Phase 4 Movie Review

Sole directorial effort from Saul Bass (eminent screen title designer who helped bring off the shower scene in Psycho) is a bizarre, visionary chiller of common ants suddenly endowed by extraterrestrial force with mass-intelligence. When they conquer a patch of Arizona countryside, a pair of scientists in a high-tech domed lab try to destroy the environmental menace. The humans have pesticides, grenades, and their own fierce cunning. The ants have adaptive mutation, Archimedean engineering talents, and their own fierce cunning. It's not a fair fight… The six-legged thespians turn in a remarkable performance (sorry animal-rights fanatics, bugs were harmed in the production of this film, you betcha!), and half the pic occurs from their minute point of view. Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bass planned a cosmic f/x sequence at the end that had to be scrapped for budget reasons; thus the finale seems truncated, but this is still an offbeat genre flick deserving of greater attention.

1974 (PG) 84m/C Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Helen Horton, Robert Henderson; D: Saul Bass; W: Mayo Simon; C: Dick Bush. VHS, Beta, LV PAR