Attack of the Crab Monsters is a 1957

1957 in film

The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...

 American black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 science fiction film

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

, written by Charles B. Griffith

Charles B. Griffith

Charles B. Griffith was a Chicago-born screenwriter, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of Myrt and Marge...

 and produced and directed by Roger Corman

Roger Corman

Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

 via Los Altos Productions, on contract for distribution by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. The plot follows a scientific expedition trapped on a remote island inhabited by atomically mutated giant crabs. It was distributed as the main feature on a programmed double bill with Not of This Earth

Not of This Earth (1957 film)

Not of This Earth is a 67-minute, 1957 American black-and-white science fiction film written by Charles B. Griffith and Mark Hanna. It was produced and directed by Roger Corman for Los Altos Productions and distributed by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation....

.

Plot

A group of scientists land on a remote island in the Pacific to search for a previous expedition that disappeared and to continue research about the effects of radiation from the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests

Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945...

 on the island's plant and sea life. They learn to their horror that the earlier group of scientists have been eaten by mutated giant crabs that have gained intelligence by absorbing the minds of their victims. Members of the current expedition are systematically attacked and killed by the crabs, which are invulnerable to most weaponry because of the mutation in their cell structure. Finally, they discover the crabs are the cause of the earthquakes and landslides that are destroying the island. As the remaining expedition members struggle to survive on the ever-shrinking island, they must also find a way to stop the crabs before they reproduce and invade the oceans of the world.

Cast

Actor	Role
Richard Garland	Dale Drewer
Pamela Duncan Pamela Duncan (actress) Pamela Duncan was an American B-movie actress who starred in the cult classic Attack of the Crab Monsters and later appeared in an Academy Award-nominated documentary, Curtain Call a documentary made in 2000 that focused on the lives and careers of the residents of the Lillian Booth Actors Home in...	Dr. Martha Hunter
Russell Johnson Russell Johnson Russell David Johnson is an American television and film actor best known as "The Professor" on the CBS television sitcom Gilligan's Island...	Hank Chapman
Leslie Bradley Leslie Bradley -Selected filmography:* The Way of Youth * Holiday's End * Atlantic Ferry * The Young Mr. Pitt * Time Flies * Candlelight in Algeria * Slaves of Babylon * The Iron Glove...	Dr. Karl Weigand
Mel Welles Mel Welles Mel Welles was an American film actor. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, The Little Shop of Horrors....	Jules Deveroux
Richard H. Cutting	Dr. James Carson
Beach Dickerson	Ron Fellows
Tony Miller Tony Miller Tony Miller may refer to:* Tony Miller , Secretary of State of California* Tony Miller , Kentucky Congressional candidate* Tony Miller, United States Deputy Secretary of Education...	Jack Sommers
Ed Nelson Ed Nelson Edwin Stafford Nelson is an American actor.Nelson has appeared in numerous television shows, more than fifty motion pictures, and hundreds of stage productions. Until 2005, he was teaching acting and screenwriting in his native New Orleans at two local universities there...	Ensign Quinlan
Charles B. Griffith Charles B. Griffith Charles B. Griffith was a Chicago-born screenwriter, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of Myrt and Marge...	Tate
Robin Riley
Doug Robberts
Maitland Stuart	Mac

See also

• List of American films of 1957
• The Macra Terror
  The Macra Terror
  The Macra Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 March to 1 April 1967...
  
   - A Doctor Who
  Doctor Who
  Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
  
  serial that follows a similar plot.

External links

• Extended movie review at Eccentric-cinema.com