The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

The Giant Gila Monster is a 1959 horror film directed by Ray Kellog starring Fred Graham.

Plot
The movie opens with a young couple, Pat Wheeler (Grady Vaughn) and Liz Humphries (Yolansa Salas), parked in a bleak, rural locale overlooking a ravine. A giant gila monster attacks the car, sending it into the ravine and killing the couple. Later, some friends of the couple decide to assist the local sheriff (Fred Graham) in his search for the missing teens. Chase Winstead (Sullivan), a young mechanic and hot rod racer, locates the crashed car in the ravine and finds evidence of the giant lizard. However, it is only when the hungry reptile attacks a train (a model train set substituted as a low-budget effect) that the authorities realize they are dealing with a (roughly) 70-foot poisonous lizard. By this time, emboldened by its attacks and hungry for prey, the creature attacks the town. It heads for the local dance hall, where the town's teenagers are gathered for a sock hop. However, Chase packs his prized hot rod with nitroglyerin and rigs it to speed straight into the monster, terminating the lizard in a fiery explosion and heroically saving the town.

Cast

 * Don Sullivan as Chase Winstead
 * Fred Graham as Sheriff Jeff
 * Lisa Simone as Lisa
 * Shug Fisher as Old Man Harris
 * Bob Thompson as Mr. Wheeler


 * Janice Stone as Missy Winstead
 * Ken Knox as Steamroller Smith
 * Gay McLendon as Mom Winstead
 * Don Flournoy as Gordy
 * Cecil Hunt as Mr. Compton
 * Stormy Meadows as Agatha Humphries
 * Howard Ware as Ed Humphries
 * Pat Reeves as Rick
 * Jan McLendon as Jennie
 * Jerry Cortwright as Bob
 * Beverly Thurman as Gay
 * Grady Vaughn as Pat Wheeler
 * Desmond Doogh as Hitchhiker
 * Anna Sonka as Whila
 * Yolanda Salas as Liz Humphries
 * Patrícia Simmons as Sherry (uncredited)
 * Angus G. Wynne III as Dumb Teen (uncredited)

List of deaths
List of deaths in the film, The Giant Gila Monster
 * Pat Wheeler - Giant Gila Monster
 * Liz Humphries - Giant Gila Monster
 * Mr. Winstead - N/A
 * Hitchhicer - Giant Gila Monster
 * Mr. Compton - Giant Gila Monster
 * Train Conductor - Giant Gila Monster
 * Mrs. Blackwell - Giant Gila Monster
 * Giant Gila Monster - Chase Winstead

Home media
Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack DVD box set, The Giant Gila Monster as The Killer Shrews by Legend Films.