Blu-Ray Review: Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958).

Directed by Nathan Hertz
Produced by Bernard Woolner
Written by Mark Hanna
Director Of Photography: Jacques R. Marquette
Film Editor: Edward Mann
Music by Ronald Stein

Cast: Allison Hayes (Nancy Fowler Archer), William Hudson (Harry Archer), Yvette Vickers (Honey Parker), Roy Gordon (Dr. Isaac Cushing), George Douglas (Sheriff Dubbitt), Ken Terrell (Jess), Otto Waldis (Dr. Heinrich Von Loeb), Eileen Stevens (Nurse), Frank Chase (Deputy Charlie)

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First saw Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958) when I was 12. I was already pretty entrenched in horror and sci-fi movies from the 30s to the 60s, and while this one wasn’t much to write home about, I loved it. Still do, and there’s even more to love with the new Blu-Ray from Warner Archive.

The lovely Nancy Fowler Archer (Allison Hayes) seems to have pretty much everything. $50 million bucks (in 1958 money). The famous Star Of India diamond. A swank second home in the desert. A loyal butler (Ken Turrell). And a gorgeous 1958 Imperial Crown convertible.

She also has some mental health issues, a drinking problem, and a real dirtbag of a cheating husband (William Hudson). Those three things come to a head one night when she comes across a huge, glowing orb from outer space — and the bald giant (with an effeminate, but insanely hairy arm) who lives inside it.

No one believes Nancy, naturally, but her husband decides to use it for all its worth — a way to send her away forever while assuring his access to all that money. This pleases his boozy, floozy girlfriend, Yvette Vickers.

Eventually, Allison Hayes, the orb and the giant come together again — and she’s soon 50 feet tool and sleeping on top of the pool house. As doctors (played by Roy Gordon and Otto Waldis) discuss her predicament, all we see is a very large, very unconvincing fake hand — probably the same hand we saw as the giant, now de-haired. Some effects are not special.

The actual “attack of the 50 toot woman” is limited to the last 10 minutes, with regular-sized people pointing upward and telling is what Miss Hayes is doing, as she heads toward the bar to find William Hudson and Yvette Vickers.

It’d be really easy to laugh off Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman as a ludicrous piece of junk if it wasn’t for the pros that put it together. Director Nathan Juran (using the Nathan Hertz pseudonym he reserved for really cheap movies) and editor Edward Mann keep things quick and snappy. There’s a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole thing that really works in its favor. And it doesn’t play at all like a normal 50s sci-fi film — the scheming, philandering husband features almost as much as the mysteriously growing wife.

Some may feel the movie could be better (I love it just as it is), but we’ll probably all agree this Blu-Ray can’t be improved. The transfer is up to Warner Archive’s typical exacting standard — framed and dialed-in perfectly. We get the wonderfully overstated trailer that promises far, far more than the film delivers. And it picks up the commentary from Tom Weaver and Yvette Vickers (RIP) that graced the original DVD release. Plus, they let Reynold Brown’s original poster art shine on the cover.

I grew up on movies movies like this. And thanks to Warner Archive, I’ll grow old seeing this one look absolutely splendid. Highly, highly recommended.

San Francisco, May, 1964.

You couldn’t pay me to go to San Francisco today, but I would love to have been there in May of 1964. Look at this great twin bill — Mario Bava’s Erik The Conqueror (1961) and Hercules And The Captive Women (1963).

All that, and Jimmy Payne, a former Mr. America, was dropping by!

Blu-Ray Review: Hercules And The Captive Women (1963).

Directed by Vittorio Cottafavi
Produced by Achille Piazzi
Executive Supervision: Hugo Grimaldi
Cinematography: Carlo Carlini
Music Supervision (US Version): Gordon Zahler, General Music Corp.
Title Design (US Version): Filmation Associates

Cast: Reg Park (Hercules), Fay Spain (Queen Antinea), Ettore Manni (Androclo, Re di Tebe), Luciano Marin (Illo), Laura Efrikian (Ismene), Maurizio Coffarelli (Proteus, The Monster), Leon Selznick (Narrator, US Version)

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Let’s not take for granted the fact that Blu-Ray technology has become prevalent enough that niche genre films like Hercules And The Captive Women (1963) are getting the kind of deluxe treatment usually given to pictures widely acknowledged as “classics.” As someone who seems to only watch movies that fall into some kind of goofy niche, I’m so thankful to the companies putting these things out.

That makes reviewing something like The Film Detective’s new Blu-Ray of Hercules And The Captive Women a bit odd, since I’m overjoyed by the thing before I even know what it looks like. With that out of the way, lets get to it.

Hercules And The Captive Women was released in Italy in 1961 as Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide, which translates to “Hercules At The Conquest Of Atlantis.” Shot in Technicolor and Technirama, it was Reg Park’s first time as Hercules. The picture played in the UK as Hercules Conquers Atlantis.

In 1963, The Woolner Bros. brought it to the States. They re-cut it, re-dubbed it, replaced the score, gave it the title Hercules And The Captive Women and opened it with new animated credits from Filmation. This is the version The Film Detective has brought to Blu-Ray, and it’s beautiful.

This time around, Hercules takes on Antinea, the Queen of Atlantis (Fay Spain), who’s planning on taking over the world with an army of odd-looking blond warriors. Along the way, there are all kinds of fights, plenty of posing and posturing and lots of crazy dialogue — you know, the stuff that makes these peplum movies what they are.

Hercules And The Captive Women one was one of my favorite peplums as a kid, thanks largely to the lizard monster Hercules (Reg Park) takes on. Fay Spain appeared in everything from Dragstrip Girl (1957) to The Godfather Part II (1974). I liked Park’s next one, Mario Bava’s Hercules In The Haunted World (1961), even better. This was probably the peak for peplum.

Thanks to the Technicolor and Technirama, Hercules And The Captive Women has a bigger, lusher feel than the rest of these things, which is where The Film Detective’s really pays off. The transfer — a 4K Restoration from the original 35mm camera negative — is as sharp as a tack. Sharpness and deep focus were the key benefits of Technirama, surely one of the best of the many film processes to turn up in the 50s. The audio here is, well, it is what it is. The dubbing and effects are as wonky as you remember, but quite a bit cleaner and clearer. You might recognize a music cue from Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) — it’s also in Bend Of The River (1952) and King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962).

There’s a mighty batch of extras: a commentary by Tim Lucas, a nice booklet with notes from C. Courtney Joyner, a documentary on peplums, Hercules And The Conquest Of Cinema, and MST3K’s take on the film. This is a really nice package. The Film Detective is a company to keep an eye on — they’re really on a roll these days. Highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #300: Lightning Bolt (1966).

Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Starring Anthony Eisley, Wandisa Guida, Diana Lorys, Ursula Parker, Folco Lulli

This one’s already out. Code Red has released Antonio Margheriti’s Lightning Bolt (1966, also known as Operazione Goldman) on Blu-Ray, with The Resurrection Of Zachary Wheeler (1971) as an extra. That’s got Leslie Neilson and Angie Dickinson in it.

Lightning Bolt is one of those European James Bond ripoffs from the mid-60s. This one proved (to me, at least) that the ripoffs could be every bit as enjoyable as what they were ripping off, sometimes more. It’s a lot of fun, if you don’t ask it to make a lot of sense. Margheriti was really on a roll during this period, with Barbara Steele pictures (Castle Of Blood, The Long Hair Of Death) coming before this one — and the Gamma 1 series (Wild, Wild Planet, etc.) following it.

Picked up by Woolner Bros. in the States, Lightning Bolt played with Red Dragon (1966) during its original run. It’s not near as good. Judging from screen grabs from the Blu-Ray, the picture may not be of demonstration quality, but it’s miles ahead of what I saw on TV and had on VHS once upon a time. Can’t wait to see its full Techniscope framing!

If you’re a fan of this stuff, this one comes highly recommended. I’ll get around to a longer piece once I see the Blu-Ray.