What can I say about "The Giant Gila Monster?" Um, well, it's giant and.... song break! Because we're scared and, yes, we're frightened because our itty-bitty new friend has his teeny-weeny brain all set on blowing us to bits. Oh, how horrible, deplorable, this really is the pits!

OK, sorry for that. I was channeling Rob Paulsen for a minute there.

Something on one of those back roads is causing cars to wreck and people to disappear. OK, OK, if you read the title I’m not spoiling anything by telling you that it’s a giant Gila monster. A small-town sheriff and a bright young mechanic/singer investigate. Meanwhile a rich tyrant makes life for everyone miserable over the disappearance of his son.

While not at all a great movie it does manage to be entertaining. There really isn’t a whole lot to the story although the rich tyrant adds a nice layer. There is some mystery and action but not much. It ends up feeling more like a story about the hero’s musical career than about a monster. After spending time on everything but the gila the director seems to remember that, oh yeah, this is supposed to have a monster in it, better have it tip over a car or something.

The lack of suspense isn’t helped by some of the bad acting. What does manage to keep the proverbial head above water is that the characters are so darned likable. How can you not like a guy that sings to a crippled little girl to give her encouragement and hope? It’s a sweet moment. On the other hand there is a lot of focus on the guy’s performances. It’s not so extreme that it makes the movie a musical, but it’s not all that far off base from the idea, either. Fortunately the singer isn’t half bad.

I have good and bad things to say about the special effects. The good thing is rather than putting a man in a floppy rubber suit the director goes with shots of a real reptile wrecking up stuff. The negative is that it still doesn’t work out all that well. Eh, what can you do? Most of these old black-and-white movies have crummy effects.