Go Retire Psychiatrist

Svengoolie Intro: “Calling all stations! Clear the air lanes! Clear all air lanes for the big broadcast!”

Svengoolie Intro: “Calling all stations! Clear the air lanes! Clear all air lanes for the big broadcast!”

Last night while watching “Village of the Giants” I got the same feeling I got while watching “King Kong vs Godzilla in January this year. I got a “this is so bad it’s good” feeling. So, this is a parody.

I’d never heard of Sven-surround (pun on Sensurround) until last night. It’s a background soundtrack of cartoonish sound effects, wisecracks, and jokes embedded in the film similar to what I remember seeing in an old educational Dairy Farm film spoofed by Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) video on the internet I saw last month. That was for National Dairy Month. I had never seen MST3K before. It also reminded me of MAD Magazine, which parodied hundreds of movies.

The stars include Ronny Howard (as Genius; yes, that’s Opie who was in 243 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show); Beau Bridges (as Fred); Tommy Kirk (as Mike); Johnny Crawford (as Horsey, he was also on Gunsmoke); Joy Harmon (as Merrie); and several others, including Ron Howard’s dad as a police officer.

The 1965 film was written and directed by Bert I. Gordon (BIG!) and the credits indicated that it was based on H.G. Wells book “Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth,” which I’ve never heard of, which was published in 1904. It’s about a couple of scientists who invent a new kind of food that accelerates the growth of every living creature with disastrous results, along with a slant on the ethics of genetic engineering and social commentary. This was destined for parodic movies.

That’s the gist of the film, only the inventor of the growth food is Genius, who knows how to pronounce a lot of polysyllabic chemistry terminology. He’s the typical amoral science nerd character who starts all the trouble, including making giant dancing ducks, the funniest part of the movie. 

The teenagers who look much older than teens steal the “goo” and rapidly expand their horizons as their clothes become too small. This leads to the tailoring of huge drop curtains that make them look like Greek gods who develop overweening pride and an appetite for chicken wings and disproportionately tiny bottles of soda pop.

The dancing the “kids” do was over-the-top frenetic and I’d swear internal organs were going pop out any second. I don’t know who taught them how to do that, but I know it wasn’t Nipsy Russell (who never danced like that), who was famous for rhyming and dancing in roughly that era. I remember he once taught the audience how to do at least one dance step. I can’t remember the show, but it seems like it was on Ed Sullivan. On the other hand, there are a few clips from a Red Skeleton episode in 1967 in which they do a few dance steps. The clips start at 17:20.

One thing I’ve noticed about some movies, including this one, in which giants move in slow motion for some reason, especially in fight scenes. I think it’s because a giant moving at normal speed can whip a tiny human in no time flat. You need a way to even up the odds to make the battle more interesting. Mike and Fred play this David and Goliath routine in which Mike makes David look like a chump because Mike moves like a stoned sloth. The best part is while Mike milks a cow, he aims a teat at Merrie and fires—but Merrie plays the empire strikes back!

I guess I’m going to base my Shrilling Chicken Rating for this film on its merits as a spoof. I give it a rating of 4/5.