Been watching a drive-in era icon on Amazon, The Giant Gila Monster, from 1958. This features classic hot rods, sweater girls, and a toy train being wrecked by a real lizard. The Amazon version features additional cheese in the form of rather amateurish colorization. The acting is not all bad; veteran character actors Fred Graham and Shug Fisher provide some much needed professionalism as the local sheriff and the town drunk respectively.
The movie was shot in the Dallas area. It was in fact financed by Dallas radio and drive-in movie tycoon Gordon McLendon, who apparently wasn’t satisfied with Hollywood monster fare. The actual producer was none other than Ken Curtis, later famous as Festus on Gunsmoke. It was shot back to back with another monster cheese icon, The Killer Shrews.