Movie review – “The Killer Shrews” (1959) *

This made an appearance in a British book about the worst films of all time. It’s not really up in the top rank but there are some good cult factors– a Swedish female lead (runner up to Miss Universe apparently) who can’t act to save herself, the fact that the killing creatures are shrews played by dogs with wigs. The central idea isn’t bad – bunch of scientists researching overpopulation create really hungry shrews who eat everything – but it’s done in by a lack of atmosphere and poor handling. There’s a lot of sitting around in a crummy house set chatting to each other (a Roger Corman or someone could have made more out of this.) The cast is headed by James Best, who later played Sherriff Roscoe in Dukes of Hazard, but the real stars are the dogs – sorry, woops, shrews. Pretty good fun.