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Snakes in Movies |
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Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962) |
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Spoiler Alert !
Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.
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This is a silly low-budget B-movie parody of an alien invasion movie with a brief comic snake scene. The "star creatures" are two tall extraterrestrial women dressed in bullet bras, short shorts, high heels, and wavy perms. Two foolish soldiers named Penn and Philbrick who are abducted by the aliens call them seven-foot-tall "space Amazons," "space dames," and "space broads." The women tell them that they are scientists from a planet 600 million light years away who have been on Earth for ten years trying to find out if it's a good place for the people of their planet to move to. They use hilariously-costumed "Veg-men" - indestructible telepathic plant creatures grown in pots - for their security and menial labor.
The snake scene is totally unnecessary to the plot. We have already seen some comic scenes with klutzy soldiers, and the snake scene is just a continuation of that comedy. It happens before we know about the alien chorus girls. We see a group of soldiers stationed at a missile base marching towards the cave the space broads inhabit. The lead soldier is holding a geiger counter to detect radiation levels because they are entering an area where a nuclear bomb was detonated. As they march comically forward and backwards, as if they're in a conga line, we hear quirky music and the loud sounds of a rattlesnake rattle. Their sergeant, who is a jive-talking hipster, stops them and talks to the lead soldier:
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Sergeant: "Wait a minute, wait a minute.
What's that geiger counter reading, daddy? What kind of rhythm you getting?"
Soldier: "Nothing sergent."
Sergeant: "What's that buzzing jazz, then...?"
Soldier: "Probably that rattlesnake you're stepping on." |
Sergeant: "Oh yeah... snake! aah!" |
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[Rattlesnake rattling sounds] |
[The soldier shoots his handgun at the snake.] |
Sergeant: "Hey, like I mean, like like what are you doing, like wow!"
Soldier: "I killed him!"
Sergeant: "You came on like gangbusters. He might have bit me. You're all right!"
Soldier: "I never killed anything before." |
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Sergeant: "You saved my life!
Don't that mean nothin?" |
Soldier: "They gave me a gun. I'm not a killer. Why? Why, why did it have to be this way? I didn't even know him." |
Sergeant: "Turn it off killer, it was only a snake. What's wrong with killing a snake?"
Soldier: "He might have had a family." |
The rattlesnake is a Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake, but it's just a library shot inserted into the film. We don't see anyone near it and we don't even see the gun fire.
You can watch the whole movie and read more about it at SilverScream.com. The snake scene starts at about 13:24.
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