Attack
of the 50ft. Woman is by no measure the finest science-fiction
film to emerge from 1950’s Hollywood.It
may, however, be one of the most iconic.I suspect the film’s notoriety is partly due to Reynold Brown’s eye-catching
one-sheet poster design:a grimacing,
gargantuan deep-cleavaged Allison Hayes hovering over a city highway picking
off random automobiles.That nothing
like this actually happens in the
movie is mostly forgivable.If we were
to judge any film by its true delivery-of-on-screen mayhem against the false promises
of its imaginative publicity campaign, a lot of press agents would be serving
time.
Having said that, Brown’s artwork is an inseparable
component of the film’s status among fans of Silver Age sci-fi.The poster design has been both parodied and mimicked,
plastered on coffee mugs, jewelry, wristwatches, puzzles, t-shirts, model kits,
fridge magnets and book covers.Reynold’s
empowering image has even seen adoption as a feminist-rallying call-to-arms.Which is a pretty amazing feat for a film
dashed off in little more than a week’s time, with less than stellar optical
effects and at a budget of some $88,000.
Attack
of the 50ft. Woman was directed by Nathan Juran who is credited
on this particular film - for no reason I could source or conjure - as “Nathan
Hertz.”It’s not as if Juran was a fallen
helmsman of high-budget studio “prestige” pictures.He wasn’t a director reflexively protective
of a former glory, someone defensive that his once glittering career had
somehow descended into directing 50s sci-fi fodder.Juran’s first directorial assignment was, in
fact, for Universal’s The Black Castle
(1953) a mostly glossed-over gothic B-film featuring Richard Greene and Boris
Karloff.From 1953 on, Juran
subsequently bounced between directing low-budget feature films and studiously working
on early television.
But by 1957 Juran had become semi-typecast as a
successful auteur of low-budget sci-fi films, his streak beginning with 1957’s The Deadly Mantis.Over the course of the next several years
(1957-1964), Juran directed a number of features and television episodes, many
of which could be categorized as falling under the umbrella of sci-fi and
fantasy.These would include such offerings
as 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) and,
perhaps most famously, The 7th Voyage of
Sinbad (1958).
The screenwriter of Attack
of the 50ft. Woman was Mark Hanna. Hanna had already displayed a modicum of
insight in his crafting of bigger-than-life-size monster movies.The writer had collaborated the previous year
with producer/director Bert I. Gordon on A.I.P.’s The Amazing Colossal Man. There’s
little arguing that Allied Artist’s decision to back Attack of the 50ft. Woman was simply an opportunity to coat-tail
Gordon’s recent string of successful “giant monster” pics.There had been plenty of them, some having
already seen issue, others in the can being rush-readied for release:King
Dinosaur (1955), Beginning of the End
(1957), The Cyclops (1957), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), War of the Colossal Beast (1958) and The Spider (1958).
Jacques R. Marquette and Bernard Woolner’s production of Attack of the 50 ft. Woman would start on
Wednesday, January 8, 1958, under the working title of The Astounding Giant Woman.It wasn’t a great title, but Allied Artist’s had been bandied a pair of
alternates, both of which were also subsequently rejected: The Mammoth Female Monster and The
Colossal Female Monster.The film
was still being touted in the trades as The
Astounding Giant Woman through March of 1958.In April of 1958 the film was finally and
permanently re-titled Attack of the 50ft.
Woman.
Actress Yvette Vickers, who plays sultry sex-kitten Honey
Parker in the film, recalls the entire picture was shot in eight days, with no
one under the illusion they were making cinematic history. Allied Artists were
interested in quick returns on their investments.By January’s end of 1958, no fewer than ten
of their projects were reported as being “in various stages of editing,”
including Attack of the 50ft. Woman
and Howard W. Koch’s Frankenstein 1970.It was also during the last week of January
that Ronald Stein was brought onboard to compose the film’s engaging and jazzy soundtrack.
One intriguing aspect of Attack of the 50ft. Woman is that the film’s sci-fi elements would often
play second fiddle to the script’s domestic drama.Allison Hays plays Nancy Archer, a wealthy
but alcoholic socialite whose marriage is in shambles.The cruel ways of her unfaithful and
conniving husband, Harry (William Hudson) has already driven her to a
sanatorium.While his wife is away
(unsuccessfully) convalescing from her binge-drinking and mental frailties,
Harry has taken up with the “red-headed wench” Honey Parker (Vickers).Harry and Honey spend an inordinate amount of
time at Tony’s Bar and Grill, drinking, listening to jazz, dancing, and
plotting a comfortable future together - a future to be financed by Nancy’ loss
of stewardship of the family fortune due to her faltering mental health
capacities.
This scenario on paper, of course, appears very film-noir
in construction.But Hanna’s script
upends the film’s love triangle aspect almost from the very beginning.There have been worldwide news broadcasts describing
a “strange red fireball in the sky” hurtling towards earth.Driving back on Route 66 to her tony home
upon release from the sanatorium, Nancy unluckily encounters an alien craft somewhere
in a remote section of the Californian desert. No saucer-shaped spacecraft, this particular vehicle
arrives as a 30-foot high sphere resembling a weather balloon.As if suffering from “mental exhaustion and
alcoholism” was not enough, Nancy now finds herself in the clutches of giant
hand with hairy knuckles.
Unfortunately, this alien contact has left Nancy with
blue-green traces of radiation on her throat which brings about the onset of
“giantism.”Though doctors are summoned
to try to figure out why the poor and delirious Nancy is increasing in size at
an alarming rate, husband Harry and mistress Honey care not one whit, still duplicitously
scheming at Tony’s bar and grill.But
the two of them – as well as the local sheriff and police department – will soon
find themselves no match for a lady scorned: a wrathful woman who now stands 5o
ft. tall, is wrapped in an over-sized white bed sheet and appears angry as
Hell.
The earliest press screenings for Attack of the 50ft. Woman were held in Los Angeles on May 8, 1958.The film was screened with Roger Corman’s War of the Satellites, a second sci-fi feature
that was to be paired with Woman on national
release.In the view of the Variety critic, both genre offerings
were “on weak side.” The trade cited Mark
Hanna’s “corny dialogue” and Hertz’s “routine” direction on Woman as the film’s primary deficiencies,
dismissing the film as “a minor offering for the scifi trade where demands
aren’t too great.”
Well, maybe I’ve simply just sat through too many Silver
Age sci-fi films to be objective, but I didn’t find Hanna’s script necessarily
corny – but I did find the screenplay absent of likable characters worth caring
about. Although I am a fan of Attack of the 50ft. Woman, I can
understand the sulking review given the film upon release by critic Margaret
Harford of the Los Angeles Mirror: “Attack of the 50ft. Woman has so few
idealists on hand that the survival rate is lamentably low.”She goes on to describe the three romantic-triangle
leads as “unregenerative types” possessing souls not worthy of salvation.The unrelenting unwholesomeness of the aforementioned
trio ultimately inspires, “a wholesale blood bath that amounts to an extra
dividend for scare-traders on the horror market.”
While Attack of the
50ft. Woman would not be the last sci-fi/horror flick in which Hayes would
be cast, the actress happily moved over to dramatic work on television.She was enjoying the variety of roles such
new castings offered. It wasn’t surprising.Shortly following the release of Attack
of the 50ft. Woman, one journalist met with Hayes for a brief
interview.The gossip writer thought
Hayes “a fugitive from ‘Monster’ pictures,” a talented actress looking to take
an extended break from such desultory features. The actress had, in fact, racked up a score of
horror credits in recent years, appearing in a quartet of exploitation pictures
in 1957 alone: The Undead, The Zombies of Mora Tau, The Unearthly, and The Disembodied.In 1958
this former 50 ft. giant was looking for roles more befitting a woman of her
stature.
Shortly following her work on Woman, the saucy Yvette Vickers was cast in the feature The Saga of Hemp Brown and an episode of
TV’s Dragnet.In the years 1958-1961 most of Vickers’
casting was on various television dramas, though a few feature film roles were
mixed in as well.She would also, more
infamously, appear as a “bottoms up” “Playmate of the Month” centerfold in the
July 1959 issue of Playboy magazine,
the photo spread courtesy of Russ Meyer.Of course, I’m just noting the above for the historical record, not to suggest
anyone should rush off to eBay to source a back copy.But if you’re looking to add something new to
your collection…
This region-free Warner Bros. Archive Collection issue of
Attack of the 50ft. Woman is
presented in 1080p High Definition 16x9 with an aspect 1.85:1 and in DTS-HD
Master mono audio. As is often the case
with these Warner Bros. Archive Blu releases, there’s not an abundance of
special features offered outside of the film’s trailer and a commentary track.The latter item is particularly special, if
not unfamiliar to serious collectors.
The commentary track on this new Blu release has been
ported over from Warner’s DVD box set of 2007, Cult Camp Classics, Viol. 1: Sci-Fi Thrillers.On the bright side, the commentaries of film
historian Tom Weaver and actress Vickers are certainly worthy of preservation
on this second digital go round, the film’s first appearance in HD.Both Weaver, likely the finest author-commentator
of vintage Hollywood sci-fi and horror, and Vickers – present on set back in
1958 - offer wonderfully playful and often prescient insights and memories on
the making of the film.Vickers’s
contributions are now made all more special in 2023 as the actress/pin-up girl with
the great sense of humor has since passed.
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