Angriff der 20-Meter-Frau

This is every philandering husband's worst nightmare—a 50-foot wife full of angry revenge. Could that subtext be what turned this clumsy Z-grade sci-fi into a cult favorite. Certainly, it's not the special effects. The two giants look more like flimsy apparitions than flesh and blood realities, and worse, move with all the dispatch of sleepwalking turtles. Really scary if you're a garden slug.

Neither can it be the lame comedy relief from the deputy (Chase), who makes Barney Fife of Mayberry look like a brain surgeon. Nor is it the boilerplate scenes from a hundred other sci- fi specials of the time.

No. I figure that what grips the popular imagination is the feminist subtext. After all, think of wife Nancy (Hayes) not as 50-feet tall, but as an ordinary sized woman, except she's got 50- feet of powerful rage against a no-good husband who she's been dependent on as in the movie.

Now, one thing the film does really well is make you sympathize with the vulnerable wife. Those scenes of hubby (Hudson) cuddling with the trampy Honey (Vickers) are little gems of tacky love. The slinky Vickers is perfectly cast, lending real satisfaction to that 50-feet of slow-motion revenge.

So maybe a lot of wives or will-be-wives seeing the movie feel—what's the word—oh yeah, "empowered". At the same time, guys may think it's the scariest movie ever made. Either way, the giant woman idea turns this Z-grade dreck into something memorable.

Surprisingly this late 50's Sci-Fi feature isn't all that bad. Decent acting and filming make it one of those Black and White science fiction numbers that's entertaining and fun to watch. The last line in this motion picture is an underrated classic among closing lines. Superior to the 90 something remake.

"Haaaarrrryyy!"

The amplified, dispassionate female voice could have been Leona Helmseley in heat but, no, it belongs to Allison Hayes as Nancy Archer, the 50-Foot Woman of the title. In the most infamous role of her film career, Allison's performance literally rips off the roof. In fact, make that a couple of roofs.

Jaw-droppingly tacky, "Aot50FW" is the tale of Nancy, a neurotic, boozy heiress and her loveless Lothario husband, Harry (William Hudson, who also co-starred opposite The Amazing Colossal Man). Nancy has a close encounter of the third kind, in the desert, with a bald giant from outer space who wears a mini-skirt and gladiator sandals, and who has a thing for Nancy's jewelry. What he does to her once he's carried her off is probably best left a mystery, but soon Nancy starts to grow.

Treading into the center of town on tranquilizers, tightly wrapped in nothing but the bed sheets, the buxom giantess heads toward the low-rent saloon where Harry is having a few laughs with a floozy named Honey (Yvette Vickers). The confrontation turns ugly.

The Poverty Row f/x make the alien giant and Nancy appear to be transparent due to incompetently transposed images. You'll understand why director Nathan Juran changed his name to Nathan Hertz on the credits. Juran was no stranger to directing giant creatures, human and non, having also directed "The Deadly Mantis," "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," "Jack, the Giant Killer" plus several episodes of TV's "World of Giants" and "Land of the Giants."

A lot of laughs for all the wrong reasons.

How can you NOT like this film? It's very absurdity makes it an instant classic. What absurdity you ask? Well how about the fact that when the sheriff (George Douglas) and Jess the butler (Ken Terrell) enter the giant's space ship everything is scaled to our size? How about the fact that when the giant (Mike Ross) picks up the sheriff's car it's a station wagon, when he throws it to the ground it's a sedan, and when the sheriff checks the wreckage it's a station wagon again? Or maybe the fact that Alison Hayes height seems to vary from scene to scene; sometimes she's a mere 18 feet tall and in others she is much larger. Did I, or should I?, mention that you can see right through both giants in almost every scene?

And when she reaches through the roof of the bar to pick up her philandering husband (William Hudson, who also went face-to-ankle with THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN a year earlier) why didn't they cut the scene before you saw the doll Alison was picking up had no legs? Should I even mention the fact that this movie is set in California and the deputy (Frank Chase) has a Boston accent ("Hi ya Mistah Ahhhhcha!")?

You can spot Ken Terrell doing stunts in most of the Republic serials during the 40's. Roy Gordon (Dr. Cushing) appeared in THE WASP WOMAN in 1959, Yvette Vickers (Honey Parker) had a run-in with giant bloodsuckers in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES. And Alison Hayes . . .ah, she was my dream girl when I was growing up.

Let the sourpusses deride this film, I think it's great fun. Don't waste your time with the remake, THIS is the one to catch.

Rich socialite Nancy Archer encounters an alien UFO with a giant while driving on a desolate road. Her husband Harry Archer is cheating on her with Honey Parker. None of the cops believe her but they still have to investigate because of her wealth and power. Some suggests that she should go back to the sanitarium. She drags Harry out to search for the UFO. The giant takes her while Harry gets away. He tries to run away with Honey but the sheriff is suspicious of the missing Nancy Archer. They find her and put her away into the sanitarium. There she grows to be a giant 50 foot woman.

This is more notable for the poster art and the amazingly cheesy title. There isn't anything quite like it. Others come close like 'Snakes on a Plane' or 'Sharknado' or 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes', but this one has the best title of them all. As a movie, this is strictly B-movie horror material. The special effects are almost laughable from the terribly fake giant hands to the badly done optical effects of the giants. The acting is kind of interesting. These actors are trying so hard and taking it so seriously. Sometime they overact, but they never let the silliness of it all take over. It's safe to say that this is a classic bad movie.