The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock

30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, The (1959)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A historically important film for all the wrong reasons this one is. This sad feature was released five months after the death of its star Lou Costello but it's also best remembered today for it being his sole feature without Bud Abbott. In the film, Costello plays Artie Pinsetter, a simple man who is in love with a town beauty (Dorothy Provine) but the two have to keep their relationship quiet because of her jerk uncle (Gale Gordon) who pretty much owns the entire city. Their secret is revealed once Artie's new wife enters a cave and grows to 30-feet tale. THE 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK is a very sad film to watch but there's a point near the middle where a character states that he's against laughter and that he doesn't do it. Perhaps he was talking about his feelings towards the movie itself because there are very few laughs here and all the cliché comedy bits are just downright pathetic. Costello was a masterful comic and there's no question that he and Abbott were among the greatest comedy duos in history. It's also well known that his personal life was falling apart during this period and you can just look at him and see that he's really not himself. His eyes look shot throughout the picture and there's simply none of that child-like passion and fire that we all know him for. Even worse is that he's pretty much a supporting character. The first fifteen-minutes get off to a horrible start because there's a subplot with the uncle running for Governor and we get an extremely long sequence where the uncle abuses Costello except when a reporter is around then he treats him good. This "abuse" was clearly meant to replace Abbott but it fails. The entire comedy structure around this is just embarrassing to watch and the bad dialogue doesn't help matters. It's also hard to watch this film and not think of ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN, which was released a year earlier. This film here has none of that campy charm and whereas that other film is "so bad it's good," this one here just comes across weak, unfunny and the boring. Heck, the screenplay doesn't even try to explain why the woman ends up growing. There are also other errors including the fact that she's supposed to be 30-feet tall yet she comfortably fits in a two story barn. The special effects are all rather obvious and especially during the scenes where Costello is talking to his bride yet looking in the wrong direction. Some fans debate whether or not this movie would have been better had Abbott been in the uncle role and I think the answer is no. The story is just too weak where no one could have saved it and it's a sad reminder of being Costello's last and only solo role.

Garbage collector Artie Pinsetter (Lou Costello) gets the ire of Uncle Raven Rossiter (Gale Gordon) while he's trying to do a TV program. Artie has been spending a large sum of money for radio parts while dating Uncle Raven's niece Emmy Lou Raven (Dorothy Provine). He has built a computer robot of sorts. Emmy runs into a cave and turns into a growing giant.

It's stupid non-sense. I love that she's playing around with tiny things. There are a couple of fun jokes. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is the year before. This seems to be spoofing that movie which is already campy itself. They did miss an opportunity by making her the 51 foot Woman. The main drawback is actually Emmy Lou. I don't like her. She seems high maintenance. Costello could also be funnier. He needs more jokes in the writing. There is a whole section of time traveling nonsense that isn't funny. This needs a bit more work.

The 30 Foot Bride Of Candy Rock marked a sad end to the career of one of the great film comedians of all time. Saddest of all is that work on this film compromised Lou Costello's health and eventually might have taken his life.

Costello was 52 years old when he made this film and looked every bit of it, especially opposite Dorothy Provine. He also looked strained in his performance as well. But he did want to prove that he could succeed as a solo comic act without Abbott.

Lou is a garbage collector and part time eccentric inventor and Provine's uncle Gale Gordon does not consider him an appropriate suitor for the hand of his niece. On a trip through Dinosaur Canyon National Park, Provine takes in some of the exotic waters and finds herself growing to the height mentioned in the title. Complications ensue, especially after Gordon insists on them being married without knowing the full extent of what's happened to his niece.

I think Lou would have been better off if he had chosen a property that would have allowed him to play someone closer to his actual age, a father figure of some kind. His scenes with Provine just don't gel.

In addition to this being the last film of Lou Costello this was also the final big screen appearance of character actor Jimmy Conlin, playing the Justice Of The Peace who marries the mismatched couple. Conlin was a member in good standing of the Preston Sturges stock company, you'll find him in many of his films.

Not a good film to go out on for Lou Costello.

Lou Costello (sans Abbott) plays a small town self-employed "rubbish collector" (and the inventor of a time-controlling machine!) who is secretly courting the niece of the town big-shot. After a spat, Lou's girl (Dorothy Provine) runs into a misty cave--why it's misty we never learn--and emerges as a 30 foot giant. Provine is certainly a good sport, and she doesn't bother trying not to look ridiculous (it would've been impossible anyway), yet the screenwriter is really cruel to this character, turning her not only into a giant but a nagging harpy as well. Provine bosses Costello around while creating havoc with the Army troops who get called in, but nothing funny is done with the transformation. Trumped by "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman" the previous year, the film does feature Lou Costello in his final bow, but provides little else. The special effects are marginal, while the script needed funnier lines and the direction snappier pacing. *1/2 from ****

It sounds as though "The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock" had kind of a bad reputation simply because Lou Costello was acting without Bud Abbott. Maybe so, but I think that the movie merits a lot of discussion about its era. The relationships between the sexes is obviously very dated. As it happens, one of the jokes centers around the fact that people weren't allowed to say pregnant on screen.

Basically, the movie is an innocuously silly send-up of all the sci-fi flicks about people becoming giants. And besides, how can you not like the sight of Dorothy Provine wearing a parachute and looking like a vestal virgin in a sword-and-sandal epic? It's not anything special, but if the point is to entertain, then it succeeds.

The sight of Dorothy Provine dressed like that is going to elate me for years to come.