterous story and extremely limited budget, its not so bad. Beginning of the End starred Peter Graves, a sci-fi regular of that time in his pre-Mission: Impossible days and whose brother, James Arness, was riding high as Marshall Dillon in television's Gunsmoke. (You may recall that Arness starred in 1954's Them!, about huge ants terrorizing Los Angeles. This was the film that started the big bug craze). Peggy Castle was cool and calm as the female lead and was a forerunner of sorts to today's' strong woman in action films. And, this was yet another film of many whereas Morris Ankrum played a military general.
Special effects were not too good even for that era and are downright atrocious by the standards of today. We see grasshoppers walking upon photos of various places in Chicago and the super imposed shots are of very poor quality. The storyline stretches even the keenest imagination, as we are led to believe that Chicago can be 100% evacuated within 24 hours, and this with thousands of homeless refugees from the outlying communities camping out in the inner city!
Even so, Beginning of the End possesses the low budget charm that subsequent eras have not been able to duplicate. This is one of those films that is fun to watch and is the sole reason one should do so. Saturday night late is the best time. I like to view it alone and recall a far simpler time in my life and our world at large. At least, the times seemed simpler. Perhaps they were not and that may be what films such as these were all about.
People begin to disappear in the surrounding communities outside Chicago. Photographer/journalist Audrey Aimes, portrayed by the lovely Peggy Castle, stops to visit Dr. Wainwright, the Dept. of Agriculture scientist who has used radiation on his plants to make them larger, only to discover that grasshoppers have feasted on them, thus making an army of giant sized locusts. This sounds pretty lame by today's standards but this was standard fare for 1950s science fiction, in the days when we were scared to death of having a nuclear weapon dropped on us and being taken over "from within."
After the discovery of what has happened and why, the rest of the story deals with what to do before the grasshoppers destroy Chicago. Fortunately for all, this did not happen. I won't give the ending away be will provide a hint: View 1963's Day of the Triffids.
Reviewers have not been kind to this film and perhaps rightfully so. However, within the context of the preposterous story and extremely limited budget, its not so bad. Beginning of the End starred Peter Graves, a sci-fi regular of that time in his pre-Mission: Impossible days and whose brother, James Arness, was riding high as Marshall Dillon in television's Gunsmoke. (You may recall that Arness starred in 1954's Them!, about huge ants terrorizing Los Angeles. This was the film that started the big bug craze). Peggy Castle was cool and calm as the female lead and was a forerunner of sorts to today's' strong woman in action films. And, this was yet another film of many whereas Morris Ankrum played a military general.
Special effects were not too good even for that era and are downright atrocious by the standards of today. We see grasshoppers walking upon photos of various places in Chicago and the super imposed shots are of very poor quality. The storyline stretches even the keenest imagination, as we are led to believe that Chicago can be 100% evacuated within 24 hours, and this with thousands of homeless refugees from the outlying communities camping out in the inner city!
Even so, Beginning of the End possesses the low budget charm that subsequent eras have not been able to duplicate. This is one of those films that is fun to watch and is the sole reason one should do so. Saturday night late is the best time. I like to view it alone and recall a far simpler time in my life and our world at large. At least, the times seemed simpler. Perhaps they were not and that may be what films such as these were all about.
"My curiosity supplied the nose for news and the camera supplied the memory"
hwg1957-102-26570410 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Giant locusts attack a small town in Illinois before upping their game and invading Chicago eventually being defeated by a heroic entomologist Dr. Ed Wainwright. The film starts off well with a mysterious event and a determined reporter Audrey Aimes trying to discover the truth. But unfortunately when the first giant locust appears badly superimposed the movie starts going downhill, getting sillier as it proceeds along.
Peter Graves is wan as Wainwright but Peggie Castle as the experienced reporter is most watchable. The film also has the reassuring presence of Morris Ankrum and Thomas Browne Henry as military officers so you know things will turn out well in the end.
The giant insect's didn't look scary but the sound of them did but in a monster picture the creature also has to look scary but one look at these pale locusts and suspended belief drops off.
Peter Graves is wan as Wainwright but Peggie Castle as the experienced reporter is most watchable. The film also has the reassuring presence of Morris Ankrum and Thomas Browne Henry as military officers so you know things will turn out well in the end.
The giant insect's didn't look scary but the sound of them did but in a monster picture the creature also has to look scary but one look at these pale locusts and suspended belief drops off.
Typical giant bug movie.
13Funbags15 May 2018
This movie has all the cliches. There's the scientist who is not only handy with a tommy gun but also starts giving orders to the military. There's the terrible dialogue. A soldier says "We found some guns, the kind people keep in houses". What?? There's even a guy who says "Worshington". And of course the giant grasshoppers can climb buildings. If you only see one giant bug movie, make sure it's not this one.
Yet another schlocky 1950s giant creature film.
planktonrules21 February 2017
During the 1950s, there were huge numbers of giant creatures gone wild films. There were giant Gila Monsters, ants, bees, wasps, shrews...you name it. What most of these movies also have in common is that they were terrible--with lousy special effects and silly stories. One of the few exceptions was "Them!". While not high art, at least they created some cool giant fake ants for this one. Most of the rest of the films really dropped the ball and the scary creatures looked utterly ridiculous...and this is definitely the case with "The Beginning of the End".
"The Beginning of the End" is a film that finds enormous grasshoppers that cannot be easily stopped thanks to the miracle of radiation! Entymologist, Dr. Wainwright (Peter Graves), and newspaper reporter, Audrey Aimes (Peggie Castle), try to warn folks...but naturally no one will listen until it's almost too late.
The biggest problem with this film is the utter cheapness of the production. Many of the scenes where the military attacks the creatures are laughable--sloppy in every possible way. It's very obvious that many of the clips are just stock military footage with grasshoppers sloppily placed on top of the footage. And, to make it worse, a very high percentage of the film consists of this footage. The scenes without the footage are actually pretty good and the folks do their best.
It's hard to believe now, since he had a good career in films and television, but Peter Graves made several crappy sci-fi/horror films in the 1950s. So, if you find this film unintentionally hilarious, will you be in for a treat if you see him in "It Conquered the World" or "Killers from Space"...films so bad that "The Beginning of the End" looks almost like "Masterpiece Theatre" by comparison!!
"The Beginning of the End" is a film that finds enormous grasshoppers that cannot be easily stopped thanks to the miracle of radiation! Entymologist, Dr. Wainwright (Peter Graves), and newspaper reporter, Audrey Aimes (Peggie Castle), try to warn folks...but naturally no one will listen until it's almost too late.
The biggest problem with this film is the utter cheapness of the production. Many of the scenes where the military attacks the creatures are laughable--sloppy in every possible way. It's very obvious that many of the clips are just stock military footage with grasshoppers sloppily placed on top of the footage. And, to make it worse, a very high percentage of the film consists of this footage. The scenes without the footage are actually pretty good and the folks do their best.
It's hard to believe now, since he had a good career in films and television, but Peter Graves made several crappy sci-fi/horror films in the 1950s. So, if you find this film unintentionally hilarious, will you be in for a treat if you see him in "It Conquered the World" or "Killers from Space"...films so bad that "The Beginning of the End" looks almost like "Masterpiece Theatre" by comparison!!
Beginning of a boring movie.
Aaron13751 October 2001
This movie starts slow, goes at a slow pace, and finally ends slow. This movie is about giant locast that are overrunning Chicago. As interesting as this sounds, it isn't. Most of the film is watching grasshoppers that are super imposed on the background just run around. I don't mind using this technique, and I understand why they do back in the 50's, but couldn't they build something. A pincher, anything. Never is a person near one of these killer grasshoppers, at least build part of one and show someone being scooped up. And they are not very consistent on how easy this things are killed. In some scenes the grasshoppers die from regular machine gun fire, the next they can withstand tanks. The only saving grace to the film is actor Peter Graves.
Your mission, Mr. Graves, should you choose to accept it, is to start out in giant bug movies
lee_eisenberg18 May 2005
Typical giant bug movie. Nuclear fallout turns regular grasshoppers into truck-sized killing machines. Scientist Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) tries to figure out how to stop the over-sized insects (the solution may or may not be nuking Chicago), while reporter Audrey Ames (Peggie Castle) investigates the whole thing and falls for Ed. As expected, the whole thing is quite laughable (somehow, Illinois has California-style hills), although Audrey is actually pretty hot.
If you really want to watch this movie, then watch the "MST3K" version. Mike, Servo and Crow really have some fun with this one, as you might imagine.
If you really want to watch this movie, then watch the "MST3K" version. Mike, Servo and Crow really have some fun with this one, as you might imagine.
scarieee movieee (at least when I was nine)
CarlNaamanBrown27 October 2005
Beginning of the End was one of the scariest movies I ever saw. I saw it at the age of nine at our local first-time A-flick theater, the State. When it ran at the second-run B-flick theater, the Rialto, I dragged my little brother Jeff to see it. He watched it from between the seats. We used to sit up and watch Shock Theater and we knew scary when we saw it.
What a lot of people miss today, is that the popular science magazines at the time "Beginning..." came out were full of speculation about using radiation to enhance crops and livestock, just like the experiments in Peter Grave's agricultural station in the movie. I also remember that Bert Gordon's earlier movie, King Dinosaur, came out after a close approach to earth by an asteroid was in the news. These movies were ripped fresh from the headlines.
Yes, the low budget values are low. There's the ponderous pseudoWagnerian Albert Glasser music Da-DUM-da-da-da-DA-DUM motif for reporter-driving-down-road, cop-driving-down-road, reporter-stopping-at-road-block, etc. We see the mountains of Illinois that look suspiciously like southern California (at least they did not use Bronson Canyon in this one (they didn't did they?).)
Yes, they do use the same stock footage three times for rear projection behind characters "driving" down the road, but, hey, they DO tint the stock footage for the nighttime driving scene.
But the woman reporter, Peggy Castle, is not only a good looker, but a strong woman who is treated as a equal by most of the men, who show her respect. She is a tough cookie like Beverly Garland in It Conquered the World. Not a typical 1950s bimbo or weak sister. I always thought Peggy Castle's character taught Peter Grave's character how to be a man.
And when Morris Ankrum is in uniform, you know however dicey the situation, right and good will triumph in the end. Even in the Beginning of the End.
This movie does have a message: if you park on a lonely road and engage in illicit teenage necking, you will be eaten by giant mutant grasshoppers.
What a lot of people miss today, is that the popular science magazines at the time "Beginning..." came out were full of speculation about using radiation to enhance crops and livestock, just like the experiments in Peter Grave's agricultural station in the movie. I also remember that Bert Gordon's earlier movie, King Dinosaur, came out after a close approach to earth by an asteroid was in the news. These movies were ripped fresh from the headlines.
Yes, the low budget values are low. There's the ponderous pseudoWagnerian Albert Glasser music Da-DUM-da-da-da-DA-DUM motif for reporter-driving-down-road, cop-driving-down-road, reporter-stopping-at-road-block, etc. We see the mountains of Illinois that look suspiciously like southern California (at least they did not use Bronson Canyon in this one (they didn't did they?).)
Yes, they do use the same stock footage three times for rear projection behind characters "driving" down the road, but, hey, they DO tint the stock footage for the nighttime driving scene.
But the woman reporter, Peggy Castle, is not only a good looker, but a strong woman who is treated as a equal by most of the men, who show her respect. She is a tough cookie like Beverly Garland in It Conquered the World. Not a typical 1950s bimbo or weak sister. I always thought Peggy Castle's character taught Peter Grave's character how to be a man.
And when Morris Ankrum is in uniform, you know however dicey the situation, right and good will triumph in the end. Even in the Beginning of the End.
This movie does have a message: if you park on a lonely road and engage in illicit teenage necking, you will be eaten by giant mutant grasshoppers.
Bugs
BandSAboutMovies1 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, or Am-Par, decided to create their own film studio to make low-budget movies that they could place into their theaters, signing a deal with Republic Pictures to make them. And after the success of Them!, who else but Burt I. Gordon to make more giant bug movies?
Gordon did the effects by himself in his garage, bringing the magic effect he used for King Dinosaur: grab some animals and shoot them in front of a still photo. So he grabbed 200 non-hopping, non-flying live grasshoppers in Waco, Texas and brought them to California. At that point, the agriculture department got involved and somehow, only 12 grasshoppers live after they all turned into cannibals. One would assume the dozen that are in this movie are the toughest ones of all time.
That said, the film's title was prophetic. For some reason, the studio stopped making films. Luckily for Gordon, he landed at American-International Picture where he kept making giant movies. The Amazing Colossal Man was next.
There's a decent cast in this, with Peter Graves* as the scientist who uses radiation to better grow crops until some crazy locusts eat it all and - you guessed it - get big as well. Peggie Castle, Miss Cheesecake of 1949, was born for films like this and Invasion U.S.A. It also seems like character actor Morris Ankrum was a lock for nearly any science fiction film of this time, as he made Rocketship X-M, Flight to Mars, Red Planet Mars, Invaders from Mars, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, From the Earth to the Moon and this movie in the 50's.
*Whose brother James Arness was in Them!
Gordon did the effects by himself in his garage, bringing the magic effect he used for King Dinosaur: grab some animals and shoot them in front of a still photo. So he grabbed 200 non-hopping, non-flying live grasshoppers in Waco, Texas and brought them to California. At that point, the agriculture department got involved and somehow, only 12 grasshoppers live after they all turned into cannibals. One would assume the dozen that are in this movie are the toughest ones of all time.
That said, the film's title was prophetic. For some reason, the studio stopped making films. Luckily for Gordon, he landed at American-International Picture where he kept making giant movies. The Amazing Colossal Man was next.
There's a decent cast in this, with Peter Graves* as the scientist who uses radiation to better grow crops until some crazy locusts eat it all and - you guessed it - get big as well. Peggie Castle, Miss Cheesecake of 1949, was born for films like this and Invasion U.S.A. It also seems like character actor Morris Ankrum was a lock for nearly any science fiction film of this time, as he made Rocketship X-M, Flight to Mars, Red Planet Mars, Invaders from Mars, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, From the Earth to the Moon and this movie in the 50's.
*Whose brother James Arness was in Them!
Hopping Good Fun
ClassixFan31 July 2002
Bert I Gordon has given the classic sci-fi and horror community plenty to enjoy and that doesn't mean that Mr BIG's films are going to win any Academy awards, but they certainly entertain and isn't that why most of us watch films? Stars Peter Graves, Peggie Castle amd Morris Ankrum take a back seat to mutated grasshoppers in this classic from 1957. Personally, I skip the MST3K version of the film, the original version is much more fun and entertaining on it's own.
Decent giant bug film
vtcavuoto6 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"Beginning of the End" isn't at the top of the "giant something or other" films of it's time but has a certain charm. This time the giants are grasshoppers who are munching their way through the state of Illinois. The movie has an impressive list of great B-movie actors such as Morris Ankrum, Thomas Henry, Hank Patterson, Peter Graves and Peggy Castle. The grasshoppers ate some radioactive food by accident and started growing. They are drowned at the end by a sort of "Pied Piper" lure. The acting carries the film and the pace moves along nicely. The grasshoppers are a bit corny but still the film is enjoyable. If you're a fan of 1950s Sci-Fi/Horror films,it's one to check out.
Giant Grasshoppers Attack, and They're Hopping Mad!!! :=8o
MooCowMo14 December 1999
Yes, tired of being covered in chocolate, or turned into snooty mixed drinks, and aided by RADIATION, a swarm (well, 5 or 6) of grasshoppers, thirsting for revenge, becomes the latest giant bug moovie of the 50's. Director Bert I. Gordon seems to have a fixation on giant things - he also directed such feeble classics as "The Amazing Colossal Man", "Villlage of the Giants", and "Empire of the Ants". "Beginning of the End" was his first real BIG moovie, and it serves as a harbinger for all things Gordon to come. Peter Graves("Killers from Space", "It Conquered the World", Mission Impossible tv series) is a bug scientist who discovers that giant critters are ettin' up the local population, and figures out a sex call to drive them all into Lake Michigan. First, cowever, the giant hoppers get to swarm all over Chicago, or at least photographs of buildings. Yes, as expected, the poor fx are pretty laughable: they're just regular grasshoppers superimposed against photographs to make them LOOK giant(sort of...). Sometimes the grasshoppers, not known for their method acting, would wander off the building photographs, thus spoiling the effect. It is fun to watch soldiers machine-gunning the giant locusts off the fake buildings. Schlock-fans will also notice Peggy Castle("Invasion USA", "Cow Country")as Audrey Aimes, the erstwhile Brenda Starr-type female reporter with a nose for giant bug news. The always-present Morris Ankrum("Red Planet Mars","Invaders from Mars", "The Giant Claw") plays the overwhelmed General, who has to look serious as he fights a bunch of bugs. Ironically, Ankrum want to nuke the bugs when it was RADIATION that made the bugs in the first place. :=8/ Yes, mankind has tampered where he should not yet again, but there's always one last resourceful hero to save the day - this is the sort of easy formulaic theme that was literally beaten to death during the 50's, 60's, and even into the 70's & 80's. Of course, even though there is tons of leafy green material around, the grasshoppers immediately want to munch on humans(or else there'd be no film), hence the revenge factor. Cud The giant tomatoes in Peter Graves' lab be a foreshadow for giant tomatoes to come?? ;=8) The herd loved the car-phone Peggy Castle uses - were such things available in the 50's?? The MooCow says this 50's classic monster-fest is mooost-viewing for all horror fans because there are sooo many chuckles within. Munch on a huge salad and enjoy! ;=8)
Gotta' Love It!
Bucs19605 August 2002
Bert I Gordon.....you gotta love this man. He was the maven of cheapo science fiction films in the 50's and gave us a lot of laughs and fun from his efforts. Don't get me wrong....I think his films are worth watching. There was always a message of some kind, albeit ludicrous and his "special effects" were of the superimposed, see-through type.....but still you get a kick out of viewing people running from oversized insects, amazing colossal men, etc. This film, like most during the 50's deals with mutation of some life form (here it's grasshoppers) into giant beasts who wreak havoc on the world.....in this case Chicago or postcards of Chicago as in the building climbing sequence at the finale. Peter Graves, who seemed to be stuck in this type of film for several years, does a serviceable job as the hero but probably wished he could be someplace else. Peggy Castle plays it straight as the gal pal and some other faces that we all know pop up in supporting roles. But it's the grasshoppers who steal the show.....crawling around on pictures, flying through the air and apparently eating people alive. We salute you, Bert I. Gordon!!! You made late night TV viewing worthwhile!
Had I known that I could have made a movie about bugs walking on a photograph of a building to make them look bigger, I would have a field day searching in the fields....
mark.waltz17 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Deliciously bad, this has a few thoughtful moments where reporter Peggie Castle declares in her cynical manner that you never get used to seeing the aftermath of disaster, and in this film, she gets to see her share of horror too with men bigger than her being eaten by the likes of Jimminy Cricket! There's no wishing upon a star for survival here because these giant grasshoppers/locusts/crickets (whatever you want to call them) have an outrageous appetite and are now flooding the south side of Chicago. But before you break into the Ray Price song or "Bad Bad, LeRoy Brown", check out this ultra campy 1950's B science fiction anti-nuclear power horror film where the ideals of giant strawberries and tomatoes created by nerdy scientist Peter Graves lead to the creation of giant blood thirsty creatures. When first seen, the giant cricket comes upon its unknowing victim and gets the audience's attention, not because it is scary, but because its poor victim is so pathetic and lovable. But as lovable as the victim is, that doesn't make this movie any better as the army of crickets stalk the army of man, not leaving any trace of them, just as they had done with the town first attacked by them that has the over crowded population of 132.
While I can see some people putting this on their list of the worst movies ever made, I call this one a guilty pleasure, which up there with the atomic turkey in "The Giant Claw" is one of the silliest looking movie monsters ever. Photos of Chicago buildings (one of which looks like downtown Manhattan's Municipal Building) with the bugs walking on them are so blurry that the so-called special effect is entirely obvious. While I expected to see one of the bugs walk off of the building altogether, there was only a hint of that. There is the repeated shot of the crickets falling off of the building after being shot at, the panic in the streets and parks as public announcements are made of not to panic, interrupted by the loud chirping and sudden arrival of the big pesky bugs. Certainly, the producers and director knew that this would be panned and considered one of the worst movies of the year (or ever), but they knew that they could make a quick bug, oops, I mean buck, and even today, it is deliciously funny even if there was a panic of how nuclear power and other discoveries of the time could have major impacts on things on our planet we take for granted. When this is all said and done, it is an enjoyable guilty pleasure, leading to a clinch for the leading man and lady that prior to that fade-out had not even been hinted at.
While I can see some people putting this on their list of the worst movies ever made, I call this one a guilty pleasure, which up there with the atomic turkey in "The Giant Claw" is one of the silliest looking movie monsters ever. Photos of Chicago buildings (one of which looks like downtown Manhattan's Municipal Building) with the bugs walking on them are so blurry that the so-called special effect is entirely obvious. While I expected to see one of the bugs walk off of the building altogether, there was only a hint of that. There is the repeated shot of the crickets falling off of the building after being shot at, the panic in the streets and parks as public announcements are made of not to panic, interrupted by the loud chirping and sudden arrival of the big pesky bugs. Certainly, the producers and director knew that this would be panned and considered one of the worst movies of the year (or ever), but they knew that they could make a quick bug, oops, I mean buck, and even today, it is deliciously funny even if there was a panic of how nuclear power and other discoveries of the time could have major impacts on things on our planet we take for granted. When this is all said and done, it is an enjoyable guilty pleasure, leading to a clinch for the leading man and lady that prior to that fade-out had not even been hinted at.
"Where do I get off asking the Regular Army for help with a bunch of oversize grasshoppers?"
bensonmum28 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Bert I. Gordon really missed with this one. For a movie that features a band of giant, mutant grasshoppers terrorizing the Midwest, Beginning of the End is very dull. So dull in fact that I had to wake myself three or four times, reverse the movie, and start over again. With droopy eyes, I finally finished the 76 minute movie in 2.5 hours.
It's disappointing really because I've really come to enjoy B.I.G.'s low-budget brand of movie-making. Even when his movies aren't very good in the traditional sense, they're still usually good for a laugh or two. Not here. Likewise, I've come to really enjoy the giant bug movies of the 50s. Whether it's an ant, a spider, or a mantis, these movies are a fun watch. I wish B.I.G. could have done the same with grasshoppers.
It's disappointing really because I've really come to enjoy B.I.G.'s low-budget brand of movie-making. Even when his movies aren't very good in the traditional sense, they're still usually good for a laugh or two. Not here. Likewise, I've come to really enjoy the giant bug movies of the 50s. Whether it's an ant, a spider, or a mantis, these movies are a fun watch. I wish B.I.G. could have done the same with grasshoppers.
Low budget "giant bug" movie ... fun to watch if you like "bad" movies
robertmurray-706377 October 2019
Plot: government experiment with radiation produces giant locusts who try to eat Chicago. This is the sort of trashy movie they used to make for "drive-in" theaters in the 1950s. The special effects are so bad that they are unintentionally funny. It's a bit slow at times, because there are a lot of long scenes where the characters are just talking. (When you are making a low budget film, talking scenes are cheap to shoot.) However, when there are action scenes (giant bugs vs the US Army) they are pretty good. The Mystery Science Theater version of this film is one of their better episodes. The best jokes are when Mike and the bots are speaking in "bug voices."
Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1963
kevinolzak31 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Director Bert I. Gordon deserves some credit for his 1957 "Beginning of the End," for at least not giving away its menace in the title as entries like "Tarantula," "The Deadly Mantis," or "The Black Scorpion," toplining well known cast members such as Peter Graves ("Red Planet Mars," "Killers from Space," "It Conquered the World"), Peggie Castle ("Invasion USA," "Back from the Dead"), and the extremely prolific Morris Ankrum. It's a good thing they were hired because the script slavishly apes the 1954 "Them!" right from the opening where two patrolmen investigate a mysterious disappearance, then relay headquarters that the entire Illinois town of Ludlow has been destroyed, and all 150 residents gone. Peggie Castle's news correspondent takes a back seat once Peter Graves enters as an entomologist/anthropologist, whose experiments using radiation to enlarge certain types of fruits and vegetables have yielded a mutation of gigantic proportions, a plague of locusts described as voracious eaters who undoubtedly devour human prey. There's no explanation as to why only locusts are affected, and the perfunctory military response is mostly talked about rather than seen. The final assault on Chicago found Gordon using photographic blowups of skyscrapers onto which the insects crawled, one of the few effects that seem to work. Ultimately the performance of the ever reliable Graves carries the picture through its dull stretches, no mean feat considering how little he was forced to work with. After smaller budgeted efforts "King Dinosaur" and "The Cyclops", this Republic success earned its director a contract with American International, where most of his films would be made into the late 1970s, and this picture's echoes of H.G. Wells' "The Food of the Gods" would be a topic that apparently Gordon just couldn't leave well enough alone.
Horrendous
xredgarnetx25 February 2006
END was one of those 1950s sci-fi quickies that briefly played the nation's drive ins and then were resurrected on TV a few years later, to play endlessly to fill time. Peter Graves is a scientist battling giant grasshoppers, which are shown climbing photos of the Chicago skyline and otherwise are poorly matted into some live action scenes, so they appear to be the ghosts of grasshoppers. I suspect some of the fightin' army sequences were also used in the same director's AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and COLOSSAL BEAST, which used the same poor matte special effects. You know the scene in ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN where Alison Hayes picks up a photo of a car? That's the level of the special effects going on here. Minus the comely Ms. Hayes. Skip it. Even the MST3K version doesn't help much.
Reporter finds true love and saves the world all in one day!
pei814718 January 2005
Beginning of the End (1957) When better to meet your new man than while saving the world from GIANT radioactive grasshoppers! That's what happened to Audrey Ames in "Beginning of the End". Audrey is a persistent reporter who is trying to get the scoop on a new story discovered on her way to a lackluster flying demonstration. On her way to the flying demo, she is stopped at a roadblock to a town that's been mysteriously destroyed! On a hunch, she visits a handsome entomologist named Dr Ed Wainwright. Little does she know that Dr Wainwright is the source of all the trouble in town! After much research, the Dr Ed and Audrey find the first attack site of the killer locust! A little too late for poor Frank Johnson, Dr Wainwright's assistant. Escaping from the locust appetite, the pair try move quickly to convince the army of the problem at hand. After several mistakes and delays, the army is preparing a final assault on the grasshoppers outside and in Chicago! The dilemma: an Atom bomb or a sketchy pied piper routine, which will save the day...
Beginning of the End is an amusing movie to watch! The acting is traditional of the sci fi movies of the era. The special effects are mediocre, but the humor in retrospect is delightful. After some research, I discovered this movie is a B movie attempt at recreating the success of "Them". The studio tried to save some money by using some special effect footage several times and didn't build miniatures to imitate the city. Apparently, the director even went as far as to hire the star of "Them"s brother to fulfill the lead roll of Beginning of the End. The science behind the story line is patchy at best. Several key mistakes were quoted by the scientist and army officers. If you are a fan of cheesy sci fi suspense movies, give this flick a try! You will not be disappointed. Who knows maybe you'll learn something that could save the world the next time we are attacked by radioactive BUGS!
Beginning of the End is an amusing movie to watch! The acting is traditional of the sci fi movies of the era. The special effects are mediocre, but the humor in retrospect is delightful. After some research, I discovered this movie is a B movie attempt at recreating the success of "Them". The studio tried to save some money by using some special effect footage several times and didn't build miniatures to imitate the city. Apparently, the director even went as far as to hire the star of "Them"s brother to fulfill the lead roll of Beginning of the End. The science behind the story line is patchy at best. Several key mistakes were quoted by the scientist and army officers. If you are a fan of cheesy sci fi suspense movies, give this flick a try! You will not be disappointed. Who knows maybe you'll learn something that could save the world the next time we are attacked by radioactive BUGS!
Buggy B-Movie Never Gets Off Ground
slokes9 January 2005
It looks like more than a couple of the many locusts filmed for this B-movie were actually roasted, blown up, and drowned for the sake of art. If so, they died in vain.
"Beginning Of The End" is a Bert I. Gordon film that shows why people remember Roger Corman so fondly. At least with Corman, there was some offbeat element, a sparkle of wit, to liven up the dullest package. Here, the exercise is so rote and bland, you might as well be watching window cleaners or traffic cops doing their daily chores.
Peggie Castle and Peter Graves were getting enough work in the 1950s that they didn't need to show up here. She's a reporter hot on the trail of a big story, of an Illinois town that mysteriously became a desolate ruin overnight. He is an entomologist with the Department of Agriculture who is using radiation to enlarge crops (kids, don't try this at home) and wonders if something else has grown, too.
Yes, as it turns out. Locusts.
Imagine locusts grown to 20 times the size of a man. Can you picture that? Good. It helps if you can do that for about 90 minutes, because the special effects in "The Beginning Of The End" are little help. The film features superimposed real bugs running over postcards and stock footage, like something you could have done with an ant farm and a Super 8 camera when you were 12. Nothing on screen really seems like anything you couldn't have made at home, not even back in the 1950s.
Graves and Castle aren't well integrated into the story. They spend an absurd amount of time playing odd sounds for captive bugs and staring at oscillators while the city of Chicago blows up around them. The Army, in their infinite wisdom, determines the only way to save the Windy City is to nuke it. Graves ponders another possibility. Locusts seem to like one particular kind of noise. What if that could be used against them?
I wish I could say "Beginning Of The End" is so hokey its fun. The problem is its not bad enough that way to be worthwhile. It's not "Eegah!" or "Robot Monster" where the incompetence gives you something to think about and enjoy. It's strictly by-the-numbers drive-in fodder way past its sell-by date. Graves is especially dull, raising his eyebrow once in a while so you know he's the same guy who delivered that great line about gladiators, but offering little else. Castle does the best here, even showing off the world's first-ever car phone while giving orders to her boss, but she's supercargo way too early.
Even the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang do little to make this worthwhile. Of course, by the time they got around to "Beginning Of The End," Mike Nelson had replaced Joel Hodgson and it was the beginning of the end for that show, too, but even in its glory days MST3K would have had little success skewering "Beginning Of The End." There's just nothing here to skewer.
"Beginning Of The End" is a Bert I. Gordon film that shows why people remember Roger Corman so fondly. At least with Corman, there was some offbeat element, a sparkle of wit, to liven up the dullest package. Here, the exercise is so rote and bland, you might as well be watching window cleaners or traffic cops doing their daily chores.
Peggie Castle and Peter Graves were getting enough work in the 1950s that they didn't need to show up here. She's a reporter hot on the trail of a big story, of an Illinois town that mysteriously became a desolate ruin overnight. He is an entomologist with the Department of Agriculture who is using radiation to enlarge crops (kids, don't try this at home) and wonders if something else has grown, too.
Yes, as it turns out. Locusts.
Imagine locusts grown to 20 times the size of a man. Can you picture that? Good. It helps if you can do that for about 90 minutes, because the special effects in "The Beginning Of The End" are little help. The film features superimposed real bugs running over postcards and stock footage, like something you could have done with an ant farm and a Super 8 camera when you were 12. Nothing on screen really seems like anything you couldn't have made at home, not even back in the 1950s.
Graves and Castle aren't well integrated into the story. They spend an absurd amount of time playing odd sounds for captive bugs and staring at oscillators while the city of Chicago blows up around them. The Army, in their infinite wisdom, determines the only way to save the Windy City is to nuke it. Graves ponders another possibility. Locusts seem to like one particular kind of noise. What if that could be used against them?
I wish I could say "Beginning Of The End" is so hokey its fun. The problem is its not bad enough that way to be worthwhile. It's not "Eegah!" or "Robot Monster" where the incompetence gives you something to think about and enjoy. It's strictly by-the-numbers drive-in fodder way past its sell-by date. Graves is especially dull, raising his eyebrow once in a while so you know he's the same guy who delivered that great line about gladiators, but offering little else. Castle does the best here, even showing off the world's first-ever car phone while giving orders to her boss, but she's supercargo way too early.
Even the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang do little to make this worthwhile. Of course, by the time they got around to "Beginning Of The End," Mike Nelson had replaced Joel Hodgson and it was the beginning of the end for that show, too, but even in its glory days MST3K would have had little success skewering "Beginning Of The End." There's just nothing here to skewer.
Fiction is Stranger than Truth
twanurit3 April 2003
Peggie Castle portrays an intrepid reporter investigating the wipe-out of a small suburban town outside Chicago. The military won't reveal information, so she winds up at an entomologist's compound, headed by Peter Graves. His nutrients have created super vegetables, for world hunger, but with horrific repercussions. The first appearance of a gigantic locust is frightening, aided by excellent Albert Glasser music, shrill insect sounds and competent special effects (real bugs magnified via rear projection and/or mattes). The acting is all polished by Graves, Castle, perennial favorite Morris Ankrum (as a general, again), others. Military stock footage is seamlessly interwoven into the battle scenes. The Special Edition DVD print is beautiful (skip the shoddy Mystery Science Theater version - I HATE MST, they ridicule good pictures), looking like a new film, shimmering black and white photography, properly framed at 1:66 to 1, eliminating any grasshoppers crawling outside a skyscraper into the sky. 73 minute running time works wonders, without bloated padding and gratuitous violence. It moves efficiently and competently, thanks to director Bert I. Gordon and the rest of the crew.
A Plague Upon You!
rmax3048231 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers
There's a scene near the beginning in which reporter Peggy Castle visits Army headquarters. We watch her drive up to an office building, park the convertible, step out of it, walk up the steps, open the door, and walk through it. Cut.
Ordinary, yes, but what makes it interesting is that this is a B movie shot on a small budget and coming towards the end of the Big Bug cycle. A typical B director wouldn't bother shooting the scene. Suppose Peggy Castle tripped getting out of the car? Suppose she showed too much leg? Suppose the door to the building was stuck? They'd have to do a retake and that costs money. No, in a really cheap B movie, Peggy Castle would tell someone that she's going to Army headquarters, there would be a dissolve, and she'd be talking to a general.
By a commodius vicus of recirculation, all blockbusting A-budget action movies have reached the same tiptoptoloftical ergonomic peak as the cheap features of yesteryear. Somebody directing a thirty-million-dollar movie today wouldn't shoot that transitional scene either. Not because of budget constraints but because the fourteen-year-old brains in the audience might be bored by it, their attention span being limited to two seconds. They might squirm and fidget and throw JuJuBees at each other, and they might tell their friends the movie was dull. There are shekels involved at both ends of the business -- making and marketing.
I now step down off this orator's platform. Please keep the cameras rolling. Somebody give me a hand; I'm suffering from a crippling case of nostalgia. Thank you.
The movie itself follows such a familiar path that it's hardly worth detailing. An incident at an agricultural station involving locusts eating some radioactive material leads to the expected results. Giant bugs. Entomologist Peter Graves and his soon-to-be girlfriend, Peggy Castle, who lends an enchanting whistle to her sibilants, discover a horde of mammoth locusts who make loud noises like the giant ants in "Them". Naturally no one believes them. The National Guard slough their stories off with a chuckle. The doubtful general investigates and the locusts attack him and his men. He gets away with his life but it was a close call, I can tell you.
These gargantuan grasshoppers are interesting creatures. They're always shown in blown-up rear projection or other trickery because I suppose the budget might have allowed Peggy Castle to park her car but there wasn't room for both the car and even a disembodied locust head of the proper giant size. Peter Graves shows the military a movie of locusts while he describes how terrible they are. I didn't know they could be carnivorous, but I guess I can believe it because I've watched crickets eat flies, and a more disgusting sight you've never seen. I had no idea they could grow to the size of an earth mover though. I guess my high school biology teacher was lying when he taught us about book lungs.
Peter Graves, like his brother, James Arness, is likable enough -- tall and handsome. Peggy Castle is alluring but those 1957 hair styles did nobody any favors. I'm not sure Morris Ankrum ever missed a science-fiction movie. You'll recognize him at once. The director must have spent all his energy on that car-parking scene because the rest of the movie lacks any distinction. Oh, except for Graves' entomologist. The credits list him as "Doctor Ed Wainwright. That's apposite enough but everyone calls him "Mister Wainwright", a departure from the norm. Usually PhDs call each other "doctor" in these movies.
Does Dr. Wainwright manage to save Chicago from the plague of locusts, or does the Air Force have to bomb the city flat? The answer is they have to use the atomic bomb and destroy Chicago but it doesn't work and they have to go on to bomb New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, St. Louis, London, Moscow, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and East Quoddy, Maine.
Ordinary, yes, but what makes it interesting is that this is a B movie shot on a small budget and coming towards the end of the Big Bug cycle. A typical B director wouldn't bother shooting the scene. Suppose Peggy Castle tripped getting out of the car? Suppose she showed too much leg? Suppose the door to the building was stuck? They'd have to do a retake and that costs money. No, in a really cheap B movie, Peggy Castle would tell someone that she's going to Army headquarters, there would be a dissolve, and she'd be talking to a general.
By a commodius vicus of recirculation, all blockbusting A-budget action movies have reached the same tiptoptoloftical ergonomic peak as the cheap features of yesteryear. Somebody directing a thirty-million-dollar movie today wouldn't shoot that transitional scene either. Not because of budget constraints but because the fourteen-year-old brains in the audience might be bored by it, their attention span being limited to two seconds. They might squirm and fidget and throw JuJuBees at each other, and they might tell their friends the movie was dull. There are shekels involved at both ends of the business -- making and marketing.
I now step down off this orator's platform. Please keep the cameras rolling. Somebody give me a hand; I'm suffering from a crippling case of nostalgia. Thank you.
The movie itself follows such a familiar path that it's hardly worth detailing. An incident at an agricultural station involving locusts eating some radioactive material leads to the expected results. Giant bugs. Entomologist Peter Graves and his soon-to-be girlfriend, Peggy Castle, who lends an enchanting whistle to her sibilants, discover a horde of mammoth locusts who make loud noises like the giant ants in "Them". Naturally no one believes them. The National Guard slough their stories off with a chuckle. The doubtful general investigates and the locusts attack him and his men. He gets away with his life but it was a close call, I can tell you.
These gargantuan grasshoppers are interesting creatures. They're always shown in blown-up rear projection or other trickery because I suppose the budget might have allowed Peggy Castle to park her car but there wasn't room for both the car and even a disembodied locust head of the proper giant size. Peter Graves shows the military a movie of locusts while he describes how terrible they are. I didn't know they could be carnivorous, but I guess I can believe it because I've watched crickets eat flies, and a more disgusting sight you've never seen. I had no idea they could grow to the size of an earth mover though. I guess my high school biology teacher was lying when he taught us about book lungs.
Peter Graves, like his brother, James Arness, is likable enough -- tall and handsome. Peggy Castle is alluring but those 1957 hair styles did nobody any favors. I'm not sure Morris Ankrum ever missed a science-fiction movie. You'll recognize him at once. The director must have spent all his energy on that car-parking scene because the rest of the movie lacks any distinction. Oh, except for Graves' entomologist. The credits list him as "Doctor Ed Wainwright. That's apposite enough but everyone calls him "Mister Wainwright", a departure from the norm. Usually PhDs call each other "doctor" in these movies.
Does Dr. Wainwright manage to save Chicago from the plague of locusts, or does the Air Force have to bomb the city flat? The answer is they have to use the atomic bomb and destroy Chicago but it doesn't work and they have to go on to bomb New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, St. Louis, London, Moscow, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and East Quoddy, Maine.
A movie that lets it moral get in the way of good storytelling...
icehole420 April 2001
Warning: Spoilers
***Note: SPOILERS.*** The Beginning of the End tries so hard to reinforce its moral - questioning whether or not we have the right to mess with nature - so much so that it gets in the way of the story. Scientists experiment with plants and cause them to grow to big size, and then crickets eat those plants, and get big as well. Cheapie '50's special effects have crickets walking off cardboard cut-outs of giant buildings (scaled down to cricket size, of course.) In the end Dr. Ed Wainright saves the day by leading the crickets into Lake Michigan, thus drowning them. Skewered on MST3K, this story is kinda shaky whether it deserved it or not. It's not in the same vein as Manos: The Hands of Fate, but then again, it's not a Gone with the Wind either.
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