Fellow Svengoolie Super SvenPals everywhere will be dancing & jumping for joy for his upcoming big coast-to-coast premiere of a cult classic mammoth American-International sci-fi thriller masterpiece.
Original 1977 American-International Pictures theatrical release trailer for Bert I. Gordon‘s classic mammoth sci-fi thriller masterpiece production of “Empire of the Ants” with Joan Collins.
“For they shall inherit the earth.. sooner than you think!” Original 1977 American-International Pictures theatrical poster art for Bert I. Gordon’s “Empire of the Ants” featuring Joan Collins.
The legendary and iconic Berwyn/Chicago-based classic mammoth sci-fi thriller masterpiece host will present his big coast-to-coast broadcast premiere of “Empire of the Ants” (1977), this Sat.; Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central on Me-TV.
The classic mammoth 1977 American-International sci-fi thriller masterpiece production of “Empire of the Ants” was directed by veteran feature film director Bert I. Gordon. Some of Gordon’s best-known cult classic sci-fi/visual effects feature film masterpiece productions include “The Cyclops” (1957) for Allied Artists with Lon Chaney Jr., “Beginning of the End” (1957)* with Peter Graves, Peggie Castle and Morris Ankrum; “Earth vs. the Spider” (1958, a.k.a. “The Spider”)* with Ed Kemmer, June Kenney and Hank Patterson; “Tormented” (1960) for Allied Artists with Richard Carlson, Susan Gordon, Lugene Sanders and the vocal stylings of Paul Frees; “Village of the Giants” (1965) for Joseph E. Levine’s Embassy Pictures with Ron “Ronny” Howard, legendary singer Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon (who wrote/performed the mammoth 2016 Sven song masterpiece with Sven, “the Svengoolie Stomp”), Joy Harmon, Beau Bridges, Tisha Sterling, Johnny Crawford, The Beau Brummels, Tommy Kirk, Toni Basil, Rance Howard, Tim Rooney and Orangey the Cat.
The 1977 Bert I. Gordon/American-International feature production of “Empire of the Ants” was loosely inspired by a short story written by veteran science fiction author and novelist H.G. Wells. The screenplay adaptation of Wells’ short story that inspired the production of “Empire of the Ants” was co-written by Gordon and veteran TV/feature film screenwriter Jack Turley. Alongside his numerous TV and feature film screenwriting credits, Turley previously wrote the teleplay for two episodes of the brief classic mammoth Leslie Stevens–Warner Bros./NBC masterpiece adventure series “Search” (inspired by Stevens and Russ Mayberry‘s earlier classic mammoth 1972 Warner Bros./NBC made-for-TV movie masterpiece, “Probe“) that had an alternating lead for each episode of the week (Hugh O’Brian, Anthony Franciosa and Doug McClure) along with Burgess Meredith (Turley wrote the teleplay for 1972’s “The Andonis File” with O’Brian in the lead and 1973’s “The 24 Carat Hit” with Franciosa in the lead).
*For the majority of his motion picture directorial career, Gordon released his classic mammoth “giant” sci-fi/creature masterpiece productions, including “Empire of the Ants” (1977) through Samuel Z. Arkoff‘s American-International Pictures . Arkoff and James H. Nicholson established American-International Pictures in 1954, according to the Samuel Z. Arkoff papers collection housed at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. During Nicholson’s final years at AIP, he often had personal and professional disagreements with co-founder Samuel Z. Arkoff, according to Eamon Harrington and John Watkin’s retrospective documentary on American-International Pictures titled; “It Conquered Hollywood! The Story of American International Pictures” (2001). Nicholson then worked for a brief while for rival studio Twentieth Century Fox (Twentieth Century Studios), but was short-lived, as Nicholson’s health declined due to a brain tumor. Arkoff mentioned that in Nicholson’s last days that he was the only person outside of Nicholson’s family that kept in touch with him. Nicholson died on Dec. 10, 1972; according to IMDB.
After Arkoff managed the company by himself, he sold American-International to Filmways in 1979, which was later acquired by Orion Pictures in 1982. Orion (along with the majority of the American-International/Filmways holdings)** was then sold to the present incarnation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1997. Following MGM’s recent revival of the “Orion Pictures” moniker, the studio recently revived the “American-International Pictures” moniker. The classic mammoth 1977 sci-fi thriller masterpiece production of “Empire of the Ants” was co-produced between Arkoff’s American-International Pictures and Gordon’s “Cinema 77 Productions” moniker.
Who was in Bert I. Gordon’s American-International production of “Empire of the Ants” (1977)?
The players who appeared in Gordon’s classic mammoth American-International sci-fi/insect thriller masterpiece production of “Empire of the Ants” (1977) were Joan Collins (as Marilyn Fryser), Robert Lansing (as Dan Stokely), Robert Pine (as Larry Graham), John David Carson (as Joe Morrison), Albert Salmi (as Sheriff Art Kincade), Jacqueline Scott (as Margaret Ellis), Pamela Susan Shoop (as Coreen Bradford), Edward Power (as Charlie Pearson), Brooke Palance (as Christine Graham), Tom Fadden (as Sam Russell), Irene Tedrow (as Velma Thompson), Harry Holcombe (as Harry Thompson), Jack Kosslyn (as Thomas Lawson), Ilse Earl (as Mary Lawson), Janie Gavin (as Ginny), Norman Franklin (as Anson Parker), Florance McGee (as Phoebe Russell), Jim Wheelus (as a crewman), Mike Armstrong (as Jim), Tom Ford (as Pete), Charles Redd (as a taxi driver) and the vocal stylings of Marvin Miller (as the opening narrator).
Silver Screen Reflections 