THE SATAN BUG
US, 1965, 114 minutes, Colour.
George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, Edward Asner, Simon Oakland.
Directed by John Sturges.
The Satan Bug is what is called a Doomsday thriller – with the touch of the apocalyptic as the population of the world could be eliminated by a deadly bug. After a robbery in a laboratory, it is thought that a bug would cause infections. However, it is later discovered that a more virulent form has been taken – the Satan Bug.
This is a race against time as the criminals try to use their bug and the military and the authorities try to stop them. Richard Basehart is the mad villain – a young Edward Asner appears as one of his cohorts. George Maharis is the hero with Dana Andrews as a general and Anne Francis as his daughter. There is a fair amount of tension generated in the film.
The film was directed by John Sturges who had made a number of standard films but in the late 1950s made The Gunfight at the OK Corral and moved on to such films as The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. This film was made soon after The Great Escape. It is based on an Alistair McLean? novel – and Alistair McLean? novels became popular in cinema from 1969 with versions of Where Eagles Dare as well as Ice Station Zebra (again directed by Sturges). The novel was adapted by author James Clavell (Taipan, Shogun) who also directed a number of films including at this time To Sir With Love. He also made the war of religion film, The Last Valley.
1. Was this good science fiction? Why? How entertaining was it? What was the purpose of making this science fiction film? In the mid-sixties?
2. Was it an effective thriller? An effective mystery?
3. The atmosphere of germ warfare and experimentation, what impact does this make on an audience?
4. The morality of experimentation for germ warfare? Has anyone the right to experiment in this area? What impression does this make on an audience? For America to be developing germ warfare techniques?
5. The villain in this film was mad. He wanted to destroy people he did not agree with by germs. How was he a sym bol of power, government, who do the same thing? It is easy to condemn a single mad individual. but not a government. Was this well developed in the film?
6. Did you like the hero? Was he just a film stereotype or was he a real person? His being tested for loyalty? Did you agree with the method he used for detection?
7. The role of the general and his daughter in the film? How necessary were they? What purpose did they serve?
Was the daughter merely romantic?
8. How plausible wax this situation? Could a millionaire madman effect the kind of substitution the villain did here?
Could he go so long without being detected? To get such power? What really motivated him?
9. The impact of the epidemic on Florida that it really happened? Then the threat to Los Angeles? How frightening
is this to think about? How frigthening for an American audience watching in America?
10. The final helicopter ride and the suicide of the villain? Was this too easy a solution for the problem raised in the
film? Or was it a fitting and realistic ending?
11. How entertaining are such warning science fiction films?
