zetes Pretty good B sci-fi from the 50s. Glenn Langan stars as an Army lieutenant who gets caught in an atomic blast. Having no refrigerator to hide in, he suffers the full brunt of the explosion. Amazingly, it doesn't kill him. Even his burned skin regenerates after only a day. But the good news ends there, as this miraculous healing process doesn't stop. Soon, he's twenty feet tall, with no signs of stopping. His fiancée, Cathy Downs, watches in horror, and William Hudson and Larry Thor try desperately to find a cure. For a while, this film seems pretty good, with the protagonist going through an existential crisis that is easy to sympathize with. Unfortunately, as it goes on, it turns into a very rote monster movie with very cruddy special effects. It's not bad for what it is - I'm sure kids were happy to see the talking stop and see the shooting start - but for a while it almost seemed like it might become the companion piece to the contemporaneous The Incredible Shrinking Man, which provided both thrills and intellect.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- 1957, A US Army major is part of the early Atomic bomb tests with Army personnel close to ground Zero. The Major is in the trenches waiting for the bomb to be set off. And he heroically leaves the apparent safety of his trench to rescue a crashed airplane pilot. He is irradiated with plutonium fallout. As a result, his body grows immensely large but his pumping heart stays normal size. This will cause him pain and his eventual death. His fiancée stays with him to watch helplessly to the many ways the Army goes about helping the giant Major and trying to reverse his radiation exposure.*Special Stars- Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs *Theme- Sometimes good things done by good people are not rewarded.*Trivia/location/goofs- Rocky scenes filmed at Chatsworth California Iverson Movie Ranch. Has some vintage scenes dealing with 50's Las Vegas. The film did so well in box office ticket sales that a year later another 'spin' of this plot idea was rushed into drive-ins. It's name was: "The War of the Colossal Beast". It did well also. Hoover dam was the site of his high fall to end this film. The film ends with the giant falling to his death.*Emotion- An enjoyable but rather silly for sci-fi B-Movie viewers. Hilarious for some of the cliques dialog, unintentionally comedic plot scenes and bad acting by supporting players. Another Bert Gordon spectacular on film. Another atomic era motivated film theme. This was one of the best drive-in movie of pot-boiler films for the 50's masses. This presents the 60-foot mutant man. He is the product of of an atomic accident. A luminous cloud irradiates him and his entire body system. Can be easy seen as a descendant of other earlier classical themes of overly large main characters. Such ludicrous collection of other kinds of these ideas with 'King Kong' being the foremost. The fifties were rampant with large insects, lizards and humans. That was the staple of Roger Corman ten day production films for years. They were money makers. The end of the film is a 'Debbie Downer' or a "buzz-kill'. It's one of the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.

Torgo_Approves The best thing about B-movies from the 50s is that they are almost always entertaining, if awful. Plan 9 From Outer Space certainly has more entertainment value than, say, Armageddon, and It Conquered the World was a funny little piece of silliness with performances that were definitely better than expected. The latter movie also featured the funniest movie monster I have ever seen.But The Amazing Colossal Man, simply put, has few things going for it. It looks promising, just take a glance at the priceless tagline: "A Seventy Foot Giant Is Terrorizing Las Vegas..." Sounds like a hilarious piece of schlock, doesn't it? Well, I was wrong to think so.The movie looks awful. Everything is too dark and since it is a black and white picture (although blue-and-black would be a more proper way to describe it), it is often difficult to tell what is really going on on the screen. Our hero, Glenn Langan's Lieutenant Manning, is a dull emo martyr who I found it difficult to feel sorry for. Sorry buddy, but if you run out in front of a nuclear explosion, you have yourself to blame.The main problem I had was with the ludicrous story (man is badly burned by hydrogen bomb and starts growing) that we're supposed to take seriously. This isn't a tongue-in-cheek riot, it's a melodramatic, dragging bore. It has the entertainment value you'd expect from The Seventh Seal.It is also annoying how repetitive the scenes are. Giant-Manning will sit in his hospital bed, whining about his condition, and his girlfriend will console him and claim that the doctors are working day and night. A few scenes later, Giant-Manning will sit inside a circus tent and whine, his girlfriend will console him again and repeat that the doctors are doing all they can. It all screams "filler" and makes you long for the cheesy monster action of the Gamera movies.The only scene in which anything of interest happens occurs at the very end, where a seemingly stoned Manning goes on a very mild rampage in his city. Then he is shot down and killed. That's it. The end.The Amazing Colossal Man is a huge disappointment. While Plan 9 might not have the quality of TACM, it is certainly more fun to watch. Avoid.(r#7)

mrb1980 "The Amazing Colossal Man" gets my vote for Bert I. Gordon's best movie, meaning that it's not nearly as bad as his others.Gordon's sci-fi/horror films of the 1950s had the same basic plot: 1. Monster is created. 2. Monster attacks. 3. Monster is destroyed, accompanied by inept special effects. In this film, luckless serviceman Glenn Manning (Langan) is exposed to intense radiation from a plutonium bomb, and is burned over his entire body. The attending physician (Hudson) gives him zero chance for survival, but the next morning his skin has miraculously healed. Afterwards, Manning disappears, and his wife (Downs) finds him at a remote army base--50 feet tall! The healing process apparently had some unintended side-effects, and now Manning is kept in a circus tent. Hudson tells Downs that Manning is in pretty bad shape, and that "his mind will go first", a sure clue to the rest of the film. Sure enough, Manning goes crazy and escapes into the Nevada desert. Meanwhile an Army scientist (Larry Thor) has succeeded in his miniaturization experiments, and thinks if he can just give Manning an injection, everything will be fine. Of course, the usual no-nonsense 1950s Army guy (James Seay) shows up and says that if Manning causes any trouble, "we'll stop him cold!" Manning attacks Las Vegas, tearing up a few casino signs and causing a ruckus. Off go Hudson, Downs, and Thor in a helicopter, toting a 6-foot hypodermic needle. In the film's best (and funniest) sequence, Thor and Hudson give Manning an injection in his big toe, whereupon Manning picks up the giant needle and impales Thor with it. Sure looks painful.Apparently by now Gordon was out of ideas, because Manning shows up next on Boulder Dam, carries Downs around for a few minutes, then as soon as he puts her down, Seay yells, "FIRE!" His Army guys blast Manning with a variety of weapons, and in a very bad show of special effects, Manning ends up in the Colorado River. The End.What sets "The Amazing Colossal Man" apart from the rest of Gordon's 1950s films are the story and acting. The story is actually pretty intelligent (compared with, say, "The Beginning of the End"). The acting is not bad, and the little-known Langan gives something of a minor tour-de-force as Manning. Hudson, Downs, and Thor are also quite adequate in their roles.I recommend this film as a pretty good time-filler. Try watching without paying too much attention to the special effects. Gordon actually filmed a sequel, "War of the Colossal Beast", but it's pretty rock-bottom.