Click on a picture to enlarge it

Lizards in Movies   Male and Female  (1919)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   I was very surprised to see a Gila Monster in this great Cecil B. DeMille silent movie from 1919. So far, it's the earliest appearance by a Gila Monster in a movie that I've found. (It might also be a Mexican Beaded Lizard, it's hard to see.) Lila Lee is Tweeny, a Maid, who is on a yachting trip from England to the south seas with an English Lord and his family, including a spoiled rich girl played by Gloria Swanson. The ship sinks and they all become stranded on a deserted island. (I'm pretty sure it's Catalina Island with a bunch of added fake palm trees.) Two years later the women are shooting arrows and dressing like Robin Hood and they're all living in a house with their butler in charge. When she is looking around the island for food, Tweeny looks down to see a Gila Monster crawl out from some dead palm fronds. She runs away in terror. We see a real Gila Monster crawling in the dirt. I assume it was filmed at a studio and edited into the scene later.