They Don't Call Him Mr. Big For Nothing!

 THE CYCLOPS-1957-Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott) is looking for her husband who disappeared in a mysterious valley in Mexico. Along for the ride are the pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake), bacteriologist Ross Bradford (James Craig) and Marty (Lon Chaney), a grumpy guy looking for uranium. They encounter some giant animals (lizard, hawk, rodent) and the husband now a 25 foot giant (Duncan “Dean” Parkin) with a radiation scarred face and one eye. He traps them in a cave and kills Marty. They make for their airplane while the cyclops is fighting a snake. Bradford throws a flaming spear into its eye and they escape. 

Once again writer-director Bert I. Gordon makes a low budget movie about a gigantic man. Supposedly shot in 5 or 6 days Gordon did his best with what he had. Monster Dean Parkin played the scarred Glen Manning in THE WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST the next year, a sequel to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (which Mr. B.I.G.made the same year as this; he also made the giant bug movie THE BEGINNING OF THE END in '57). 

Star Gloria Talbot was the lead in DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL the same year as this. Male lead James Craig was once groomed to be Clark Gable's replacement while the star was in the army. 

Despite having co-starred with Judy Garland in 1944's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, Tom Drake's film career never took off and he wound up mostly doing TV. 

Lon Chaney co-starred in the TV series "The Last of The Mohicans" around this time. He had a standout role in THE DEFIANT ONES the next year. 

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Allison Hayes

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN-1958-Wealthy alcoholic Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes), a socialite fresh out of a mental hospital has a close encounter with a giant alien. No one believes her of course. Her husband Harry (William Hudson) carries on with floozy Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers) and is only around for her money and would like to send her back to the hospital and take possession of her famous “Star of India” necklace. Later Nancy and Harry go out into the desert and at first find nothing. Nancy is ready to commit herself until the UFO shows up and a rubbery giant alien hand terrorizes her. Harry hops in the car and abandons her! The sheriff (George Douglas) and his stupid deputy (Frank Chase) investigate and arrest Harry when he and Honey try to skip town. Nancy is found on  the roof of the bath house exonerating Harry. 

Later on Nancy grows to an enormous size and two doctors Cushing (Roy Gordon) and Loeb (Otto Waldis) think it's due to radiation. The sheriff finds huge footprints in the garden and he and Jess, Nancy's faithful butler (Ken Terrell) follow them. The duo find the spacecraft, enter it and find a collection of jewels including Nancy's “Star of India”. They are chased away by the same giant giant Nancy encountered and he wrecks their car and flies away in his ship. Eventually Nancy breaks free and combs the town for hubby yelling “Harry! Harry!” She finds and kills him just before being electrocuted herself. 

Although this a fun low budget Sci-Fi movie it's really hampered by terrible SFX. Director Nathan Juran didn't like it and is credited as Nathan Hertz (he made THE  7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD the same year). Screenwriter Mark Hanna had written THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN for Burt I. Gordon the year before!

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End of The World (the first time)

FIVE-1951-This low budget post apocalyptic drama was produced, written and directed by Arch Obler, creator of the radio (and later TV) program LIGHTS OUT.

It concerns the last 5 survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Michael (William Phipps), a poet/philosopher who really doesn't seem to miss mankind, Roseanne (Susan Douglas), a pregnant woman who wants to go to the city to find her husband, Charles (Charles Lampkin), an optimistic African American, Mr. Barnstaple (Earl Lee), a brain addled banker and eventual troublemaker (and bigot) Eric (James Anderson), a European spared because he was on Mt. Everest. Eric (who kind of talks like Paul Burich's alien character in NOT OF THIS EARTH) wants to go to the city on the pretense that there will be more survivors and presents the theory the little group is actually immune to the bomb's radioactivity but he's really only interested in plunder. After the banker dies and Eric reveals himself to be a racist Michael delivers Roseanne's baby. Despite Michael's care and protection Roseanne still clings to the hope that her husband is alive. Stupidly, she agrees to accompany Eric to the city in hopes of finding her husband right before Eric kills Charles. All they find are empty streets, abandoned cars and skeleton remains (including Roseanne's husband). Eric gets radiation poisoning and somehow Roseanne and Michael meet up again but her baby dies. After they bury the baby, Roseanne joins Michael in planting crops (which Eric had deliberately destroyed). The final scene of the couple standing together could signify a new beginning and maybe the end....

FIVE was the first atomic bomb survival and despite the minimal budget the acting pulls this one through despite Eric's weird accent. Actor Anderson would play with more success another bigoted role eleven years later in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Obler made the first feature length 3-D movie BWANA DEVIL next and later made THE TWONKY and THE BUBBLE.

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Early AIP

THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES-1955-A weird (man in a suit) sea monster with fins, fangs and big eyes terrorizes some a coastal fishing village. Dr. Stevens (Kent Taylor) investigates when one of the victims has radiation burns. He meets Prof. King (Michael Whalen, later in MISSILE TO THE MOON) who's conducting secretive experiments. Stevens becomes sweet on King's daughter (Cathy Downs) and worries about her safety after a meeting with the monster who is guarding a strange shaft of light.

Meanwhile the Prof.'s secretary (Vivi Janiss) blames King for the death of her son. Phil Pine plays the Prof.'s assistant who's actually working for a spy ring and tries to kill Stevens with a spear gun. This a good low budget horror time waster.

PHANTOM was released by American Releasing Corporation just before they changed their name to American International Pictures. Screenwriter Lou Rusoff wrote many great "B" movies in the '50's including THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED which played on a double bill with PHANTOM.

Director Dan Milner was mostly a film editor but also made FROM HELL IT CAME (with his brother Jack who was PHANTOM's producer) two years later. Music is by the great Roland Stein.

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Early Hammer

X-THE UNKNOWN-1956-This early Hammer production is a sequel to the previous year's THE QUARTERMASS XPERIMENT (known as ENEMY FROM SPACE in the US). Like it's predecessor it also stars an American actor in the lead role. While doing radiation exploration in Scotland, the British army discovers a "bottomless hole" from which an unseen entity has emerged. Later on, the being which survives on energy roams various locales burning victims with radiation. Dean Jagger is Dr. Royston, a brilliant scientist trying to figure out what the X is. Leo McKern is an energy inspector who helps Royston out. Edward Chapman is Royston's pompous director. Anthony Newley and future MONTY PYTHON director Ian MacNaughton are army guard victims. The monster is a big (animated) blob. The climax involves the detonation of a cobalt bomb. Also with Michael Ripper, Williams Lucas and Frazier Hines.

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