STARRING: Allison Hayes, William
Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon
1958, 66 Minutes, Directed by:
Nathan Juran
That
this late 1950s sci-fi B-movie has been released on DVD under Warner Bros' Cult
Camp Classic series says it all. (It is part of a box set also containing other
1950s zero-budget SF efforts The Giant Behemoth and Queen of Outer
Space.)
Allison Hayes in a wonderfully
over-the-top performance is a rich heiress who grows into a giant after an
encounter with giant alien in the desert. She then goes about exacting revenge
against her philandering and scheming husband (William Hudson) and his mistress
(Yvette Vickers, Playboy's Miss July 1959 and star of
Attack of the Giant Leeches).
The acting is campy and the
plot doesn't make sense: Hayes grows to King Kong-size
but still somehow manages to fit in her bedroom!
Don't be misled by the
contemporary cover DVD showing an enormous Allison Hayes menacing several cars
and innocent bystanders on a Californian flyway: none of this actually happens
as Hayes? rampage is rather short-lived and perfunctory.
The special effects are
particularly atrocious: the alien's spaceship looks like the giant plastic boob
that menaced Woody Allen in Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were
Too Afraid to Ask), except for the very visible wires and missing nipple of
course. The giant alien has what suspiciously looks like a dragon on the back of
his sleeveless shirt. More famously, all the giant creatures in the movie are
transparent in some shots for some unexplained reason!
The Warner Bros. DVD looks
fantastic though: the Black & White image is crisp and speckle-free. Movies much
younger than this almost half-century old entry looks a lot worse on DVD! Not
much in the line of special features except for an animated and entertaining
audio commentary by star Yvette Vickers and film historian Tom Weaver.
Be sure to have some friends,
beer and nachos (with extra cheese!) on hand when watching Attack of the 50
Ft. Woman.
(Note: Attack of the 50 Ft.
Woman was remade as a TV movie in the 1990s starring Darryl Hannah.)
That
this late 1950s sci-fi B-movie has been released on DVD under Warner Bros' Cult
Camp Classic series says it all. (It is part of a box set also containing other
1950s zero-budget SF efforts The Giant Behemoth and Queen of Outer
Space.)