La mujer gigante

"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.

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.

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.

Okay, this movie is not going to be amongst the Top Hundred listed on the American Film Institute's "greatest" list, but it's the perfect example of a so -called "bad" film that's still wildly entertaining and good fun. Of all the notorious 1950s cheese flicks, this one takes the cake and is not to be passed over, whether you love such offbeat craziness or even if you don't. A good time is guaranteed for all (whatever your cinematic tastes and values).

Nancy Archer (the curvy Allison Hayes) is a wealthy alcoholic housewife considered the town weirdo, and she cements that reputation one night when she cries that she's just seen a satellite in the sky that supposedly come down to Earth and then swears she's had an encounter with a king-sized bald-headed giant living inside. Her rotten-to-the-core and cheating husband Harry (the perfectly-cast William Hudson) spends all his nights at the local bar blatantly smooching with sexy floozy Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers), and the flirtatious pair would love to take all of Nancy's money and be rid of her. When he learns of his wife's nutty alien story, Harry figures it's the perfect chance to send her off to the booby hatch once and for all, but he gets more than he bargains for.

At only 65 minutes, this story moves comfortably quick and there's not an ounce of dead meat to be had. Considering the absurd storyline, director Nathan Hertz (Nathan Juran) manages to get some mileage out of it anyway. Some of the all-time very worst "special" effects are on display in this cult classic, and have to be seen to be believed (the over-sized gigantic feminine "hand" is an absolute laugh riot!). Even in this present day and age of "state of the art" CGI effects, there is something eternally entertaining and lovable about these low budgeted cardboard props and cheapo transparent blow-up renderings of the giants walking around the streets. This was a favorite on New York television in the early '70s, and no kid who grew up with it can ever forget it. Be a kid again, or be one for the first time, and give this a shot for a lark. *** out of ****

This film has to be one of my all time favorite bad movies. I used to watch it often as kid on New York City's WPIX Channel 11's Chiller Theater. The special effects(ha!) are dreadful, the dialog laughable, the acting non-existent, but I still loved it! Sultry knockout Allison Hayes wasn't a terrific actress, but she sure looked good! As a kid I remember thinking that her husband HARRY! was a big dope. Why would he want that pinch-faced blonde, when he had gorgeous, sexy and stacked Nancy to come home to every night? What a moron. Finally available on DVD after many years (Warner Bros. has distributed it but I was hoping for a better restoration--oh well)....it's still a pleasure to watch.