1957's "The Amazing Colossal Man" was director's Bert I. Gordon's debut and most financially successful release for American International Pictures, while also his most acclaimed, not too surprising once you realize that virtually none of his other giant size creatures had any personality, neither "The Cyclops" nor the sequel "War of the Colossal Beast" giving their menace any dialogue. The simple inversion of Universal's massive hit "The Incredible Shrinking Man" was actually an uncredited adaptation of Homer Eon Flint's brief 1928 novel "The Nth Man," the rights to which just happened to belong to James H. Nicholson, and may have also inspired Stan Lee's origin story for The Incredible Hulk! In the lead was Glenn Langan, an actor who made a name for himself the previous decade in films like "Hangover Square" and "Dragonwyck" (facing off against Vincent Price), but had fallen on hard times here but a performance that engenders sympathy for his plight despite an excess of self pity and the typically overdone excuse of radiation poisoning. Colonel Glenn Manning (Langan) readies himself for the nation's first plutonium bomb test but leaves his position of safety to try to rescue the pilot of a downed civilian plane, the flesh seared from his body by the force of the blast (a startling visage so well done it is repeated at least twice more). As 95% of his body suffered third degree burns doctors give his fiancée Carol (Cathy Downs, "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues," "The She-Creature," "Missile to the Moon") little hope that he'll survive, yet just hours after treatment his skin has completely regenerated itself, beginning a process of growth where Dr. Paul Linstrom (William Hudson, "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman") estimates the rate to be 10 feet per day. Manning emerges from his coma in a state of shock, despair and amusement in equal measure before we learn that his heart is not growing at the same pace as the rest of his body, essentially doomed to die in a few days unless something can be done to halt the progression. There's entirely too much talk until the final reel, when the Colossal Man finally goes on the rampage through Las Vegas, while one patrolman haplessly observes: "are you gonna stand by and let him destroy property?" A giant needle makes a painful looking injection that hopefully should stunt his growth, but in his fury he impales one unfortunate medico with a devastating strike and purloins his tiny fiancée for a final date with destiny at Boulder Dam. Gordon continued making giant size creature features for another 20 years, but never again reached the heights that this picture did. There's a lot of fun to be had if one can stay patient through the slow spots, which sadly isn't the case with its perfunctory sequel.
Review of The Amazing Colossal Man
