Rating:
They really knew how to make movies back in the early 1930s. A taut and effective story told without any superfluous filler and it’s all over in an hour and ten minutes. Yes, please! Plus, there’s the whole thing about how this movie is still considered essential watching more than 75 years after its release, which is generally indicative of pretty awesome quality. Frankenstein is the greatest of the classic monster movies from Universal, and none of the other tellings of the tale that have been made since has ever come close to this one. The movie takes Mary Shelley’s original novel and improves on it. Yes, folks, Frankenstein is one of that rare breed, the film that’s better than the novel on which it is based.

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Rating:
God, the 1950s must have been a glorious time to be growing up. If the movies are to be trusted, some manner of unnaturally gargantuan beastie came stomping its way through town wreaking havoc on the citizenry every eight or nine minutes. It must have truly been exciting, needing to constantly be on your guard lest an oversized dik-dik or a mutated coatimundi smash you flat as a pancake. That’s the kind of living in constant fear that’ll make a man out of you.

The Giant Gila Monster is one of ten million such movies. In it—try to stay with me, now—a giant gila monster comes out of the wilderness and descends upon a small hamlet, terrorizing the townsfolk and wiping out teenagers with extreme prejudice. The only thing standing between humanity and brutal lizard violence is the town’s sherriff, who describes himself as “the only peace officer within ten thousand square miles.” It’s a true clash of titans, this picture: in this corner, a doughy, mustachioed constable with no police force to back him up; in that corner, a big goddamned reptile.

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