Thorne Sherman (James Best) and Rook Griswold (Judge Henry Dupree) moor their boat on the shore of a small island hoping to sit out a rough storm as they deliver supplies to the island’s inhabitants. They arrive in time to see the residents of the island heading toward the boat hoping to leave. When told of the approaching hurricane and that they must stay at least one more night, Dr. Craigis, his daughter Ann, and Jerry Farrell rush back to the house and ask Mario, their live-in-mixologist, to start making martinis. This should have been our heroes’ first clue.

At this point we meet Dr. Radford (Gordon McLendon) who took acting lessons from the David Caruso School of Dramatic Eyeglass Removal and slowly, almost painfully learn about the problem that has them all in a dither. It seems they’ve been experimenting with metabolisms in shrews as a way to fight starvation and overpopulation. Well, you see, they kind of made the potion a bit too strong and someone left the cage door open (JERRY!) and now the little tiny shrews you can fit in the palm of your hand are the size of Afghan Hounds and have nasty big pointy teeth.

There’s more drinking and Jerry (Ken Curtis, Gunsmoke‘s Festus) gets trashed and Thorne and Ann (Ingrid Goude) fall in love even though she’s engaged to drunk Jerry and can’t seem to look anywhere near the camera. People yell at each other, fire weapons, scream whenever they see a shrew, and generally fall to pieces until they come up with a cunning plan to outwit the rodents.

Will two PhDs, a boat captain, his mate, a bartender, and a drunk prove smarter than large dogs wearing bathmats? I’ll never tell. Ray Kellogg directed The Killer Shrews the same year he helmed The Giant Gila Monster. The production values rival that of a middle school language arts project and the only one with any acting chops is James Best who did some cool Twilight Zone and Andy Griffith Show episodes soon after. The Killer Shrews made me laugh. I recommend it highly.

Hiya!