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The Killer Shrews

1959 film by Ray Kellogg

The Killer Shrews is a 1959 film about a small group of people on an isolated island who are terrorized by giant voracious shrews in the midst of a hurricane.

Directed by Ray Kellogg. Written by Ken Curtis.
They had to eat 3 times their body weight each day... OR STARVE!  (taglines)

Thorne Sherman

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  • If you have to be isolated for your work you sure picked a lonely little island.
  • Why, that's as big as a full-grown wolf!
  • Don't let their head get under! They'll flip us over!

Jerry Farrell

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  • Looks like a rat, smells like a skunk - some call them bone-eaters.

Dr. Marlowe Craigis

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  • Their available food on ze island is nearing depletion!
  • Any unusual experiment produces unusual results.

Ann Craigis

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  • You're a strange man, Thorne. I never met anyone like you. You seem so disinterested in everything. Aren't you the least bit curious? Don't you wonder about the unusual things around here? The guns. The fence. The shattered windows. My accent. Anything?

Other

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  • Narrator: Those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest and most vicious of all animals is the tiny shrew. The shrew feeds only by the dark of the moon. He must eat his own body weight every few hours - or starve. And the shrew devours everything: bones, flesh, marrow... everything. In March, first in Alaska, and then invading steadily southward, there were reports of a new species: the giant, killer shrew.
  • 'Rook' Griswold: Automatic pilot can't play Dixieland jazz on them banjos like I can!

Dialogue

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Dr. Marlowe Craigis: Well, I'm attempting to-to decrease the size by maintaining a low metabolism and result in a longer life-span.
Thorne Sherman: What reason?
Dr. Marlowe Craigis: Over-population. Not a problem now, but it will be in time. If we were half as big as we are now, we could live twice as long on our natural resources.
Dr. Marlowe Craigis: Mario was killed by poison.
Dr. Radford Baines: [with enthusiasm] Doctor, I wonder if you've thought... the system of the Sorex enabled them to assimilate that poison. It remained in the salivary glands of their jaws. Isn't that wonderful? [pauses, then remorsefully]bOh, I am sorry. Of course, I always speak from the clinical point of view.
Ann Craigis: I know, but I'm not saying you created them, Jerry. I am saying that because of your drunken stupidity in leaving the cage door open you created the horrible situation that now exists.
Jerry Farrell: Look, Ann, this is a mistake any one of us might've made. And I'm getting a little sick of being called an irresponsible drunk, now believe me I am.
Jerry Farrell: In my book engagement isn't a casual thing.
Ann Craigis: In my book it isn't either. But what happened last night ended ours.
Thorne Sherman: Where's the generator?"
Dr. Marlowe Craigis: Outside"
Ann Craigis: But this ends it. If we ever get off this island, I'll never have anything to do with it again.
Thorne Sherman: What will you do?
Ann Craigis: Live normally, like normal women do. It may seem a little dull after the life I've been living. But rather dull and alive than excited and...
Thorne Sherman: I'll take a dull, alive woman every time.
Dr. Radford Baines: [after being attacked by a poisonous shrew] Just ripped my trousers, that's all.
Dr. Marlowe Craigis: Are you sure?
Dr. Radford Baines: Yes, I know. [goes to typewriter, writes report, collapses dead]
Dr. Marlowe Craigis: In 24 hours there will be one shrew left on the island, and he will be dead of starvation. An excellent example of overpopulation.
Thorne Sherman: You know something doctor?
Dr. Marlowe Craigis: What's that?
Thorne Sherman: I'm not going to worry about overpopulation just yet. [kisses Ann]

Taglines

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  • They had to eat 3 times their body weight each day... OR STARVE!
  • "Your skin will crawl with fear at their nearness"
  • All that was left after...THE KILLER SHREWS!

Cast

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