ironhorse_iv Review of The Amazing Colossal Man

The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)

What a massive disappointment! This huge Sci Fi movie was not as amazing as it should had been.

[5/10 · 26 August 2020]

Adapted uncredited from author Homer Eon Flint's 1928 short science fiction novel 'The Nth Man' & released theatrically as a double feature by American International Pictures with 1957 British American movie 'Cat Girl'. This motion picture had potential to be one of the great Sci Fi films of the 1950s. Yet the story of US Army Lt. Colonel Glenn Manning's life being turned into an enormous nightmare as his body continue to grow gargantuan proportions after surviving a plutonium explosion, found itself being mock and featured on Season 3 Episode 9 of the TV Show 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'. Many of the reasons why is because of the lousy mostly incept visual and special effects. Don't get me wrong, the use of real miniature models does work nicely giving an effective forced perspective of size. However, everything is a bit too dark. Since it is a black & white picture or blue & black in some versions. It's often difficult to tell what is really going on the screen. Yet it's crystal clear that the giant images of actor Glenn Langan's body for Manning is badly matted into shots as the visuals transparent were highly noticeable. Whenever the performer is moving, his body seem to go through background walls and items as if he is a ghost. Not only that, but the fake looking dated rear projection effect was very noticeable in most of the transportation scenes; especially the helicopter sequences. To add onto that, the model plane in the beginning of the film looks a bit second rate. They never did explain why it crash or what happen to the pilot. Regardless, it was a distracted that wasn't really needed. The film would have work better if screenwriters Mark Hanna, George Worthing Yates & the director Bert I. Gordon work in the idea that the PTSD fueled Glenn thought he saw his old war buddy that was stabbed dying in the field instead. It could had explained all the Korean War stock footage flashbacks a lot better rather than the sequences feeling a bit unrelated filler. Nevertheless, the nuclear blast scene still looks incredibly cheesy. Seeing him getting his clothes rip apart from a dust cloud intermixed with obvious real-life stock footage of 1955 'Operation Cue' atomic bomb test was kinda jarring. Weird that the bomb can flatted a whole building yet not be able to vaporizes a human being. Despite that, the make-up work for the three degrees burns in the beginning were well done. Nonetheless the film repays him being expose to radiation a bit too much in the exposition dumps scenes involving the doctors Paul Linstrom (William Hudson) and Eric Coulter (Larry Thor). The middle sequences were highly infuriating in how much time they wasted, repeating what we already saw and knew about Glenn. I kinda wish they would point out how stupid he was to allow soldiers to smoke during a nuclear blast to calm their nerves. That would be something intelligent to say. Anyways, those padding scenes are supposed to seem smart, but the scientific exposition felt very dumbed down. The idea that a heart is made from one cell is not factual correct; as in truth, it's cardiomyocytes and the cardiac pacemaker cells that makes help pump that muscle. To add onto that, radiation doesn't make things grown but instead cause things to gradually slow down. That's why it is use to treat people with gigantism. It caused stabilize of the somatostatin hormone. The doctors here in this film are idiots. Even in the 1950s, most people in the medical field deeply know that. In truth, the best way to solve the problem is to remove the pituitary tumors to prevent acromegaly. As much as their diagnostic was annoying, their treatment solution is hilarious stupid by stabbing Manning with the giant syringe full of bone marrow. Seeing the giant darted a huge hypodermic at a doctor, impaling him was laugh out loud funny rather than tragic. Talking about the climatic action. There is far too little of it. I would love to see Glenn violently escape from the military base, because the idea that a 60 feet tall man stealth his way out without anybody seeing him is a bit unrealistic. While I like do love the later scenes where Glenn destroyed Las Vegas landmarks as it represented things he no longer can't have. Him peeking tom a lady taking a bath was a bit much. I guess it's supposed to show that his brain has degenerate into primitive toxic last ditch urge to reclaim his masculinity, but the idea that he already forgotten his fiancée Carol Forrest (Cathy Downs) is heart breaking. Then again that is lose once a badly superimposed still image of Langan's body cradle up supposedly falling from the Hoover Dam come to the screen hilariously to make us quickly forget about it. The climax is supposed to be tragic, but it come across as a joke. In the end, while Langan did gives an okay performance as the trouble man dealing with loss of a bodily function, love and oncoming death. His character did sulk like a baby too much. The white diaper loincloth matches Manning well. As for the supporting cast. Their acting is pretty awful; especially Cathy Downs whom is terribly wooden. Overall: While not as bad as that 1958 sequel 'War of the Colossal Beast'. I still kinda wish Sally Fraser from that movie was here as Glen's sister Joyce. She would give a decent performance. Sadly, the director known as Mister B.I.G due to his many works of making kaiju films kinda made a colossal mess with this series. In the end, it's watchable for 'so bad, it's good' fandoms, but for normal audiences it's one sleeping giant not worth waking up.