The Satan Bug

source: The Satan Bug

Trailer—The Satan Bug

The Satan Bug

This is still (in the 21st Century) a pretty good thriller. Maharis and Basehart are top-notch, plus Ann and Dana are very good. The plot is still very topical (as in Weapons of Mass Destruction). Would be a good remake candidate.

A great Sci-Fi movie with twists and plot changes from the beginning.I find it hard to believe that this movie was made in the 60's with it's timely topic.If you like the old-school(Fantastic Voyage,The Andromeda Strain)Sci-Fi thriller this movie won't let you down. The cast of this film are the top of their game from the start. I think the director did a excellent job in casting and presenting the plot, Never read the book but after watching the movie and reading other comments I just might. After watching the movie you may find yourself wondering if this was a topic in the 60's what other things could have gone wrong during this time period.

THE SATAN BUG is a very competent treatment of a CBW (chemical and biological warfare) nightmare scenario: Somebody steals from a Defense fortress a flask of the deadliest bugs ever developed. George Maharis is there to try to track down the baddies, as is Anne "Forbidden Planet" Francis. And prime psycho villain? Richard "Commander Nelson" Basehart! His paranoid stooge? Ed Asner! Dana Andrews is chief spook presiding over a scenario that features the end of the world accomplished not by atoms, but by microbes. For its time a very alarming and fast paced thriller.

Most of what I wanted to say about this excellent thriller has already been said by other contributors, so I won't belabour the point.The cast is excellent, although I found Dana Andrews a bit stiff.The film is consistently thrilling through out. I would like to add that I found this film very attractive to look at with its excellent use of beautiful desert locations. These location scenes seemed to have been filmed when the desert was in full bloom, and add an attractive back drop to this gloom and doom thriller. I would love to know where and what time of year these location scenes were filmed.

About Five years before the ANDROMEDA STRAIN, came THE Satan BUG, a Biological thriller with a stellar cast and background music that set the mood for a tense, exciting almost end of the world movie that I also HOPE gets its reward to remastered to DVD so others may enjoy this Classic from 1965. The cast is excellent with George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis and Dana Andrews -this thriller is non stop action and suspense and MGM just Has to release it on DVD! Its a Movie I have watched many many times and shared it with friends whom also found it to be one of those " unheard of gems" and I hope more people will catch it and maybe, just maybe MGM will finally put this beaity to DVD with lots of Extras and maybe even a 5.1 Surround sound mode! If anyone knows if this is out anywhere in DVD or plans to put it to DVD I would love to know! Best, Nicholas

The first half of this movie is really great. The mood is ominous and intercuts between the good and bad guys in a way that keeps us just slightly ahead of the characters in the movie if we watch closely. The production is not quite top-drawer, but the sets and locations are attractive and interesting, and the main cast members are solid. (I have fond memories of Anne Francis as a kid, and she still looks good to me. Maharis is cool and clever, and Basehart actually does a solid job. The sad thing is that Dana Andrews, who was a really first-class talent in his younger days, just walks through this picture; fortunately he's not onscreen very much.) The tension isn't maintained through the entire movie, but the pacing is. The showdown at the end is pretty weak. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. The laser disc version that I just saw was very clean.

Boasting a terrific title sequence and a tingling score by Jerry Goldsmith. 'The Satan Bug' is yet another film that has recently proved horribly topical (although again happily depicting a virus far more lethal than that currently assailing us). And with an aptly sardonic closing line. Based on a 1962 novel published by Alistair MacLean under the pseudonym Ian Stuart, set in autumn in a place in Wiltshire called Mordon, plainly based on Porton Down. It's here been atmospherically relocated to the elegantly designed Station Three in the Californian Desert, shown off to good effect in colour and 'scope by the Oscar-winning cameraman Robert Surtees.