ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's three fine examples of the well-crafted reviews which Phantom writes so well — one of which includes a gallery of fine images to enhance his comments!





I know just how long it takes to write reviews like these, and I deeply appreciate Phantom's fine contributions to All Sci-Fi.

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The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Based on Richard Matheson's gripping novel and pared down to essentials, the movie is a genuine classic of science fiction that transcends the decade of the fifties and still resonates with audiences today.

The book is written as a series of flashbacks containing much background story that was jettisoned by the author when he wrote the screenplay. Gone are two episodes dealing with Carey's confused daughter and an encounter with a babysitter that doesn't turn out well for the Carey marriage (as if shrinking wasn't enough), neither of which are crucial to the film which moves along at a fast 81m clip.

Grant Williams may or may not have considered the role a plum project. The road to stardom via horror and science fiction films is paved with the bones of many an excellent actor. Given the fact that Williams is the sole human being for three quarters of the running time, acting only with giant props and a green screen, he delivers a tour de force performance. As others have said, he should have become a star. So, what happened?

Katharine Hepburn, when asked what star power was, replied, "I don't know. It's either some kind of energy or some kind of electricity. But whatever it is, I have it."

Williams, with his good looks and intelligent acting, was missing that crucial component that could connect with a wider audience and elevate him to star level, and he remained for the rest of his career in the ranks of fine actors like Jeff Morrow and Richard Carlson who provided competent steady characters when the b-level scripts called for that kind of gravitas.

Randy Stuart as Carey's wife probably has the most difficult acting moment in the film. After all, how does one react to the knowledge that your six-inch high husband has just been eaten by the family cat? Short of all out losing your mind like Freda Jackson in Brides of Dracula (He's free! God help us!), it's an impossible idea to convey, so if Stuart doesn't quite pull it off, she can be forgiven.



A bit of uncovered trivia. Grant Williams actually swears in this scene. As he reaches for the nail, he misses and says, "son of a b....." In the movie and on the dvd it's covered up by a bit of audio distortion, but I can plainly hear the words on my Blu-ray machine.



I sometime wish Carey would try an escape down the drain. But that would be a whole 'nother movie. I get chills just thinking about it.



I saw this at the age of 10 in the summer of '57, on a full size theatre screen, which is probably the way it should be experienced, thrilled beyond measure by the sheer spectacle of it all. The film germinated in my mind for many years afterward, even though I didn't see it again until well into adulthood when perceptions had changed. I was gratified to see just how much it had held up.

But there was always something stirring in the back of my mind that I was seeing and missing something at the same time. And it wasn't until I was watching it for the umpteenth time on dvd that I suddenly sat bolt upright on the sofa and realized what had been lurking in the id all those years.

After Carey has vanquished the spider, he walks wearily to the web and stabs the needle into the dried cake. It's as if he is no longer Scott Carey, he is Jason claiming the Golden Fleece.





Now, I'm not claiming that Matheson's novel is on the level of Classical Literature or that he was even thinking along those lines. But all the elements are there. Carey is chosen by God, or Fate, or whatever it can be called to go on a remarkable journey that takes him into a strange, hostile land. Along the way, he loses his family and his comfortable world, fights a horrible monster for survival and questions his own humanity and his existence. In the end, triumphant, he is given his reward, knowledge of the universe beyond the range of normal men.



In his review of the movie which was published in Famous Monsters of Filmland, Forrest J. Ackerman was negative about Carey's final monologue, on the basis that Carey was far too pragmatic a survivor to suddenly begin spouting religious philosophy. But who can tell?

There are many stories of people who, faced with incredible stress, have experience some kind of epiphany that altered their way of thinking, and sometimes their lives. So, who is to say that Carey did not undergo an existential transformation? He certainly went through the requisite stress.

A person doesn't have to believe in God or religious conviction to appreciate the majesty and poetry of the Biblical saga. And so, as many times as I've seen the movie, I can never get through the final monologue without tears in my eyes.

In Matheson's novel, Carey "runs into his new world" and becomes a microbe. In the movie, Carey reaches the point of zero inches, but because the camera can no longer follow him, we are left to speculate on his further adventures and ultimate fate.]
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Not Of This Earth

Roger Corman's only truly frightening science fiction/horror movie played on a double bill with his most infamous title Attack of the Crab Monsters.

What is amazing about the film is the monster, Paul Birch in business attire and dark glasses, who would not look out of place sitting next to Gregory Peck in The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit, except for the fact that Birch is from outer space, needs blood to survive and has opaque eyes. Got to say, those blank eyes scared the jujubes out of me in '57.

As mentioned, the best scene in the movie (well, the one that almost made me book out of the theatre) was the one in which the umbrella creature floated through the window and wrapped itself around the doctor's head. That was some pretty nasty stuff for kids of that era.

Dick Miller shows up as a door to door salesman in a brief black comedy scene that had everyone in the theatre laughing until Birch removed those glasses. The laughter died pretty quickly.

Birch and Corman came to a disagreement that led to the actor walking out of the film. Corman shot the last several scenes with a double. Not sure what sparked the argument, but it may have had something to do with those opaque lens Birch had to wear. He was in great agony for much of the picture.

Bud, you mentioned that the movie begins with a scene in which Birch talks to an alien in a "closet," which turns out to be a teleportation device. The same scene is repeated about half way into the movie, which is where it was intended in the theatrical release. When Corman sold the syndication rights to television, it was decided that the running time of 67m was either too short or too awkward and Corman, rather than shoot more footage (which is what the television producers wanted), simply repeated the scene to bring it up to their specification. If you are watching the film and it starts with the one you described, it is the television version. On the dvd, it begins as it was originally conceived (the murder of the young girl).

This creepy little opus is one of my favorite b-films of the fifties. I waited for years for a studio release and was pleasantly suprised when it showed up in a nice set along with Attack of the Crab Monsters and War of the Satellites.
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E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

A stunning achievement that has intrigued children and adults for over a quarter of a century and never grows old.

I know people who really dislike this movie, and they are always people who never had a pet dog when they were children. After all, what is ET but a highly evolved pet dog to Elliot, and probably (subliminally) to most of the audience, as well.

There have been only two or three times I've sat in a theatre and listened to everyone, men, women and children, just bawling their eyes out over what was happening on the screen.

The first was the conclusion of Chaplin's City Lights, the second was the final scene in The Plague Dogs as Rowf and Snitter are swimming to the island, and ET and Elliot at the space ship.

"Come," "Stay." may be the two most tragic words ever spoken in a moving picture. If you can get through that scene without breaking down, you are made of some really hard bark.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)