27 replies to this topic

[Attempting Re-entry]

I actually don't have a problem with the tarantula scene - it scared me as a kid in the 1980's when I first saw the movie, and it still gives me the creeps now.

One thing I was wondering, though...is the tarantula supposed to have been injected with poison or some such...? It's my understanding that a regular tarantula bite wouldn't kill a human being; the bite would be somewhat akin to a sore wasp or bee sting?

Further to this, would the audience in the 1960's have known this about the tarantula's fairly innocuous (or so I'm told) bite? Or would the audience have simply assumed that the bite would be venemous and that Bond would be in big trouble if bitten?

I have every sympathy with Bond's reaction - I would probably have died from fright in such a situation...but would a worldly man such as Bond really be so shaken by an encounter with a tarantula?

Edited by Attempting Re-entry, 23 March 2010 - 12:26 PM.

[RJJB]

Even worldly people can be bothered by a huge arachnid crawling on them.
See, I'm "worldly" enough to say arachnid, instead of bug, and I'd still be scared of one of them crawling on me.

[Lachesis]

I guess its just one of those things the audience has to percieve as being 'deadly' either natively or via some enhanced venom...a tiny Black/Brown Widow is not really so cinematic and a Funnelweb would probably not be recognised etc. If it made you recoil or wince it did its job methinks ^^.

I think there was an early Hollywood deception/conspiracy of selling Tarantula's as deadly but the more they appeared the more people took the trouble to see if it was true. The added benefit is the ability of a large hairy spider to draw a real look of terror from an actor, I always recall Christopher Lee in Hammer's 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles heh I think even the fake spider gave him palpertations, in that story it was idenitfied that Tarantulas weren't in themselves deadly unless the victim had a weak heart etc.

[Attempting Re-entry]

I always recall Christopher Lee in Hammer's 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles heh I think even the fake spider gave him palpertations, in that story it was idenitfied that Tarantulas weren't in themselves deadly unless the victim had a weak heart etc.

Great movie; I remember that part, too.

Thanks for the responses guys.

[Hotwinds]

Even today but especially in 1962 we were not as educated as we are now so people took it for granted that the sting will kill him.
In the 1960s we had few programs that talked about nature etc.
When a National Geographic or Jacques Cousteau program came on it was very exiting and the only time you would get educated on the world that way.
There was also a weekly 1/2 hour show called Wild Kingdom.

I actually don't have a problem with the tarantula scene - it scared me as a kid in the 1980's when I first saw the movie, and it still gives me the creeps now.

One thing I was wondering, though...is the tarantula supposed to have been injected with poison or some such...? It's my understanding that a regular tarantula bite wouldn't kill a human being; the bite would be somewhat akin to a sore wasp or bee sting?

Further to this, would the audience in the 1960's have known this about the tarantula's fairly innocuous (or so I'm told) bite? Or would the audience have simply assumed that the bite would be venemous and that Bond would be in big trouble if bitten?

I have every sympathy with Bond's reaction - I would probably have died from fright in such a situation...but would a worldly man such as Bond really be so shaken by an encounter with a tarantula?

[O.H.M.S.S.]

I think it's a very creepy scene, I really don't like spiders.

[General G.]

[BryanHerbert]

The spider was never on Sean, they had a piece of Plexiglases diving the spider from sean connery, you can barely notice it in the film but i could tell the way the spider moved and how sean was moving his arm and the spider wasn't moving.

[David_M]

Well of course Fleming wrote it as a centipede, but that wouldn't be nearly so cinematic, film audiences having been long conditioned to fear arachnids of any size.

As for Bond's reaction, I rather like the idea that he holds it together long enough to get through the situation and then goes to throw up. In fact, I imagine that would be the key to surviving a great deal of what 007 goes through; keep cool now, freak out later when the danger's past. Not that having your hero throw up after every crisis is particularly cinematic either, mind you.

[BryanHerbert]

I would definitely freak out if i woke up with a huge- tarantula crawling up my body.

[Zorin Industries]

And I would really freak out if there was some plexiglass and a make up girl stood over me too....

[MkB]

Well of course Fleming wrote it as a centipede, but that wouldn't be nearly so cinematic, film audiences having been long conditioned to fear arachnids of any size.

As for Bond's reaction, I rather like the idea that he holds it together long enough to get through the situation and then goes to throw up. In fact, I imagine that would be the key to surviving a great deal of what 007 goes through; keep cool now, freak out later when the danger's past. Not that having your hero throw up after every crisis is particularly cinematic either, mind you.

That's an interesting point, David_M!

First, about the move from the centipede to the spider, I wonder if there is not some sort of symbolic reason there. The centipede is a sort of phallic symbol, whereas the spider symbolises women (at least according to some crazy shrinks). In the novel, some parts of the centipede episode can be read as some sort symbolic fear of penetration. Maybe it wasn't to the taste of the producers?

On a totally unrelated note, about Bond holding it together then throwing up, I had never thought he was sick because of the past danger, but because he had just crushed a giant centipede, which must certainly make for a most disgusting scene.

[Mr. Blofeld]

There was also a weekly 1/2 hour show called Wild Kingdom.

Mutual of Omaha; the best!

"Oh, no; the launching mechanism has misfired, and Jim is trapped inside the net with the enraged wildebeest, while I observe from a vantage point high in a nearby banyan tree. Fortunately, the ever-resourceful Jim is able to keep his spleen from leaking out of his rectum by fashioning a tourniquet from some bungee cords and a handful of anteater dung. As we see in this footage, later in the safari, Jim is mauled and sodomized by a rabid 600-pound silverback gorilla, while I monitor the action anxiously from a strategic observation post, just outside a titty bar in downtown Johannesburg. You know, friends, whether you're injured at work or in a car accident, or you're having your lower intestine ripped out of your groin by a pack of starving hyenas, it always pays to have insurance from the good folks at Mutual of Omaha..."

[Sark2.0]

I think it's a very creepy scene, I really don't like spiders.

You couldn't hate this spider

[David_M]

I don't know that the Freudian stuff played into it so much. More likely it was a case of people not knowing a centipede could kill, but thinking (however erroneously) that a tarantula could. Rather than add a whole scene where you have to explain it all ("Well, you see, the bite of this centipede is fatal...") they just catered to people's natural aversion to spiders.

Plus I imagine it would be even harder to "wrangle" a centipede than a spider. How would you train one to crawl the direction you wanted?

In any event, glass sheet or not, it was pretty sporting of Connery to do this scene. What do you want to bet that if they'd asked him to do it a few films down the line, he'd have told them to sod off?

[General G.]

William Shatner in KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977). No plexiglass...



For one scene, they spirit-gummed a live tarantula to his face.

Edited by General G., 24 March 2010 - 03:09 PM.

[Daddy Bond]

Connery should have been a real man and let a real spider crawl on his arm.

[General G.]

Yeah, Shatner was certainly a trouper... especially in those lean years between the end of the "Star Trek" TV series and the start of the movie franchise.

[Attempting Re-entry]

Yeah, I watched Kingdom of the Spiders recently and it was pretty traumatic for an arachnophobe such as myself. Apparently Shatner suffered a hell of a lot of bites during the filming of the movie's climax.

Edited by Attempting Re-entry, 25 March 2010 - 09:32 AM.

[David_M]

Awesome! Let's see Chuck Norris do THAT stunt!

Further proof that it's Shatner's universe; we just live in it.

[Judo chop]

In any event, glass sheet or not, it was pretty sporting of Connery to do this scene. What do you want to bet that if they'd asked him to do it a few films down the line, he'd have told them to sod off?

Well, he did get in that tank with the shark a few films later.

And then, many films later in fact, he did do that sex scene with Barbara Carrera.

[Hotwinds]

Yep that sounds just like the show I remember!
LOL

There was also a weekly 1/2 hour show called Wild Kingdom.

Mutual of Omaha; the best!

"Oh, no; the launching mechanism has misfired, and Jim is trapped inside the net with the enraged wildebeest, while I observe from a vantage point high in a nearby banyan tree. Fortunately, the ever-resourceful Jim is able to keep his spleen from leaking out of his rectum by fashioning a tourniquet from some bungee cords and a handful of anteater dung. As we see in this footage, later in the safari, Jim is mauled and sodomized by a rabid 600-pound silverback gorilla, while I monitor the action anxiously from a strategic observation post, just outside a titty bar in downtown Johannesburg. You know, friends, whether you're injured at work or in a car accident, or you're having your lower intestine ripped out of your groin by a pack of starving hyenas, it always pays to have insurance from the good folks at Mutual of Omaha..."

[Conlazmoodalbrocra]

And I would really freak out if there was some plexiglass and a make up girl stood over me too....

It was 1962 Zorin, cut them some slack. A CGI spider just wasn't possible.

[DaveBond21]

I once had a cockroach crawl over my face in Malaysia.


Disgusting, yes.


But not dangerous.

[DR76]

Are you speaking of the tarantula that looked as if it was crawling across a sheet of glass, instead of Connery's arm?

[B. Brown]

I actually don't have a problem with the tarantula scene - it scared me as a kid in the 1980's when I first saw the movie, and it still gives me the creeps now.

One thing I was wondering, though...is the tarantula supposed to have been injected with poison or some such...? It's my understanding that a regular tarantula bite wouldn't kill a human being; the bite would be somewhat akin to a sore wasp or bee sting?

Further to this, would the audience in the 1960's have known this about the tarantula's fairly innocuous (or so I'm told) bite? Or would the audience have simply assumed that the bite would be venemous and that Bond would be in big trouble if bitten?

I have every sympathy with Bond's reaction - I would probably have died from fright in such a situation...but would a worldly man such as Bond really be so shaken by an encounter with a tarantula?

They never actually mention in the film whether or not it's a tarantula, IIRC.

While it looks like one, I think it could also double as (if the audience would be bothered to use their imagination) a mysterious, deadly spider.

And if it were crawling on me in the middle of the night, I'd be a bit startled myself.

[dunmall]

Agreed as far as the audience is concerned "bloody great big spider = DANGER" hell I see huntsman spiders which are harmless on my ceiling occasions and get a shock, I know it can't hurt me but it doesn't stop that deep seeded human fear of spiders from coming to the fore.

As for Connery and the glass, well is the man an arachnophobe (sp??)? One of the women I work with can not even look at a photograph of a spider let alone go near one, if Connery had the same problem I can perfectly understand him wanting some distance between him and the spider and obviously this was the best way to do it and still make it look like the spider was on him.

As for the change from the novel, again I agree a spider is more cinematic than a centipede.

[Nic]

I see there's a thread here called "Bondian things I've done", and one of the few Bondian things I have done is kill a scorpion in my hotel rome in Italy, rather like Bond and the tarantula in Dr No. The main diiference is I didn't throw up! But mind you, I didn't have it crawling up my naked body under the sheets, as the centepede in the book did, or up my bare chest as with Connery! I let house spiders run up my arm, so I don't think I would mind a tarantula, they move a lot slower.