Sunday, July 01, 2018

A Visit With THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)


Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the release of Bert I.Gordon's one and only sequel film WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1959). A few days before I had rewatched the original picture THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957) because I recently gotten a new bootleg of that and a few other 50's science fiction gems. Well - gems in the loosest of terms really.  Although I get a big kick out of Mr. BIG's films I've never found them to be more than pretty good in general with some memorable scenes scattered around to make them pop.


Indeed, my return visit to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN was a bit of a disappointment as I found it's flaws more in evidence this time around than the last time I caught it. The dialog is pretty bland, the acting mostly dull, the big scenes staged in an overly stiff manner and the always ropey special effects even less effective than I remembered. But it has something. A certain low budget charm, I guess. It's rough edges are obvious but most of the time they are forgivable because the film is such a brave attempt to do much with little. Now that I see the film with older eyes I can appreciate it for what it is even as I lament that it could have been better in almost every way. This is a sloppy, silly SF monster film made with more gumption than skill. I'm glad it exists! And I'm glad it spawned a sequel.

Now, if someone could just get James Nicholson's widow Susan Hart to relinquish the home video rights so we could get sparkling new releases of this and several other AIP films from the period! 





4 comments:

Unknown said...

As far as you know, what’s the reason she won’t relinquish the rights?

Rod Barnett said...

She seems to have no interest (or any need for the cash they would generate) in doing anything with the AIP films she holds the rights to - including I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, Invasion of the Saucer Men and It Conquered the World.

Unknown said...

It's not "Mrs. Arkoff" who holds the rights to these films, but James Nicholson's widow, Susan Hart. The AIP rights to earlier films were split between Nicholson and Arkoff, and Arkoff's have already been released to DVD. They include How to Make a Monster and The She Creature.

Rod Barnett said...

Mr. Labbe - you are absolutely correct! I can only attribute my mistake to a brain-fart and I have correct the error. Thank you for catching that before I embarrassed myself further!