Leinengen vs. The Ants

[PaleFoxoftheBalkanBazaars]

I have been a fan of Old Time Radio for quite a while. I was recently listening to an over-the-top favorite of mine, "Leinengen vs. The Ants", and realized it has some strong correlatives to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's Siafu scene. While the story had been around for a couple of decades and had some previous interpretations on radio, the most famous version is from the show Suspense and stars William Conrad. Interestingly, it comes from 1957 (the same year KOTCS takes place). It deals with an army ant attack on a plantation and the owner, Leinengen's, stand against them. The dialogue is glorious and certainly reflective of the time! Not only does it take place in 1957, it even has a mid-show break to warn against the spread of Communism. With the 50's B-Movie and red menace themes in KOTCS, It leaves me wondering if it was in any way an influence.

If you are at all interested, enjoy 30 minutes of ant-fighting wonder: Leinengen Versus The Ants (Suspense/August, 25, 1957)

 

[PaleFoxoftheBalkanBazaars]

Also, there are others that have strong storyline connections to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or various Indiana Jones proposed scripts. I have provided links to YouTube rather than Archive.


~Suspense/Door of Gold (February 10, 1957):

(Deals with an archeologist and his fiance encountering various traps in an Incan temple. Has correspondence to the opening of Raiders as well as the relationship with Elaine in Jen Stuart's unused script "Saucer Men from Mars")

~Suspense/The Black Door (November 19, 1961): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p6kVeCsocU
(Deals with an archeologist discovering a horrifying connection between Mayan ruins and the dark-side of the Moon)

~Suspense/Leinegen vs. The Ants (August 25, 1961):

 

[PaleFoxoftheBalkanBazaars]

*Jeb Stuart

 

[PaleFoxoftheBalkanBazaars]

A few corrections beyond ol' Jeb:

I see that I spelled the very topic of this thread incorrectly. The story is "Leiningen" not "Leinengen" vs. the Ants. It was from August 25, 1957 (not 1961).

Also, maybe this is already well established on this forum, but it looks like Leiningen influenced the Charlton Heston flick "The Naked Jungle" of 1954. If anything, this was very likely the influence on the Siafu scene in KOTCS. A pertinent clip is below: