ChrisJarmick's Full Review: Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
One of my very favorite 'baaaad' movies of all times is this strange hybrid of science-fiction, melodrama, white trash and creature feature all rolled into one remarkable, unforgettable package.
Like ...oh say, Citizen Kane, or Wizard of Oz, or uh.. what's the name of that other famous... oh sure, Gone with Wind and Casablanca, there hasn't been a film that can capture the magic, that special something quite the way Attack of the 50 Foot Woman can.
Quick, call Joe and the butterfly nets, Chris has finally lost it–he needs a rest. He's trying to convince people a cheesy, low budget, campy, 50's flick is somehow comparable to Citizen Kane. The next thing he'll do is tell us he has watched the awful thing dozens of times–in fact almost as many times as Citizen Kane and has enjoyed it almost as much –albeit for different reasons.
"See a female colossus . . . her mountainous torso, skyscraper limbs, giant desires!" screams the writing on the original and very collectible movie poster from this wacked out movie.
It's all hype of course. Oh eventually there is a giant, beautiful, big busted woman towering over 100 feet who goes on a short mini-rampage at the end of the film. . . but that's not why one is mesmerized and dazzled by this cheapie.
One is dazzled with it's audacity, it's absurdity, and the fact it was dreamt up, discussed, planned, plotted, filmed, released to the public and now fondly embraced by individuals who appear to be almost film snobs on one hand, but yet inexplicably bow at the alter of junk like Attack of the 50-Foot Woman..
Now I could go on an on with adjectives and invectives to wax poetic about this influentially awful piece of celluloid magic (and if you've any doubt just read a few of my other film reviews) but it's time to tell you a little bit about the film itself.
Statuesque( Allison Hayes) Nancy Fowler Archer is a rich woman who drinks too much and tries to completely control her less than trustworthy scum of a husband. He's seeing a floozy (Yvette Vickers) on the side and trying to figure out a way to put his wife away so he can grab his wife's money and the floozy. Nancy wanders irresponsibly into the desert to drink and sunbathe and wouldn't you know it. . . a transparent giant bald alien (Michael Ross)decides to stop picking up station wagons and play with Nancy. Now I don't know in retrospect if this alien's plan was to make Nancy a giant like he is, so he can mate with a human or what he was thinking. But when Nancy insists (still normal sized) that she had a run in with a giant Alien, well husband Harry is now convinced it's time to cart his wife off to the asylum. Then Nancy begins to grow and grow....Harry chains her to her bed, calls the doctor to inject her with an elephant tranquilizer and runs to meet his floozy at the local roadhouse. It's very interesting that the bartender, Tony looks a lot like the giant bald alien (same actor in the role). Hmm I wonder if there's a secret meaning of subtext in that..... Nah... low budget.... Allied Artists production...Tony just worked cheap.
Meanwhile back at the Archer homestead, Nancy wakes up, her giant paper mache'd hand moves about, scaring off the nurse that's watching her. She breaks out of her chains. Miraculously she is wearing good fitting clothes to keep her decent (damn it) and goes on a rampage, walking into town, knocking over billboards – amazing the good citizens of the town with her gigantic-ness. She's yelling: HARRY.... HARRY . She sees their car outside the bar, rips off the roof and picks up her cheatin' conniving, two-timing, husband. He's in big trouble now let me tell you.
You play, you pay. There's a few hilariously awful lines of dialogue throughout this one of a kind almost absurd genre film. The film is borderline sleazy in a few scene which gives the film a harder more adult edge over most giant bug/giant creature feature films of the era.
I have to mention there's also a fistfight in a room where all the furniture is conveniently removed... a wise cost cutting measure I am sure.
It's 66 minutes long and the accurate release date of the film is 1958. That's right in just one hour and six minutes you get all of the above. Hard to believe but true. Life is full of wonderful surprised like that.
HBO produced an updated remake of the film a few years ago which starred Daryll Hannah. They almost made a decent film with the premise but it's thirty minutes longer and certainly doesn't come close to having the campy charm of the original.
Let me suggest a wonderful double feature idea of white trash horror Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches (from Roger's brother Gene and starring Yvette Vickers).
And now a brief rundown of the principals who were involved in this momentous production.
Star Allison Hayes was a popular B-movie actress (Zombies of Moratau, The Undead, The Unearthly) and t.v. star (lots of Perry Mason and Bat Masterson appearances) during the mid to late 50's. The image of her on the poster from this film and on the much used clip from this film which shows her angrily toppling a huge billboard are etched into millions of minds around the world. She pretty much stopped working by the mid 60's and died at only 47 year old in the mid-70's from blood poisoning.
Co-Star Yvette Vickers (Honey) became a Playboy Playmate in 1959. She starred in the campy horror film Attack of the Giant Leeches for Roger Corman's brother. She had a small role in the classic HUD (with Paul Newman). She first appeared in a bit part in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd in 1950. After several years of extra work and small t.v. appearances (Dragnet) she got her first major role in the film Short Cut to Hell in 1957 which was the directorial debut of James Cagney. She followed this with several more t.v and b movie parts in the 50's. She was in a 1990 film, Evil Spirits as well.
William Hudson (Harry) 1925- 1974 (of laennec's cirrhosis). Hudson had been around since the 40's in various b movies and television shows. He pretty much stopped working in the mid 60's after a couple appearances on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and t.v.'s Batman. His most notable film was probably 1957's The Amazing Collosal Man for producer Bert I Gordon where he played Dr. Paul Lindstrom (not the lead).
Mark Hannah wrote Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. He had been an actor in the early 50's before he began seeing several of the screenplays he wrote or co-wrote produced into film. Yes, he is partially responsible for the 1957 Corman Classic Not of this Earth ( and was involved in it's two remakes in 1988 -with Traci Lords and for cable in 1995); Bert I Gordon's Classic The Amazing Colossal Man in 1957; not to mention the 1957 cult fave the Undead; he wrote an interesting Corman Western called The Gunslinger in 1956 which had a female marshal (Allison Hayes) trying to tame a town full of outlaws; he has story credit and was one of the producers of 1958's Jet Attack. He wasn't too busy in the 60's, but he's co-writer of the Jim Brown exploitation classic SLAUGHTER in 1972. He recently wrote a film called Star Portal (1998) too.
Director Nathan ‘Hertz' is actually Nathan Juran, the director who is most famous for directing the Harryhausen masterpiece 7th Voyage of Sinbad (in 1958) and for directing a damn fine knock off of it called Jack the Giant Killer in ‘62. He won an an Academy Award for his art direction for John Ford's classic How Green Was My Valley in 1941. He was also the director of 20 Million Miles to Earth (Harryhausen effects), and Deadly Mantis both in 1957. Nathan Juran was born in Austria and became a professional architect before becoming an art director for films in 1937. During World War 2 he was with OSS. After he returned to Hollywood in the late 40's, he soon began directing films in the 50's. He started with b-westerns, then b-horror films and directed two of the cheesiest camp classics ever made: The Brain from Planet Arous and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. He called himself Nathan Hertz however. And just think, the year prior to directing 50 Foot Woman he also directed Ronald and Nancy Reagan in Hellcats of the Navy. This is no minor talent here, folks. In the 60's he worked on several spaghetti westerns and several action film and famous t.v. pilots like: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Daniel Boone (1964); Lost in Space (1965) Time Tunnel (1966); and Land of the Giants (1968). In 1964 he directed the quite enjoyable First Men in the Moon with some impressive Harryhausen effects. One of his last film was a pretty good one called The Boy Who Cried Werewolf in 1973.
And last but certainly not least...
Michael Ross as Tony the Bartender and the alien Don't know many details about Mr. Ross but he was born in 1911, died in 1993. He was a bit actor and quite active from 1950 through the mid 60's. He had recurring roles on Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies as Sheriff Ragsdale and did several t.v. guest star roles. He played minor roles in films like DOA with Edmund O'Brien, with Abbott and Costello in Lost in Alaska (and did their t.v. show in 1952), The Patsy and The Errand Boy and Who's Minding the Store with Jerry Lewis, Don't Bother to Knock with Marilyn Monroe and many many more.
Chris Jarmick, Author (The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder Available November 2000)
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