Main Cast: Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, William Hudson, James Seay, Larry Thor
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 79 minutes
Plot
A "Shock Theater" perennial since it was first released to television in the early 1960s (stretch-framed to pad out its running time), The Amazing Colossal Man is firmly in the "So Bad It's Good" category. While overseeing the atomic tests in the Nevada desert, Army colonel Glenn Langan is exposed to extensive amounts of radiation. As a result, Langan grows, and grows, and grows, at the rate of ten feet per day. This sudden height gain adversely affects the poor man's mind, and soon he's as mad as a hatter. Looking for all the world like Mr. Clean in a diaper, the Colossal Man goes on a murderous rampage, laying waste to several Las Vegas landmarks before he is killed by army bullets while standing atop the Boulder Dam. The special effects are adequate, but the dialogue is ridiculous-in fact, if we didn't know better, we'd say that the film was intended to be funny. Our favorite bit: the huge hypodermic needle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Russ Bender - Richard Kingman; Lynn Osborn - Sgt. Taylor; Diana Darrin - Secretary; William Hughes - Control Officer; Jack Kosslyn - Lt. in Briefing Room; Jean Moorhead - Girl in Bath; Jimmy Cross - Sgt. Reception Desk; Hank Patterson - Henry; Frank Jenks - Delivery Man; Scott Peters - Sgt. Lee Carter; Myron Cook - Capt. Thomas; Michael Harris - Police Lt. Keller; Dick Nelson - Sgt. Hanson; Edmund Cobb - Dr. McDermott; Paul Hahn - Attendant; June Jocelyn - Nurse; Jim Backus - Gen. Willoughby; Whit Bissell - Capt. Queeg; Joan Blondell - Jenny; Yvonne Craig - Ora; Melvyn Douglas - Col. Claude Brackenby; Preston S. Foster - Gen. Bateman; James Griffith - Hugo Zattig; Jesse Pearson - Cpl. Silas Geary; Andrew Prine - Pvt. Owen Selous; Chuck Roberson - Monk; Diane Robin - Nurse; Jon-Mikl Thor - Dr. Eric Coulter; Bill Troy - Fulton; Alan Hale, Jr. - Sgt. Beauregard Davis; Frank Mitchell - Belmont; Michael Pate - Thin Elk; Jane Jenkins
The Amazing Colossal Man is a 1957 black-and-whitescience fiction film, directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Glenn Langan. The film revolves around a 60 foot mutant man produced as the result of an atomic accident.
Langan plays Lt. Col. Glenn Manning, an officer in the U.S. Army who suffers serious burns over 90% of his body following inadvertent exposure to plutonium radiation from a bomb blast. Manning miraculously survives the explosion and his burns completely heal, but the radiation causes him to abnormally grow into a 60-foot-tall giant. At this size, his heart is unable to supply sufficient blood to his brain and he gradually goes insane.
Army doctors attempt to halt and reverse Manning's growth with a formula, but after getting injected with the cure, the colonel grabs the needle and spears one of the doctors with it, killing him on the spot. Manning then escapes from confinement, "kidnaps" his girlfriend, Carol Forrest (played by Cathy Downs), and wreaks havoc in Las Vegas before being cornered by the Army at the Hoover Dam. After releasing Carol he is shot and appears to fall to his death in the Colorado River.
The film and its sequel have been referenced in comedy productions, including the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 and an episode of Robot Chicken when a large bald giant, wearing a sarong as a diaper, is struck in the crotch with a wrecking ball as he terrorizes a city, as part of the "Ode To The Nut Shot" sketch.[citation needed]
Hardcore band Madball have a song called Colossal Man, in which they refer to him as a skinhead.
"Monsters vs. Aliens the 2009 computer-animated 3-D feature film from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures alludes to this movie when giant Susan pulls a needle from her leg and throws it , pinning a man's foot to the ground (rather than killing him as in the original).
References
Bibliography
Wingrove, David. Science Fiction Film Source Book (Longman Group Limited, 1985)
