Hi there nieces and nephews!  Your dear Uncle Pump is back/escaped as the weather warms up, just in time to check you for ticks.  I've been spending some time down at the windowless building on the outskirts of town--you know--the one with the razor wire on the fence.  Those wonderful men in the white lab coats and thick glasses have had some new experiments for me to participate in.  Now don't go getting all PETA on me--I'm fine, and besides, without these types of experiments, how would we know that we shouldn't use liquid drain cleaner as a laxative or eyewash.  During this latest experiment they strapped your old Uncle Pump down and after forcing the smoke from 28 cannabis cigarettes into my lungs, they discovered that I preferred to play with my banana rather than eat one.

Now before they come back around looking for me with their sleepy dart guns and giggly little cattle prods, where were we?  Ah I remember, we're heading out to a little town outside San Fransisco with some bug spray and butterfly nets.  We're gonna bump right up against the 1975 wall I've set for a movie being considered a Dustie Mustie.  We're gonna see if they still need exterminators in BUG.

Not the recent movie where invisble psycho-bugs convinced Ashley Judd to do her impersonation of a protesting buddhist monk.  We're talking about William Castle's last movie about the six-legged pyromaniacs from the bowels of the earth--BUG.

Although this was William Castle's last movie (he died just two years later), it's his first appearance in Dustie Mustie Land, but I'm sure it won't be his last.  Besides this little jewel that he produced and co-wrote the screenplay for, he also produced Rosemary's Baby and was the producer and director on The House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, the original 13 Ghosts, Mr. Sardonicus, Homicidal, and The Old Dark House.

Adorable--ain't he? He directed a string of Western movies in the 40s and 50s and then turned to Horror movies in the 60s.  He liked to have live actors and ghost and skeleton props interact with the audience during showings of his films.  You always got a little more than you bargained for at a William Castle production and we will cover more of his "spookshow" antics in later posts when we discuss films in which he used these tricks.  This film, Bug, came out later, after the Spookshow productions were a thing of the past. 

I qualify this as a Dusty Mustie because it had great insect effects with live bugs and it was done way before CGI could be of any use.  Also because few people know of this movie, partially I think, because it opened at the same time as Jaws and of course it got killed at the box office.  Jaws gobbled up competitors just like swimmers and this little jewel slipped away and was forgotten.

It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc (yes--spelled correctly), who while not a household name, directed 19 episodes of Rod Serling's Night Gallery and the movies Jaws 2, Supergirl, and the underated Somewhere In Time.  At the age of 71, he still directs on TV and in the last few years has directed episodes of Smallville, Heroes, Cold Case, and Bones.

This movie should also be noted for a wild electronic score, suitably crazy and intense when the bugs are on screen and suprisingly smooth and relaxing during other scenes.  It was composed by Charlie Fox, the guy who wrote, "Killing Me Softly With His Song, as well as the theme songs for Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and The Love Boat.  A special shout -out to all you old silverback swingers out there:  He also wrote "Witchie-Poo's Lament" for HRPufnStuf.

The film is based on The Hesphaestus Plague by Thomas Page who co-wrote the screenplay with William Castle.  The book is considerably different from the movie and worth checking out, if you can find a copy of it.

BUG starts with a fire and brimstone sermon, "The pestilence of Babylon is everywhere" that is interupted by a terrific earthquake that completely destroys the church and splits huge crevices in the earth down at the old Tacker farm.  This fissure sends forth large cockroach looking bugs that like to crawl up the exhaust pipes of cars and trucks.  Not only do they consume carbon and ash to fuel their heat-generating abilities, the tailpipes also provide a convenient way to travel around, where they soon start setting fires everywhere: trucks, houses, cat heads, buildings, and the clothing and hair of innocent victims.

Luckily, the town is equipped with Dr. James (Jim) Parmiter, mild mannered college professor with the uncanny ability to communicate with squirrels.  Dr. Parmiter is portrayed by Bradford Dillman who would also go on to have the leading role in Piranha.  Before deciding to stick to movies about things that want to eat us, Brad won a Best Actor award in Cannes as one of the murderers in "Compulsion".  His Jim Parmiter is really the only human in the cast that can shine as bright as the fire-bugs.

JoAnn Miles plays his wife, Carrie Parmiter, and after she is killed by the bugs in the Brady Bunch kitchen (yes--The Brady Bunch was canceled a year before this movie was filming, so they used the old kitchen set from the show on the Paramount backlot.)

After her death, our boy Jim becomes more and more obssessed, crazy, and reclusive.  He gets the brillient idea to breed one of the fire-bugs with a normal house cockroach.  Not only are their offspring numerous, but  even deadlier, and they hiss.  This new batch also has a new craving: Flesh

And they are far more intelligent.  One of the creepiest scenes for me is when they destroy Jim's tape player on which he's been recording his notes.  The looping tape just keeps repeating, "I've gone too far" in Jim's horrified voice. These crafty creatures systematically set out to destroy all evidence of the experiments that created them.

As Jim sinks further and further into madness, the bugs breed again and this third batch can fly and scream, and knows how to sever phone lines.

You'll have to watch the film to continue the story and to fill in the blanks of who was killed in exploding trucks and who falls for the old "fire-bug in the phone earpiece" trick.  Check this movie out--it's far more fun than ants in your pants.

Please join us next time as we stay in the 70s filmwise, but timewise, we take a little journey down south with the original "Man With No Name" to see a creepy tale from the Civil War (War of Northern Agression).  Until then, keep your powder dry and by all means--scare yourself.