The Black Scorpion: Stop-Motion Madness Interspliced with Western Charm

Willis O’Brien is often regarded as a fertile FX guru. Stop-motion animation effloresced under his versed guidance. Without him, we probably wouldn’t have a guy by the name of Ray Harryhausen to enshrine with edacious zeal. O’Brien is viewed as a supernal entity in the horror community, which makes it all the more depressing to learn that his career was thronged with disaffection and dogged times. 

Apparently, studio heads didn’t think much of him while he was alive. After experiencing precipitant success with The Lost World and the first two Kong entrees, O’Brien was faced with grievous hackamores both personal and occupational. On the personal side of things, his sons passed away during the production of Son of Kong (details are sketchy). On the business side of things, well...there wasn’t much business to speak of following the palpitating ascendancy of King Kong.

O’Brien struggled to lock financing for numerous projects. Why producers hesitated to grubstake such a prolific talent is beyond me. Many roseate concepts were canned, the most intriguing of which being King Kong vs. Frankenstein (!). The only work that he could find late in his temporized career was menial supervising gigs. He presided over Mighty Joe Young, The Animal World, The Giant Behemoth, 1960’s remake of The Lost World, and of course, The Black Scorpion. He died in 1962 without ever getting a chance to raiment a worthy follow-up to Kong (although Joe is an exceptional film). Okay, this review is a drag. But this stodgy excursus isn’t too irrelevant. No one really knows who officiated the majority of The Black Scorpion’s special effects. O’Brien only ratified 10% of the stop-motion backwash, while a Pete Peterson is credited with the remaining 90%. Some intercalate that an uncredited Harryhausen is the mystery technician.