Tarantula (film)

Tarantula
Theatrical release poster
by Reynold Brown
Directed byJack Arnold
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Jack Arnold
  • Robert M. Fresco
Based on"No Food for Thought" (teleplay, Science Fiction Theatre, May 17, 1955)
by Robert M. Fresco[1][2]
Produced byWilliam Alland
Starring
CinematographyGeorge Robinson
Edited byWilliam Morgan
Music by
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release dates
  • November 23, 1955 (1955-11-23) (Los Angeles)
  • December 23, 1955 (1955-12-23) (United States)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.1 million (US and Canadian rentals)[3]

Tarantula is a 1955 American science-fiction monster film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars John Agar, Mara Corday, and Leo G. Carroll. The film is about a scientist developing a miracle nutrient to feed a rapidly growing human population. In its unperfected state, the nutrient causes extraordinarily rapid growth, creating a deadly problem when a tarantula test subject escapes and continues to grow larger and larger. The screenplay by Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley was based on a story by Arnold, which was in turn inspired by Fresco's teleplay for the 1955 Science Fiction Theatre episode "No Food for Thought", also directed by Arnold.[1] The film was distributed by Universal Pictures as a Universal-International release, and reissued in 1962 through Sherman S. Krellberg's Ultra Pictures.

  1. ^ a b Tarantula at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. ^ Bill Warren; Bill Thomas (16 November 2009). Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition. McFarland. pp. 738–741. ISBN 978-0-7864-4230-0.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference rentals was invoked but never defined (see the help page).