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The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Scott Carey (Grant Williams) has his world fall apart when he suddenly realizes that he seems to be losing too much weight. At first he and his wife (Randy Stuart) joke it off as he's not eating enough but then they realize that he's also getting smaller. The medical field is at a loss and before long Scott is just larger than a nail and finds himself in for the fight of his life.

Jack Arnold's THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN is an incredibly entertaining gem that manages to get better each time I revisit it. It's funny but as a kid this here really wasn't one of my favorite Universal films but the older I get the more I appreciate the story from Richard Matheson and the fact that he and Arnold weren't afraid to make it a rather bleak subject. I certainly won't ruin the ending but anyone who has seen the movie will certainly be blown away by it.

There are all sorts of great things in this movie but for me the highlight was the battle in the film, which happens when Scott gets stuck in the basement and his wife thinks that he is dead. There are several different obstacles that Scott must overcome in the basement and the adventure that he goes on is full of wonderful action scenes as well as some terrific suspense built up by the director. The score is quite riviting and adds to the tension as our shrinking man must battle one thing after another.

The special effects for 1957 are quite excellent, although they do show their age today. With that said, the story by Matheson is just so believable that the viewer has no problem getting sucked into it and the adventure. Another major plus is that Williams is so good in his role and he helps carry you along with everything that his character goes through. Throw in the wonderful cinematography, the interesting use of science and you're really got a nice little gem that continues to get better as the years go by.

What a fantastic film this is: Richard Matheson's finest feature-length script is like the best of his Twilight Zone episodes, both wonderfully imaginative and thoughtfully philosophical at once.

It begins in bland, generic, white picket fenced 1950s America and ends in deep contemplation of the infinite, and along the way becomes unmoored from all reference points from the age in which it was made, as the protagonist himself has every thing familiar to him progressively stripped away and he is reduced to the most raw, primal, archetypal battle for survival.

The actor Grant Williams never did anything of any real note again, but here, in his continually deepening suffering, he moves into a glowing, timeless space that would not look out of place in any Bergman film. It's a performance for the ages.

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a rare, unique work and by far my favourite of all those 1950s sci-fi and monster movies.

A Sci-Fi masterpiece stunningly mounted and directed . Almost beyond the imagination . . A strange adventure into the unknown ! . After being contaminated by what may or not to be radioactive mist , a good man finds himself turning smaller and steadily shedding the inches and pounds until he reaches actually minuscule proportions . A suburban husband named Scott Carey (Grant Williams) begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide and medics (William Schallert) are powerless to help him . He becomes a media darling but starts to feel humiliated and expressing cruel anger against his wife (Randy Stuart) . In his home's basement he battles lethal threats as spiders , floods or drops of water in an endless and surreal environment . At the ending terminates in a strangely and moving religious assertion of what it really means to be alive.

Universal classic of the 50s with numerous unforgettable scenes including a rousing showdown with a giant cat and a common house spider. Good performance by Grant Williams in that a strange fog causes him to dwindle becoming into unfortunate man who forces him to view the world in a diverse light than ever before. Intelligent and brooding screenplay by Richard Matheson with many memorable dialogs and including philosophical and pantheist speeches ; furthermore based on his own novel . Joseph Gershenson's impressive score with thrilling strains. Fine special effects highlight and good Art Direction by Alexander Golitzen .

This well-edited motion picture is compellingly directed by Jack Arnold in his best foray into the Sci-Fi genre. He reigns supreme as one of the greatest filmmakers of 50s science , achieving an important cult popularity with classics as "The Creature from the Black Lagoon," and its follow-up titled "Revenge of the Creature" that was a nice sequel . "Tarantula" was likewise a lot of amusement . This "The Incredible Shrinking Man" attained his greatest enduring cult popularity , it's a thought-provoking and impressive classic that's lost none of its power throughout the years . Arnold's final two genre entries were the interesting "Monster on the Campus" and the outlandish "The Space Children¨ . It's followed by an inferior Sci-Fi comedy titled ¨Incredible shrinking woman (1981)that results to be a semi-spoof , being directed by Joel Schumacher in his first movie , with Lily Tomlin , Charles Grodin and Nead Beatty. Rating : Better than average . Well catching for amazing acting, philosophical and existential argument and really peculiar transformation .

Along with "invasion of the body snatchers"(1956) "forbidden planet"(1956) and "the fly" (1958),the best movie sci-fi offered in the fifties.

Richard Matheson's remarkable novel was adapted by himself,thus the movie is an accurate rendition.Differences are kept to the minimum,and are probably due to censorship:one character,the pedophile,who wants to take the hero to his home has been removed and the relationship with Clarice remains platonic.Besides,Matheson focuses here on the second part of his novel,which takes place in the basement.

The special effects are absolutely stunning for the time ,but what's the most extraordinary is that they take a back seat to the hero's frames of mind:the voice-over is never redundant and Matheson's brilliant lines,a thousand miles above the B-movie level,perfectly convey his hero's plight."Arachnophobia"(1990),with a much more comfortable budget pales into insignificance when you've seen Grant Williams'fight with the spider.The doll house,the scenes with the midgets,the metaphysical final are as awesome today as they were half a century ago.Do not miss the cast and credits at the beginning either. During its second half,except for the voice-over,the movie is almost silent and Jack Arnold sustains the interest with only one character.

With its inexorable progression -the hero slowly becoming on his own-,its first-class screenplay and a fine direction by Jack Arnold,who could ask for a remake? This movie and the three I mention above are genuine classics,they have in common fears hidden in collective unconscious.

Instead of the typical blood and gore screaming sensationalism of many 1950s sci-fi films, this is an amazingly well thought-out film that is underplayed and even philosophical.

There are some amusing moments in the film, such as when we discover Scott in a dollhouse, but much of the story is handled seriously -- the topics of being different, surviving in an unsympathetic world, crass commercialism, and loneliness are well portrayed.

The theme of the film is what is really amazing. Despite the rather schlocky title, we are given a view of humanity's place in the universe. The final sequence is an imaginative portrait of the balance between the macrocosm and the microcosm.

The film is more than it first appears. Definitely see this one.