Tarantula (film)

Tarantula
Theatrical release poster
by Reynold Brown
Directed byJack Arnold
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Jack Arnold
  • Robert M. Fresco
Based on"No Food for Thought" (teleplay, Science Fiction Theatre, May 17, 1955)
by Robert M. Fresco
Produced byWilliam Alland
Starring
CinematographyGeorge Robinson
Edited byWilliam Morgan
Music by
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release dates
  • November 23, 1955 (1955-11-23) (Los Angeles)
  • December 23, 1955 (1955-12-23) (United States)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.1 million (US and Canadian rentals)

Tarantula is a 1955 American science-fiction monster film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars John Agar, Mara Corday, and Leo G. Carroll. The film is about a scientist developing a miracle nutrient to feed a rapidly growing human population. In its unperfected state, the nutrient causes extraordinarily rapid growth, creating a deadly problem when a tarantula test subject escapes and continues to grow larger and larger. The screenplay by Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley was based on a story by Arnold, which was in turn inspired by Fresco's teleplay for the 1955 Science Fiction Theatre episode "No Food for Thought", also directed by Arnold. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures as a Universal-International release, and reissued in 1962 through Sherman S. Krellberg's Ultra Pictures.