Spider Baby (1967) - Top Five Favorite Scenes & Moments

I’m adding to the month with some “Five Favorite Scenes/Moments” to sort of mix things up and why not?

[1] Clearly because I’m such a mark for Chaney, Jr. and The Wolf Man, the scene where the distant relatives, lawyer and his secretary, Bruno and the kids were gathered around the supper table talking about “eating habits” and “promises made to daddy” has my favorite absolute line. Quinn Redeker (as Peter) and the secretary, Ann (Mary Mitchel), are talking about the Universal monsters, eventually getting to werewolves, looking over to a seemingly trance-like Chaney who opines, “There’s going to be a full moon tonight.” Good ole director, Jack Hill, made sure to get that in his movie!

[2] Almost equal to that #1 if not almost surpassing it is this amazing piece of beautiful acting from Chaney, often considered so inferior to the father who rarely ever had his voice heard in sound, where he finds Virginia and Elizabeth had murdered the lawyer (Karl Schanzer, complete with Hitler mustache), who was snooping around, realizing that any promises kept to his employer about keeping them safe and together was now impossible. Making matters worse is Ohmart rushed out of the house by the girls and Ralph, seemingly raped by Ralph when he catches her. Bruno laments his failure and makes sure the kids (grown-ups with regressing mental faculties, leaving them to behave child-like yet depraved and violent) know he doesn’t hate them. With tears welling up, wiping them away with his thick hands, the disappointment and emerging decision to blow them up (!!!) as the only option left leaves quite a lasting impact.

[3] The house seems to be deteriorating much like those inside it as if both are doomed to an unfortunate end. As the lawyer moves about it, we get a look at those in other rooms, including a dumbwaiter that moves bodies from one place to another, owls resting in an unoccupied room, and the skeletal remains of the dearly departed daddy still snuggled on his deathbed.

[4] Ohmart was about 8 years removed from The House on Haunted Hill (1959) but was nonetheless still quite a sultry sexpot, having stripped to her lingerie, prancing about and posing in a shawl. Her willingness to stay in the house comes with quite a price…Ralph climbs down from high up as if a spider and takes a long peek. Ohmart is quite taken by how she looks as she keeps herself in front of the mirror. 

[5] I absolutely loved this one scene, well choreographed, of Virginia and Elizabeth, their psychosis seemingly at its most dangerous, eyeing Peter and Ann as they return from a futile drive looking for vacancies, finding none. There is something very sinister and yet beautifully captured in this well lighted shot of the girls, evil, dark intentions awaiting their visitors. It is just how the camera provokes a sense of “uh oh” when Peter and Ann show up at the worst time possible. And with Bruno gone to fetch some dynamite, they were free to “protect themselves”, believing they were going to be taken away from their abode.

I could mention this eroticized and incestuous moment where Virginia is in Peter’s (they are cousins) lap, pulling up her dress, showing her legs to him, kissing up his neck or poor Mantan Moreland just trying to deliver the mail, stuck in the window and being knifed by demented Virginia (she is in a lot of memorable scenes) who considers him a spider. Those opening credits, sung by Chaney, are a delight that only kicks the whole film off appropriately.