 In the beginning of the movie, you see a scientist, Dr.Paregoric (Calvin L. Tenetti) guy doing expiriments, there is a little boy Davey (Henry B. Larkin) his grandson running around in his lab, he comes in with a little lizard and shows it to the scientist, he tells the boy that it is a fire newt. Of course he manages to get some of the secret sauce or whatever he's cooking up on this pet newt. All of the sudden the newt gets bigger and bigger and we see the newt busting out of the roof of the scientist's house (this is a cool scene as he eats a sectional sofa). Next thing you know Newtrino (that's what he's called, but nobody ever actually calls him that in the first movie) is walking into San Franscisco. Then we see a news office where a reporter, Bert Kelly (Burt Skeller in an awful polyester suit) is getting a phone call from a mysterious woman to meet him by the Golden Gate Bridge about a very important story. When he gets there, it is the scientist's daughter Elsa Paregoric (Scherehezade Sullivan) who has to tell him about the giant newt before its too late. Her husband was killed in the Army, so she doesn't want to call the Army for some reason (they don't really explain this for some reason). Of course by then it is too late and Newtrino comes out of the water right under the Golden Gate Bridge and next thing you know the two characters are of course booking up the road trying to get away from the big newt. He starts going across the city of course, smashing everything up. He even knocks over a fruit stand in the street because you ALWAYS have to knock over a fruit stand in the movies right? They even do it in Jackie Chan movies. I have never even seen a fruit stand on the street myself, I just get my fruit at the grocery store so why is it there is always one in the way when the camera's running? Anyway, there is very funny scene with Bert and Elsa driving in his car to get to the other side of the city before the monster, which is a 1967 Triumph and the windshield wipers are going even though it is not raining in the scene! They are soooo obviously in front of a bluescreen. And a 67 Triumph could not even make it up the hills in San Franscisco. Of course the reporter ends up with the scientist's daughter, and they are standing together on the beach with Davey (Elsa's son) and Bert says something stupid like "Next time you want a pet, Davey, get a beagle" or something dumb like they always say at the end of "Superfriends" or "He-Man" (this is the only part I don't like). Newtrino goes out into the Pacific ocean and disappears. He comes back in the next movie NEWTRINO VS. ETCETERA (1969), which is more like a typical Godzilla movie with the two monsters fighting (in fact it is a LOT like GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER). Why do I like Newtrino? He's better than Godzilla because he can move faster and he doesn't do that stupid dance. He also has fire breath, because he is a fire newt -- doh!   CAST:
Ha! HA! THAT's a good one. Like GODZILLA, Newtrino is just a guy in a rubber suit. But Godzilla is done a lot better. The producer of NEWTRINO, Maximilian Schmikler, said in an interview: The Newtrino suit was rubber...painstakingly glued together from strips of old tractor tire inner tubes. We just didn't have the budget for a custom-molded suit. That suit smelled pretty bad. A coupla times, the guy in there was overcome by the fumes and passed out. Hax always took advantage of the "down time" to shoot the monster's death scenes. *However, the "newt suit" does look a lot better than the ape suit in A.P.E., which came out five years later. (*from Harold Haxton web site)
My name is David Telmig and I am a customer service rep for a company that builds PCs here in Indiana and I go to community college part time also. In my spare time (yeah right like i have any) I like to play with my pet ferret and watch hockey. My favorite food is pizza, my other favorite movies are Tron, Ice Pirates, all Godzilla movies and The Princess Bride (mostly my girlfriend Heather likes that last one but you have to admit its funny). I also like to play computer games, the best ones being Warcarft and Diablo II. Also working on my car, which is a 1984 DodgeConquest tsi and a lot of fun to drive. < |