Le Fantastique Homme colosse

Bert I. Gordon directed this surprise hit about Lt. Col. Glenn Manning, who is accidentally exposed to a plutonium blast at a desert Army base, burning him extensively, but survives. However, he mysteriously starts to grow, reaching 50Ft. He becomes an object of study, but is gradually losing his mind because of both the situation and decreased blood supply to his brain. Glenn, enraged and despondent, escapes and goes on a rampage, forcing a showdown with the Army he once served in. Despite a good performance from the lead actor, and a sympathetic script, the F/X are shoddy and the ridiculous plot dissolves into an obvious chase melodrama, ending at a dam. Not yet on DVD for some reason, though was on YouTube for awhile.

I have seen The Amazing Colossal Man several times and is one of Mr BIG's better movies.

As a plane crashes just before an atomic test at Camp Desert Rock, Glenn Manning goes to see if there are any survivors despite the danger. The bomb goes off and he gets caught right in the middle of the blast. He suffers 90% burns but doctors are very baffled when they take his bandages off to find him without any scars at all. Gradually, he increases in size and eventually, he goes on the rampage through Las Vagas and kills Major Lindstrom when he injects him with a formula to reduce him in size with the needle. Manning is shot by the Military and falls into the Colorado River but is not dead...

One of the better parts of the movie is where Manning kills the Major with the needle he was going to inject him with.

The cast includes Glenn Langan as Manning and 50's sci-fi regulars Cathy Downs (The She Creature), Russ Bender (It Conquered the World) and James Seay (Killers From Space). Most of the cast are used to fighting giant creatures looking at other sci-fi movies they were in at this time.

Despite the low budget, this movie was fun to watch.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: The brainchild of Bert I. Gordon, who produced, directed and co-wrote, with writer Mark Hanna, the film stars Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs and William Hudson.

The sentimental monster is created when an enlisted man grows huge after being exposed to a nuclear bomb test. When he starts creating havoc, nothing can stop him until he falls off Grand Coulee Dam.

The American-International Pictures release was photographed by Joseph Biroc, whose movies include "It's a Wonderful Life", "Bwana Devil" (the original 3-D feature) and "Blazing Saddles"!

Or ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT MAN, one year Nathan Juran's ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN. It is rather well made for such a small budget, the weak point being special effects. But the story, not that unusual for this period - the dangers of the atomic era - is made with enough talent to hold your attention. There also was WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST, from the same Bert MR BIG Gordon, a year later. A sequel actually, very moving. So, for the fans of Bert Gordon, this film is not his best, but not his worst either. Great care is made for the actors directing, and not only for the visual aspects in a film precisely supposed to be science fiction, which it is at one hundred percent. But any person will prefer Jack Arnold's INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN; one hundred times better than this.

An Army colonel gets too close to an exploding plutonium bomb and like all creatures in the 1950s movies he begins to grow at an amazing rate to colossal proportions. This is much to the dismay of his girlfriend because, well, size does matter. But when your man is 50 feet tall it's ridiculous. But she still loves him even though he's way up there and she's way down here. He goes a little funny in the head and roams the countryside wearing a giant diaper because even the tall men's section has nothing in his size.

Amazing Colossal Man is ridiculous Bert I. Gordon nonsense with cheesy special effects concocted in a garage. Followed by War of the Colossal Beast which is equally stupid. The only way to have fun watching this is with the help of an illegal substance.