Lisa's Home Bijou: 
"Beginning of the End" 

by Lisa Grable


AFTER THE bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Americans felt 
curiosity, awe, and fear about atomic energy and radiation. The terrible 
destructive power of the atom was apparent, but scientists were promising 
benefits, as well. It was all so confusing and scary, and Hollywood took full 
advantage of these fears in making hundreds of science fiction films during 
the 1950s. 

In 1957's "Beginning of the End," like in so many other sci-fi films of this 
era, a radiation experiment goes awry. 

"Beginning of the End" opens as two teens are parked in a drive in movie in 
Ludlow, Illinois, 25 miles from Champaign. The radio is blaring bebop music 
and some serious necking is going on. Suddenly the girl screams as she sees 
something above the car. 

Cut to the police investigating the remains of the teens' mangled car. The 
officers radio in a report in which "foul play is suspected." When they go to 
check out Ludlow, they discover that the whole town is gone -- no people are 
there at all.

A woman drives up to a military roadblock outside of Ludlow. She's our 
intrepid heroine, Audrey Ames (Peggie Castle), ace photographer for the 
National Wire Service. The military won't allow her through the barricades to 
see Ludlow so she drives her two-tone convertible right through the roadblock. 
Audrey is apprehended and her camera confiscated. She goes to the neighboring 
town of Paxton to see the commanding officer about getting her camera back. He 
reveals that 150 people in Ludlow have vanished without a trace. There, Audrey 
meets Colonel Tom Sturgeon (Morris Ankrum) who is busy interviewing possible 
witnesses.

Audrey has a big box in her car which allows her to make wireless phone calls. 
She calls the head of her wire service in New York, who tells her that the US 
Department of Agriculture is conducting an experimental project in the Ludlow 
area using radioactive materials. She decides to check it out. 

What she finds at the experimental lab is worth her visit. Audrey sees 
enormous plants -- strawberries as big as volleyballs, tomatoes three feet 
across. At the lab she meets Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves), the director of the 
station, and his assistant Frank, who cannot hear or speak as the result of a 
lab accident. Ed tells Audrey of his hopes for the experiments he's conducting 
for the good of agriculture. He also tells her about some of the problems 
they've encountered: It seems that pests, such as snails, beetles, and 
grasshoppers, have gotten into the sheds and eaten some of the radioactive 
plants and plant food.

Ed and Frank agree to assist Audrey with her Ludlow report. Audrey's a smart 
cookie and knows that having scientists on her team could be very helpful (not 
to mention that Ed is handsome.) When she gets permission to photograph 
Ludlow, she finds that the whole town has been flattened and all the 
vegetation is gone, from the ground to the treetops. She learns that a grain 
warehouse was similarly flattened three months earlier so she drives there 
with Ed and Frank to investigate. They find no vegetation anywhere around and 
no insects, either. Suddenly Ed and Audrey hear loud, high frequency chirping. 
A giant locust comes over a hill and eats poor deaf Frank, who never hears him 
coming.

It's now up to Ed and Audrey to go back to Paxton and convince Colonel Tom 
Sturgeon of the terrible danger. The locust that ate Frank had to be at least 
eight feet tall, and Ed knows from the chirping that there must be two or 
three hundred of these "vicious, merciless killers" out there. Ed explains to 
Colonel Sturgeon that the locusts must have gotten into the radioactive plant 
food at his experimental station. The colonel despatches men into the 
countryside to search for the locusts.


Soldier 1 - "You know grasshoppers are good eating."
Soldier 2 - "Yeah? Mustard or ketchup?"
Soldier 1 - "No kidding, I ate 'em once, down in Mexico."
Soldier 2 - "Well, you better watch your step, they're liable to get even."
Guardsmen quickly discover that bullets are useless against the overgrown 
locusts. Ed and Audrey now have to convince the US Army that the problem is 
too big for the Illinois National Guard. As the voracious monsters close in on 
Chicago, the science details and special effects of Bert Gordon become the 
focus of the film. See Ed use an oscilloscope and amplifier to find the 
correct frequency for the locust call. Feel the suspense as the Army decides 
whether to drop an atomic bomb on the Windy City. And experience a classic 
King Kong moment, as a locust climbs up the side of a building and breaks a 
window to eat a beauty wrapped in a towel. 

"Beginning of the End" is a film that effectively captures the paranoia about 
atomic research in the post-war era. Audrey, as opposed to earlier sci-fi and 
horror film heroines, breaks ground in a role as a strong, independent career 
girl, not just a pretty face hired to scream and faint. It's great fun to see 
Bert Gordon's tricks with his all-male cast of insects, imported to California 
from Waco, Texas. American International Films restricted him to a tight 
budget, but he created memorable movie magic for science fiction fans. 

(http://www.retroactive.com/dec98/begofend.html)