For whatever reason (hopefully Tom Weaver or somebody had done a really good in-depth interview with Mr. Gordon), Bert I Gordon took a year or two off after releasing King Dinosaur. Maybe he just learned a bunch of lessons, as I don’t think he ever made anything quite that silly again. Which, admittedly, left a lot of silly left to explore.
In any case, after that sabbatical he came back roaring, making and releasing a jaw-dropping six movies in two years (1957-1958). Having *cough* perfected his embiggening effects, this half dozen films all focused on giant menaces, either gigantic bald guys or bugs (or in one case both). With everyone ripping off 1954’s Them!, Mr. Gordon himself belatedly jumped on board.
I once saw the first of those six pictures, his giant grasshopper epic Beginning of the End, under wonderful circumstances. Risking life and limb (they had a fair amount of snow dropped on them, and unlike up where I am, clearly had little idea of how to deal with it), a friend and I drove down from the Chicago area to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. In case you aren’t aware, Illinois is a big state, and it was a pretty good hike.
Our goal was to attend their annual Insect Film Festival (still running today), hosted appropriately enough by the campus’ entomology department. The draw, three classic big bug films, and a special live appearance by their director, Mr. Bert I Gordon.
Unfortunately, things were a bit tense. Mr. Gordon clearly didn’t enjoy his then recent notoriety resulting from his status as a frequent punching bag on MST3K. The low moment occurred when one blasé young lady earned herself boos from her fellow audience members after asking Mr. Gordon if “you meant your movies to be funny.” In other words, did he make them dumb on purpose?
Look, the films are what they are, and if you put them out there they are fair game. Even so, to rub someone’s face in things is clearly bad form. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Gordon’s response was rather testy, and I can’t altogether blame him. When you live through the Great Depression and World War II and then make a series of (fairly) popular films basically out of your garage, back in the days of big hulking cameras and lights and film stock and no cell phones or prevalent air conditioning, etc., you have the right to get a bit pissy when some stupid kid who hasn’t done anything holds you up to mockery for your work. Maybe that young woman went on to cure cancer or something, but I’d say the odds that she’ll end up bringing more people pleasure than Mr. Gordon has are rather slight.
I will say the biggest laugh of the evening (they showed Beginning of the End and Earth vs the Spider and Empire of the Ants) was during Beginning, which happily for that particular crowd starts in (supposedly) Champaign-Urbana. The audience broke into hysterical laughter at the background appearance of the mountains for which the midwestern plains are so famous. You’d almost think the film was shot in California rather than Illinois. Another prime moment, of course, was when the grasshoppers infamously walked off the postcard photo Chicago buildings into thin air. I mean, really, I am more than ready to champion Mr. Gordon in a general sense, but man, that’s just sloppy.
