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Beginning of the End

Peter Graves (Actor), Peggie Castle (Actor), Bert I. Gordon (Director) Rated:

Unrated

Format: DVD

191

IMDb3.9/10.0

$30.86

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January 23, 2001

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April 20, 2010

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Format	NTSC, Multiple Formats, Black & White, Widescreen
Contributor	Hylton Socher, James Seay, Morris Ankrum, Than Wyenn, Fred Freiberger, Eilene Janssen, Larry J. Blake, Richard Benedict, Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, John Close, Lester Gorn, Thomas Browne Henry, Bert I. Gordon, Don C. Harvey See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 16 minutes

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Product Description

Crops thrive on irradiated soil, thanks to the U.S. government, but so do grasshoppers.

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ Unrated (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.7 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ HEN4120DVD
Director ‏ : ‎ Bert I. Gordon
Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Multiple Formats, Black & White, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 16 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ April 20, 2010
Actors ‏ : ‎ Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, Morris Ankrum, Than Wyenn, Thomas Browne Henry
Studio ‏ : ‎ Henstooth Video
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00358MG8S
Writers ‏ : ‎ Fred Freiberger, Lester Gorn
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #120,109 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #4,493 in Horror (Movies & TV)

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191

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4.5 out of 5

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Amazon Customer

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024

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Hilarious movie

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M. Bellows

This MST 3K is really good

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024

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I love campy science fiction movies. This one has giant locusts. It’s great

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Claude Avary

A fine episode of MST3K...next time on "Biography."

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2004

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"I'm Peter Graves. This week on Biography, the story of how I defeated a horde of radioactive mutant grasshoppers who invaded Chicago."
"The Beginning of the End" (episode #517) is a typical episode from the Mike Nelson years of the classic TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000": in other words, it's hysterical, satiric, and pop-culturally sharp from beginning to end (even when the End is just Beginning!). The movie itself isn't horrendously awful -- certainly not on the level of some other flicks screened on the program, like "Eegah!" and "Manos: The Hands of Fate." But it is the perfect kind of stuffy, quickly slapped together "B" Atomic horror movie of the 50s that people associate so closely with the show. And at this point Mike and the `Bots were firing on all cylinders, and the comedy is non-stop. Mike had only recently taken over the role as host from Joel Hodgson, and it is with this episode that he finally seems completely at ease with his role.
If you're unfamiliar with this amazing comedy show (known as "MST3K" to fans), here's what you need to know: a human (Mike Nelson or Joel Hodgson) and his two mechanized pals, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, appear in a silhouette of a theater seats projected in front of a bad movie. The three hosts provide sidesplitting commentary to the film, filled with popular culture references and smart-aleck bitterness. The movie-watching sequences are occasionally interrupted with comedic sketches and musical numbers, making for an all-encompassing comedic experience: a humorous puppet-show sitcom with cynical wisecracks that turn rotten movies into fabulous entertainment.
"The Beginning of the End" was released in 1957 by independent director-effects technician Bert I. Gordon, who rivaled Roger Corman in this period as the top creator of `B' science-fiction cheapies. Gordon was obviously trying to copy the success of the classic giant-ant movie "Them!", only with giant grasshoppers instead. The film's tagline is a classic of ridiculous overstatement: "So Big...we had to coin a new words for it...NEWMENDOUS!" It's all downhill from there, folks.
Peter Graves plays the stock scientist character who discovers that the recent vanishing of an Illinois town was caused by giant locusts, who mutated after they consumed some of his radioactive-treated plants in his laboratory (good one, Peter!). He and perky female reporter Peggie Castle try to warn the military in time, but soon the flightless locust plague descends on Chicago. Can anything stop them? Well, yes, since they're obviously just normal-sized grasshoppers optically matted over the footage, an effect that never looks good and lacks the magic and fun of stop-motion or suitmation techniques. Some of the effects are unbelievably rotten, such as the scenes of grasshoppers climbing Chicago "buildings" that are obviously just postcards or large photographs with real grasshoppers walking on them (the grasshoppers keep "stepping off" the building). The MST3K boys have great fun with this gag, doing a sketch where they have grasshoppers attack various postcards: Oldenberg IN, The Beatles, Earl Hines, etc. Graves manages to do very little in the movie except tell the military all the things they CAN'T do, instead of offering any real suggestions.
The wisecracks are great, as usual for this season of the show. It's especially fun listening to them make cracks about Peter Graves as host of "Biography," Albert Glasser's hysterically overblown musical score, and the grasshoppers `touring' Chicago. ("Hey, we're in the famous Loop now, Harry!") Between segements, Crow puts on a play based on Peter Graves's life at the University of Minnesota, all done in his "Biography" voice ("I'm Peter Graves, and I'm in the right class.")
As a dubious `bonus,' you can watch the un-cut version of the film on the flip side of the disc. Well, it's not that awful a film, but there isn't any reason to watch it without the MST3K commentary once you've experienced the comedy and laughs of this all-around fine episode. Recommended for newcomers and long-time fans alike. It's typical of the show during the excellent fifth season and shows Mike easing into his new role and the program format changing toward its more sharp-tongued and fast-moving later seasons.

9 people found this helpful

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Pete Morgan

The One I Was Missing...

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2021

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I always get this episode confused with 'The Giant Mantis'. I thought this had been released in a boxed set through Rhino or Shout Factory, but I was wrong. Not even the 'Singles Collection' released a few years included it. But now I got it, and the collection is a little more complete.
This is an all around great episode. The movie it your standard 1950s giant atomic monster flick, with the low-budget flair that only Bert I. Gordon can deliver.
Peter Graves gives a grave performance as an etymologist toying with atomic energy. "How could this go wrong?!"
The real icing on the cake is the "visual effect" they utilized to make it look as if the giant locusts are climbing the Wrigley Building.
Great host segments, too. This is Mike's 5th episode hosting (in order by air date) and he doesn't miss a beat.
No special features on the disk, but it does include the uncut version of the movie for when you've watched everything else you could possibly watch and need to watch SOMETHING.

2 people found this helpful

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David R. Hamrin

Giant Grasshoppers return near original version!

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2010

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If you're from Joliet, Illinois, you have to admire any film in which a General is handed a telegram informing him that Joliet has been destroyed by giant grasshoppers. Finding this film on DVD for under $50 has been impossible for many years, so it's great to pick it up for under $20. This version has some great extras, but lovers of the film may notice that three minutes have been clipped out, particularly the very beginning where about a minute was spent waiting for the police car headlights to arrive (well pointed-out by MSFT3000). The results are a slightly better edited version, but still a departure from the original.

4 people found this helpful

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Magnifying Glass

Could Have Been Better

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2010

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Along a long stretch of straight country road in eastern Illinois there is a clump of trees amid the farm fields where the teens like to park late at night. On one particularly warm summer evening after midnight, a single car is parked there with a teenage couple engaged in the usual closed-eyed necking. The top is down and the radio is blaring the latest doo-wop. The boy's mother probably thinks the new music is repulsive; it is too bad the insects don't find it so. The girl opens her eyes, looks up, and screams. The boy only has a moment left to wonder, look up, and ...

The next day, a reporter, driving south from Chicago, encounters a road block manned by the Illinois National Guard. Her assignment was to get a story on a new aircraft at Chanute Field, but sensing a story behind the road block, she stops to inquire. The tight-lipped guard tells her nothing. She drives out-of-sight, parks, and foots it over the hill and finds a mystery ...

Later that day, she drives out to an Illinois agricultural experimental station, meets the project director, and convinces him to take her out to a grain elevator that, six months before, had been mysteriously destroyed as if by a tornado. While searching through the rubble for remaining grains of wheat, one of the researchers belatedly discovers that they should have placed screens around their experiments back at the station ...

This is a low budget movie with a very thin script. A better movie of this type is 'Them!'

Special note to aviation buffs: there is a very short shot of a flying B-36 bomber.

Picture (DVD): 3.5.

One person found this helpful

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Stanley T. Allen

Blast from the Past

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2013

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I remember this movie scaring me to death when I saw it at the tender age of 9. Fifty years later it still astonishes me that with very little in the ways of "special effects" this movie stands the test of time. Looking at it niow I realize that the grasshoppers were super-imposed or however they did it but to me it is still a classic.

It stands th etest of time along with such greats as "War of the Worlds", THEM, It- The Terror from Beyond Space and many more.

I would recommend it for anyone who is a true Sci-Fi fan!

2 people found this helpful

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Tony Byworth

Giant grasshoppers threaten the world

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2016

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A town is wiped out, journalist Peggy Castle investigates, army general Morris Ankrum gets the troops moving and botany scientist Peter Graves finds the solution to save the world (or, here, Chicago) from destruction.

Director Bert I. Gordon – known affectionately as “Mr. Big” because of his liking to make giant bug movies – did it again with “The Beginning Of The End”, this time giant grasshoppers and handled with the same low budget finesse as his other movies. Actually this one appears to have slightly better special superimposing effects than earlier productions like “King Dinosaur”, though fall flat in a scene when the creatures climb up a skyscraper (in fact, normal sized grasshoppers moving over a photograph!). Bruce Kimmel, providing an amusing soundtrack commentary with Gordon’s wife Flora and daughter Susan, calls this effect “a neat idea which you couldn’t get away with today” while also spending time enthusing over Ms. Castle).

Although several notches below the standards and budgets of, say, “Them”, "The Monster That Challenged the World" and Ray Harryhauswen productions, “The Beginning Of The End” remains an enjoyable contribution to the prolific 1950’s sci-fi/monster genre.

2 people found this helpful

Daran Paige

Love it!

Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2013

Verified Purchase

Any B-movie fan would be thrilled to have this classic! Peter Graves (way before "Mission:Impossible") doing battle with giant mutated grasshoppers! It's a beautiful thing and hard to find anywhere.

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