Review of Spider Baby (1967) by Walt H — 25 Jun 2007

This here movie would be worthy of a Joe Bob Briggs Drive-in Movie Review, as Joe Bob might say, because its definitely a B grade drive-in movie. B grade drive-in movies are unlike ordinary B movies. A recent example of a B Drive-in movie would be Bubba Ho-tep. As you may know, Bubba... was made for about $8.93 and its a hard limit for B drive-ins to have almost no budget. They were made to put something up on the screen and run an ad in the paper, so you could say you were going to the drive-in to watch movies. Yea right. Anyway you can tell right off what yer lookin' at when the $0.45 (in 2007 dollars) screen credits roll.

Its got all the usual schlock; women in skimpy clothes getting chased around (no breasts tho, it was shown too early at night for T&A), generally bad acting and an old pro winding up his career. In Spider Baby that'd be Lon Chaney Jr., still showing his ability to look like a crazy mutha f.... even in his Sunset Retirement Ranch years. Spider Baby is a minor cult movie and worth a look if only so you'll know what your elders pretended to watch back in the day. Two memorable moments for me is when the really crazy Virginia becomes a lap pet and Ohlmert falls for the nutty kid after just a little persuasion, ala Young Frankenstein, and I half-expected her to sing about 'at last I found you...'.

The DVD has a revised scene and a 30 year reunion showing in a 'crazy part of LA' theater. The B&W movie didn't look bad, considering. It can get an 8/10 because such a B movie gets props for surviving amidst all the other long-forgotten schlockoramas of the era.