THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) Movie Review

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 22
Total First Time Views: 14
Amount raised for ALBANY PARK THEATER PROJECT: $1,760.00

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) d. Jack Arnold (USA) (81 min) (8th viewing)

Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is getting smaller.

No matter how strongly he denies it, no matter how his devoted wife Louise (Randy Stuart) reassures him, no matter that the doctors and specialists are stumped, there is no avoiding the truth of the situation. This once full-grown, everyday ad executive is slowly diminishing in size, with his normal surroundings becoming an ominous reminder of his plight. Wearing clothes that no longer fit, dwarfed by ordinary home furnishings, and with the race against time becoming increasingly desperate every day, Scott is literally reduced to reassessing his place in the world, one which – pardon the expression – grows ever more threatening.

THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955) Blu-ray Review

This Island Earth (1955) d. Joseph M. Newman (USA) (86 min)

After a series of unique scientific instruments are delivered to his lab’s doorstep, atomic scientist Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) is invited to take part in a top-secret research experiment in a remote lab, working with the odd-featured inhabitants of the planet Metaluna and an international assembly of renowned scientists such as Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue) and Dr. Steven Carlson (Russell Johnson).

Though the purpose of the collective, as stated by their Metalunan employer Exeter (Jeff Morrow), is to end war, Meacham’s suspicions that things are not what they seem are soon born out when he, Ruth, and Steven try to leave the facility… with dire consequences. Attempting to escape their fate, they jump aboard a nearby airplane and are promptly whisked away in a flying saucer to Metaluna, where the planet’s energy shield is slowly failing due to attacks by its sworn enemy, the Zahgons.

TARANTULA (1955) Blu-ray review

Tarantula (1955) d. Jack Arnold (USA) (81 min)

A plan to feed the world by using a growth formula on plants and animals instead creates terror beyond imagining when a lab accident releases a spider of mammoth proportions upon an unsuspecting public! Feeding on cattle and humans, this towering tarantula has the people of Desert Rock, Arizona, running for their lives. Can this horrifying creature be stopped… or will the world be crushed beneath its giant hairy feet?

THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957) Blu-ray review

The Deadly Mantis (1957) d. Nathan Juran (USA) (79 min)

After our titular prehistoric big bug is released from an iceberg in the Arctic Circle by an earthquake, it begins a southerly wave of destruction, eventually climbing up the Washington Monument and hiding out in New York’s Holland Tunnel. Released during the height of gargantuan screen mayhem, the menacing mantis murders everything in its path while military man Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and paleontologist Ned Jackson (William Hopper, 20 Million Miles to Earth) work feverishly to stop the beastly insect, with beautiful photojournalist Marge Blaine (Alix Talton) livening up the scenery.

THE MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957) movie review

Monolith Monsters, The (1957) d. Sherman, John (USA)

After crashing near a town in Death Valley, fragments of a meteor expand and grow when touched by water. When the resulting stalagmite marauders threaten the nearby town, it’s up to Incredible Shrinking Man star Grant Williams to find answers quick, especially when he discovers that contact with the fragments turns his neighbors into solid rock.