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1965 American film staring George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, and Ed Asner. Directed by John Sturges. Based on an Alistair MacLean novel.
Before “Andromedia Strain”, before the “Omega Man”, before “The Rock”, and so many other biological warfare “technological thriller” films, there was a nifty little movie titled the “Satan Bug.”

In short the film involves an ostracized national security agent being re-commissioned and brought in to investigate some odd goings on at a government biological warfare laboratory. He discovers evidence of a break in. The researchers reveal to him that are two biological warfare germs under development at the facility. One is a short lived air borne germ that kills almost instantly, but dies a short time after exposure to air. The other is an equivalently lethal germ that survives and even flourishes in air and has duly been nicknamed the “Satan Bug” as it has no known antidote and could quite possibly exterminate all human kind. There is a rather tense little scene where he alone enters a sealed bank vault like laboratory, in protective suit, to determine what happened inside. His discovery, besides a dead scientist, is that a number of glass flasks containing both the short lived germ and the dreaded “Satan Bug” are missing.

Now begins the intrigue and chase. Leads are followed, people are watched. There is a suspicion that someone is not who or what they appear. There is the gratuitous female love interest that tags along. There is some actually nice logical thinking that brings the main character too close to the culprits resulting in his, and the woman’s capture. In a second tense moment he narrowly manages to escape their attempt to murder him using one of the flasks of short lived germs.

At the same time the other authorities following the main character’s tracks discover some cryptic doodling left by one of the bad guys. One agent, convinced that the doodling is significant, derives the possible location of a “germ-bomb” intended to kill millions of people in Los Angeles. There is a genuinely humorous moment when the bomb is discovered and disarmed.

Following his escape our hero catches up with the bad guys and rescues his love interest. However there is one final scene with the one remaining Satan Bug flask where the fate of the world teeters (literally) in the balance as the hero battles the head villain who reveals that there was in fact an antidote developed for the Satan Bug and only he has it.

All in all its a nice little movie from before the “government behind it all” conspiracy theory era. The plot is reasonable. People are portrayed to be reasonably competent. The suspenseful moments are realistic. Overall a good rainy Sunday afternoon movie.

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