Giant Gila Monster

Science-fiction-film historian Bill Warren once described The Giant Gila Monster as looking like a monster movie made by people who'd never seen a monster movie before. Admittedly, this Texas-filmed melodrama is rough going at times, but it does hold a perverse appeal for aficionados of truly bad cinema. Most of the plot is given over to a group of hot-rod enthusiasts, headed by nice-guy Chace Winstead (Don Sullivan), who sometimes breaks into song. Before long, the titular gila monster, which is just that -- a real gila monster -- is lumbering about on miniaturized sets terrorizing the community, killing at random, knocking over trains and barns, and in general making a nuisance of itself. The monster nearly devours Chace's kid sister before Our Hero dispatches the beast with a hot rod full of nitroglycerin. The Giant Gila Monster was originally released on a double bill with the superior-by-default The Killer Shrews.