MARA CORDAY AND RICHARD DENNING IN 'THE BLACK SCORPION'

Mara Corday in THE BLACK SCORPION Year: 1957 Rating: ***1/2

Certainly an inspiration for the 11th hour sculpture transition in BEETLEJUICE and before that, more befitting, the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creature-feature THE VALLEY OF GWANGI... 

The first for the nightmarishly creepily-creeping BLACK SCORPION and the second for a climax in a Mexico City outdoors arena, where the crowded town faces formidable danger as literal Armies fight back... 

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in The Black Scorpion with Carlos Múzquiz and Carlos Rivas

Before all that's a kind of sparse Mexico-set modern Western involving American scientist Richard Jennings, handsome Spanish adventurer Carlos Rivas and Latin scientist Carlos Múzquiz as well as a typical little-boy-who-winds-up-in-peril... and the scene-stealer is by looks alone...

Enter gorgeous brunette b-starlet Mara Corday, fresh from battling Jack Arnold's TARANTULA, arriving around the halfway mark as a resilient local and the token hookup for Dennings, who does most of the work digging into a volcano... where the scorpions have derived...

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Involving neat creeper-feature battles seeming straight from those peripheral KING KONG reptiles, which THE BLACK SCORPION itself borrows deliberately from: especially including stop-motion guru Willis H. O'Brien being in charge of the stunningly dark-lit, gothic-style special-effects...

Plus there's a familiar train-wrecking-attack sequence... and yet, unlike KONG, these characters seem busier watching the action than being thoroughly involved in the plot-line: that's actually just... already been explained.

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Willis H. O'Brien effects in BLACK SCORPION

Willis H. O'Brien effects in BLACK SCORPION

Willis H. O'Brien effects in BLACK SCORPION

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Carlos Múzquiz and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Willis H. O'Brien effects in BLACK SCORPION

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION with Carlos Rivas

Willis H. O'Brien effects in BLACK SCORPION

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Richard Denning and Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION

Willis H. O'Brien effects in BLACK SCORPION

Mara Corday in BLACK SCORPION