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Attack of the Crab Monsters

1957 film by Roger Corman

Attack of the Crab Monsters is a 1957 film about people who are trapped on a shrinking island with intelligent, brain-eating giant crabs.

Directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith.
From the depths of the sea... a tidal wave of terror!

Dialogue

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Martha Hunter: Jim! But, wh...
Dr. James Carson: So you heard it, too.
Martha Hunter: Yes, it was Oliver McLane's voice.
Dr. James Carson: He called me as plain as day.
Martha Hunter: Strange... because I only heard him call my name.
Dr. James Carson: How could the Navy search this whole island and miss a survivor?
Martha Hunter: If he is a survivor.
Dr. James Carson: What does that mean? You heard him as well as I.
Martha Hunter: Someone could have been imitating his voice.
Dr. James Carson: But who would do that?
Martha Hunter: I don't know, but I do know that McLane's dead!
Hank Chapman: What does it mean, Doctor?
Dr. Karl Weigand: He is dead.
Dale Drewer: But he spoke, Carl.
Hank Chapman: Is this supposed to be a ghost story?:
Dr. Karl Weigand: No. No, I do not believe in ghosts. We are dealing with a man who is dead, but whose voice and memory live. How this can be I do not know, but its implications are far more terrible than any ghost could ever be.
Martha Hunter: Doctor, you're not going to suggest that we save it for science? That would be suicide!
Dr. Karl Weigand: No, thank you, Martha. I have no ambition toward becoming a mad scientist, but I do think we ought to try and capture the thing. Would you not like to examine a live specimen?
Martha Hunter: Certainly I would, but I had a chance to see how the "specimen" examined the lab wall last night.
Dr. Karl Weigand: Any matter, therefore, that the crab eats will be assimilated in its body as solid energy, becoming part of the crab.
Martha Hunter: Like the bodies of the dead men?
Dr. Karl Weigand: Yes - and their brain tissue, which, after all, is nothing more than a storage house for electrical impulses.
Dale Drewer: That means that the crab can eat his victim's brain, absorbing his mind intact and working.
Dr. Karl Weigand: It's as good a theory as any other to explain what's happened.
Martha Hunter: But, Doctor, that theory doesn't explain why Jules' and Carson's minds have turned against us.
Dale Drewer: Preservation of the species. Once they were men; now they are land crabs.

About

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  • Roger came to me and said, 'I want to make a picture called 'Attack of the Giant Crabs,' and I asked, 'Does it have to be atomic radiation?' He responded, 'Yes.' He said it was an experiment. 'I want suspense or action in every scene. No kind of scene without suspense or action.' His trick was saying it was an experiment, which it wasn't. He just didn't want to bother cutting out the other scenes, which he would do.
  • I had just read 'The Silent World' by Jacques Cousteau and found it to be new and exciting. So when that picture came along, I wrote all the underwater stuff and went to Roger and told him I’d direct all the underwater parts for $100. He said 'okay.' If I had just asked, he would have said 'no.' I had to put it in a way that he would jump at. So I directed all that stuff and it was rather funny. I’d be down at the bottom of the tank at Marineland trying to get actors to do something while (director of photography) Floyd Crosby was hammering at the glass window trying to get them to do something else. It was all pretty silly.

Cast

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