Ask Bill Rebane what he thinks of his magnum opus, The Giant Spider Invasion, and he's likely as not to call it "The Giant Spider Disaster," for all the production headaches he endured in its making. It is the kind of film that brings out former TV stars like Alan Hale, the Skipper from Gilligan's Island, and Barbara Hale, Perry Mason's secretary Della, and puts them alongside actresses whose sole task is to take their tops off. That would be Diane Lee Hart, as jailbait teen Terry.

Robert Easton, who plays farmer Dan in the movie and helped write the script, was a strange kind of actor. He coached actors like Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck. He provided voices for Gerry Anderson's sci-fi series Stingray (1964). He appears in The Red Badge of Courage (1951), The Loved One (1965), and Paint Your Wagon (1969). And, he taught writing at the University of California. We're talking about a serious person here. So, he comes onto The Giant Spider Invasion as a script doctor and proceeds to write himself a role as a sleazy sex-obsessed crooked cow rancher in a back brace who puts the moves on his own sister-in-law!

One of the first scenes Easton wrote for himself highlights his tense, hostile relationship with drunken wife Ev (played by onetime Golden Globe nominee Leslie Parrish). She asks him what the revival's sermon was about, and he answers, "Sin." Ev asks, "What did the minister say about it?" "He was against it," is Dan's reply. Or rather, that was President Calvin Coolidge's reply, as the entire exchange is a famous quotation from the legendary "Silent Cal."

With stuff like this, Easton and Parrish very nearly steal The Giant Spider Invasion from its titular monsters and top-billed cast. Eventually, these greedy bastards get their moral comeuppance at the mandibles of some giant arachnids, leaving the screen's central place for Steve Brodie, one of director Rebane's buddies and a veteran of even worse B-movie garbage. A man with The Wild Wild World of Batwoman (1966) and Frankenstein's Island (1981) on his CV has to forfeit something in the dignity department.

As a friend of Rebane's, Brodie surely knew what was coming. Rebane's illustrious career as a filmmaker has gifted the world with such treasures as Invasion from Inner Earth (1974) in which spooky red lights attack! Then there's The Capture of Bigfoot (1979), the title speaks for itself. Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake (1975) involves a frog-man living in a Midwestern lake, while The Demons of Ludlow (1983) depicts a demon that has possessed an antique piano! Monster A Go-Go (1965) starred the world's tallest man as a monster, while Tiny Tim popped up in Blood Harvest (1987) as "Marvelous Mervo." Rebane keeps busy today writing novels which he sells through his own web site.

by David Kalat

Sources:
Dave Coleman, Interview with Bill Rebane, Bijouflix.com
Gene Dorsogna, "The Spider Was a Beetle, or: Pardon Me But Your Chassis is Showing," Horror-Wood.com
Bill Rebane, BillRebaneNews.com
John Thonen, "Bill Rebane's Giant Spider Invasion," Mania.com
Cory J. Udler, "Reliving the Invasion," video documentary.