ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's a fine review from All Sci-Fi member Phantom, complete with a gallery of images from the movie.

It's a remarkable post. 8
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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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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)