Movies

In the 1950s and early ’60s, Bert I. Gordon's monster movies were perfect for drive-in theaters, where audiences took in wildly improbable plots, silly dialogue and crude special effects.

nytimes.com
Bert I. Gordon, Auteur of Mutant Monster Movies, Dies at 100
Despite low budgets and years of mostly negative reviews, he gained a cult following for his giant villains, homemade effects and preposterous plotlines.

Bert I. Gordon, Auteur of Mutant Monster Movies, Dies at 100

Despite low budgets and years of mostly negative reviews, he gained a cult following for his giant villains, homemade effects and preposterous plotlines.



From left, Basil Rathbone, Estelle Winwood and Bert I. Gordon on the set of “The Magic Sword” (1962), one of the first of the roughly 25 films Mr. Gordon produced, directed and often wrote.Credit...Everett Collection

By Robert D. McFadden
March 8, 2023

Bert I. Gordon, the professed king of the monster movies whose B pictures featured giant rats, giant spiders, giant grasshoppers, giant chickens, a colossal man and 30-foot teenagers laying waste to everything in sight, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 100. ... His daughter Patricia Gordon confirmed the death.

As anxieties over nuclear testing and the effects of radiation swept postwar America, Mr. Gordon embarked on a low-budget filmmaking odyssey that turned mutated monsters loose on the hapless world. Despite the fact that his movies featured stars like Ida Lupino and Orson Welles, and despite the eye-catching apocalyptic titles and lurid posters, he generated many flops, a few minor hits and largely negative reviews. He also generated a cult following.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, his monster movies were perfect for drive-in theaters, where audiences took in wildly improbable plots, silly dialogue and crude special effects: locusts overrunning a miniature city, a gigantic rat hovering over a girl in a negligee, Ms. Lupino being eaten by vast mealworms.

Filming a movie in 10 to 15 days, using rear-projection enlargements of creatures with ordinary people in the foreground, Mr. Gordon produced, directed and often wrote about 25 films over six decades starting in 1955, most of them monster movies. Among his best known were “The Cyclops” (1957), “Village of the Giants” (1965), “Necromancy” (1972), “The Food of the Gods” (1976) and “Empire of the Ants” (1977).



A scene from “The Cyclops” (1957), one of Mr. Gordon’s best-known films.Credit...RKO Studios

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Alex Traub contributed reporting.

Robert D. McFadden is a senior writer on the Obituaries desk and the winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting. He joined The Times in May 1961 and is also the co-author of two books.

A version of this article appears in print on March 9, 2023, Section A, Page 25 of the New York edition with the headline: Bert I. Gordon, Auteur of Mutant Monster Movies, Is Dead at 100. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe