Mesa of Lost Women: Starring Jackie Coogan, Allan Nixon and Richard Travis (1953)

DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000051S7L/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=d... http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/

Mesa of Lost Women is a 1953 black and white science fiction film. It is available on DVD, with a theatrical trailer. Wade Williams describes it on the DVD case as a "must-see for fans of the bizarre and unexplainable". It won the award of "Most Primitive Male Chauvinist Fantasy" in the book Son of Golden Turkey Awards.

A couple are found wandering nearly dead in a desert. Recovering, they tell their story. The movie flashes back a year. A mad scientist, Dr. Aranya (Jackie Coogan), has created giant spiders in his Mexican lab in Zarpa Mesa to create a race of superwomen by injecting spiders with human pituitary growth hormones. Women develop miraculous regenerative powers, but men mutate into disfigured dwarves. Spiders grow to human size and intelligence. Aranya invites another scientist, Dr. Masterson, to join him. Masterson visits Zarpa but is horrified. Aranya has him injected with a drug, turning him into a doddering simpleton. Masterson escapes, and visits a cantina. A rich man (Jan van Croft) and his young American fiancee also visit the cantina while their private plane is repaired. Masterson joins them and fawns over Doreen. Tarantella, (Tandra Quinn) one of Aranya's best spider women, does a strange and sensual dance for Masterson. He shoots Tarantella (although she recovers). Masterson hijacks Van Croft's group, forcing them to fly in the un-repaired plane. They crash land onto Zarpa Mesa. Soon the small group begins to be killed off one by one by giant spiders. Grant (the pilot), Doreen and Masterson are captured by Dr. Aranya. Masterson recovers from his drug-induced imbecility, sacrifices himself to let the others escape, blowing up the lab. Grant and Doreen wanders into the desert until picked up by the oil surveyor from the movie's opening scenes.

Mesa of Lost Women takes the theme of a rogue scientist creating humans from animals, but adds several twists. Confusingly, the screenplay is structured as a double flashback. There are enough loose threads and holes in the plot that the film frustrates some viewers. This may be due to editing.

The movie is criticized for its acting, notably that of Coogan, and Harmon Stevens, who plays Dr. Masterson. The plot is far from straightforward. The loud and repetitive musical score by Hoyt S. Curtin, melding flamenco guitar and piano, is seen as maddening or oppositely "very able, a sustained inspiration." The music used in the movie was also used by Ed Wood Jr. in his movie Jailbait.

The "lost comb" is another plot feature that confuses people. It's a symbolic object that tips the love triangle. We start out with young Doreen engaged to old Jan van Croft. She doesn't love him but is marrying for security. She and the pilot, Grant, don't hit it off well at first, but during the post-crash crisis, he's heroic and caring, while van Croft becomes more and more selfish. His obsession over the lost heirloom comb symbolizes his materialism. This negates him as a worthy mate and sends Doreen into Grant's arms.

Tarantella is different from the other spider women. She is like Dr. Moreau's panther woman — a special project, pushing the envelope of the essence of womanliness. In a Shakespearean twist, Tarantella develops feelings for Masterson. How else to explain her being miles from Zarpa, in the town Masterson was hospitalized? Her hilarious spider dance for him in the cantina seemed a response to Masterson fawning over Doreen. Masterson's ultimate rejection is a deeper analogy of civilization-morality confronting animality.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• spider
• giant
• mad
• scientist
• secret
• laboratory
• narration
• beautiful
• woman
• insect
• told
• in
• flashback
• airplane
• accident
• dwarf
• desert
• superhuman
• cantina
• ron
• ormond
• herbert
• tevos
• jackie
• coogan
• allan
• nixon
• richard
• travis
• lyle
• talbot
• paula
• hill
• robert
• knapp
• tandra
• quinn
• chris-pin
• martin
• harmon
• stevens
• nico
• lek
• kelly
• drake
• john
• george
• barrows
• candy
• collins
• dolores
• fuller
• haunting
• paranormal
• kennedy
• bunny
• ted
• hour
• ghost
• snow
• politics
• communism

[oliverkites420]

37 mins in

[WynneL]

Around 0:27:00--that woman is the lamest dancer and the choreography doesn't suit the music at all. But yeah--awesome narration.

[neotoy]

I'm giving this a thumbs up just for the awesome narration at the beginning.