517 - BEGINNING OF THE END
(July 1957; NR; 73m)

originally co-billed with 320-THE UNEARTHLY

Ad: "Filmed in New Horrorscope!"

Ad: "NEW Thrills! NEW Shocks! NEW Terror!
The Screen's First Full-Length Science-Fiction Thriller with Real Live Creatures!"

Ad: "So Big...we had to coin a new word for it...
NEWMENDOUS!"

Plot: Radioactivity makes giant grasshoppers, which attack central Illinois and eventually Chicago.

Prod/Dir: Bert I. Gordon (*210-King Dinosaur; 309-Amazing Colossal Man; 313-Earth Vs. The Spider; 319-War of the Colossal Beast; 411-Magic Sword; 414-Tormented; 523-Village of the Giants)
Scr: Fred Freiberger (prod/K10-Cosmic Princess)
Scr: Lester Gorn
Cin: Jack Marta (313/319; The Girl in the Woods; Cat Ballou)
Ed: Aaron Stell (402-The Giant Gila Monster; 407-Killer Shrews)
SFX: Bert and Flora Gordon (309/313/319/414/523)
SFX: Dean Duncan Parkin (actor/319*)
M/U: Steve Drums (Knickerbocker Holiday)
Asst Dir: Melville Shyer (Creation of the Humanoids)
PMgr: James Harris (309; The Cyclops)
ADir: Walter Keller (319/313; Cat People)
Set: George Milo (Psycho; The Birds; Torn Curtain)
Sound: Dick Tyler Sr. (102S-Radar Men from the Moon; Atomic Kid)
Sound FX: George J. Eppich
Sound FX: Douglas Thane Stewart (The Cyclops)
Music Ed: Morrie McNaughton (MacArthur)
Score: Albert Glasser (*309/313/319/414; 315-Teenage Caveman; 317-Viking Women; 409-The Indestructible Man; 602-Invasion USA; 611-Last of the Wild Horses; arr/201-Rocketship X-M)
Song by Lou Bartel: Natural, Natural Baby

Ed Wainwright / Peter Graves
(*311-It Conquered the World; 418-Attack of the Eye Creatures;
811-Parts: The Clonus Horror; K13-SST: Death Flight)
Audrey Ames / Peggie Castle*
Gen. Hanson / Morris Ankrum (*201; Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers)
Frank Johnson / Than Wyenn (Good Morning, Miss Dove)
Col. Sturges / Thomas Browne Henry (Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers)
Capt. James Barton / James Seay (309; Day the Earth Stood Still)
General John Short / Frank Wilcox (TV's Beverly Hillbillies)
Dave / Hank Patterson (*309/313; TV's Green Acres)
Major Everett / John Close (108-Slime People; 804-Deadly Mantis)
soldier / Rayford Barnes (512-Mitchell)
Corporal Jim Mathias / Richard Benedict (Monkey on My Back)
Taggert / Pierre Watkin*
first patrolman / Don C. Harvey (801-Revenge of the Creature)
second patrolman / Larry J. Blake (522-Teen-Age Crime Wave)
first soldier / Steve Warren (Friendly Persuasion)
second soldier / Frank Connor (These Wilder Years; Battle Stations)
third soldier / Don Eitner (Kronos; Queen of Blood)
fourth soldier / Frank Chase (Attack of the 50ft. Woman)
Colonel Norm / Douglas Evans (The Magnetic Monster)
Operator Edna / Eileen Janssen (906-The Space Children)
soldier Frank / Hylton Socher (Mister Cory; Summer Love)
Red Cross representative / Patricia Dean (509-Girl in Lovers Lane)
headquarters lieutenant / Alan Reynolds (Tobor the Great)
bomber pilot / Kirk Alyn (When Worlds Collide)
man standing by Red Cross rep / Ralph Sanford (Seven Year Itch)
headquarters sergeant / Alan Wells (Cape Fear; The Cosmic Man)
with Richard Emory (Destination Murder; Singin' in the Rain)
Paul Grant (Return of the Jedi; Labyrinth)

Trivia: The university, where character Ed Wainwright is studying the effect of radioactivity on seeds and plants, is this website author's alma mater, the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC hosts
a Big Bug Film Festival every year.

At the start of the movie, 200 GRASSHOPPERS (a flightless, hopless species from Texas) were used. During the filming, they began to cannibalize on one another, so by the time the last shots were done, only a dozen were left. The "special effect" of having the grasshoppers die at the end of the movie was done by simply lifting photographs and letting the grasshoppers slide down. Now isn't that special?!

PEGGIE CASTLE (1926-1973) was another actress whose beauty relegated her mostly to starlet roles in B-films including 10 Westerns. After doing a few movies at RKO, Peggie signed a contract with Universal-International, where she met and subsequently married casting director Robert Rains. In 1954, she would part ways with both U-I and Rains, but found work at United Artists, later marrying director William McGarry. After 1958, Peggie performed as a guest star on various TV series, and even joined the cast of Lawman. When it was cancelled in 1962, she retired from acting. Peggie Castle died at the young age of 46 from complications of alcoholism. Her films include: 1949-Mr. Belvedere Goes to College; 1950-I Was A Shoplifter (with Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson); Air Cadet (with James Best and Hudson again); Payment on Demand (as Bette Davis' daughter); 1952's 602-INVASION U.S.A.; Cow Country; 1954-Overland Pacific; The White Orchid; 1955-Tall Man Riding (with Randolph Scott); Finger Man (with Forrest Tucker); Target Zero; 1956-Oklahoma Woman (directed by Roger Corman); 1957's BEGINNING OF THE END; and 1958's Seven Hills of Rome.

In addition to the role of Taggert in this movie, character actor PIERRE WATKIN (1889-1960) played Hamilton in 520-RADAR SECRET SERVICE, and was in almost 200 other films including: 1935-Dangerous; 1939-Mr. Smith Goes To Washington; 1940-The Road to Singapore; 1941-Pride of the Yankees; Meet John Doe; 1948-State of the Union; 1950-Atom Man Vs. Superman (serial); and 1955-Creature with the Atom Brain.

Last Updated: 6/25/1999