This sequel to "The Amazing Colossal Man" has its flaws but is a more than acceptable follow-up to the earlier film and in some ways is even better.
Other have pointed out the inconsistencies in story and logic from the first film to this one. I can't dispute them, but I can put them out of my mind and enjoy this movie by itself. You don't really need to have seen "Amazing Colossal Man" to follow this flick.
Like other 50's monster movies such as "Them!" and "The Black Scorpion", this begins with a lot of suspense, as a terrified young Mexican boy flees in terror from something we cannot see. The most effective part of the movie except for the very end is in these early Mexican scenes, which set up a mystery. The sister of Colonel Glenn Manning, the Amazing Colossal Man, believes that the recent disappearance of grocery trucks in the Mexican countryside might mean her mutated "big brother" survived his previous fall from Hoover Dam. We get to see George Becwar playing the ultimate ugly American who owned the missing trucks and who constantly repeats "Get the Picture?" to everybody.
Joyce Manning's hunch is right: Glenn Manning is still alive but in even worse shape than the first film. His mind has been destroyed, leaving him more beast than man, and his face has been hideously scarred by his Hoover Dam experience. And I mean HIDEOUSLY! This half- skeletal face with its empty eye socket and exposed jawbone is one of the 50's most gruesome make-ups. Totally effective!
Using drugged bread, the Colossal Beast is captured and transported back to California, where he is restrained in an airport warehouse. A very amusing sequence shows how government bureaucrats keep passing the buck to each other as far as responsibility for the giant goes. Joyce tries her best to get humane treatment for Glenn, but when he inevitably breaks loose and goes on the rampage, the Army must do everything it can to contain him. The film ends tragically near the Griffith Park Observatory, with one of the coolest switches from black and white to color that you're likely to see.
This is hardly great art and unintentional hilarity ensues from some outrageous lines, but there is something pathetic and moving about the plight of the monstrous giant as he struggles to survive in a world full of enemies. Sally Fraser is cute as Joyce and Dean Parkin makes for an effective monster as the Colossal Man, complete with some beast-like growls and grumbles. Stock footage from the first movie is obviously used to pad the running time, but brings those who missed the first movie up to speed on Manning's back story.
I think the effects here are much better than in the first film. The Beast looks much more solid and substantial and again, that make-up is SO gruesome. But Bert I Gordon seems to be confused as to The Beast's scale. We're told he's 60 feet tall, but when he first appears, he looks almost 600 FEET tall!
The obvious humanity of Glenn Manning, even in beast-like mode, gives him a lot more pathos than the giant bugs and dinosaurs running amok around the same time. Along with "Earth vs. The Spider", I'd rank this as one of Mr. B.I.G.'s best monster flicks.
Other have pointed out the inconsistencies in story and logic from the first film to this one. I can't dispute them, but I can put them out of my mind and enjoy this movie by itself. You don't really need to have seen "Amazing Colossal Man" to follow this flick.
Like other 50's monster movies such as "Them!" and "The Black Scorpion", this begins with a lot of suspense, as a terrified young Mexican boy flees in terror from something we cannot see. The most effective part of the movie except for the very end is in these early Mexican scenes, which set up a mystery. The sister of Colonel Glenn Manning, the Amazing Colossal Man, believes that the recent disappearance of grocery trucks in the Mexican countryside might mean her mutated "big brother" survived his previous fall from Hoover Dam. We get to see George Becwar playing the ultimate ugly American who owned the missing trucks and who constantly repeats "Get the Picture?" to everybody.
Joyce Manning's hunch is right: Glenn Manning is still alive but in even worse shape than the first film. His mind has been destroyed, leaving him more beast than man, and his face has been hideously scarred by his Hoover Dam experience. And I mean HIDEOUSLY! This half- skeletal face with its empty eye socket and exposed jawbone is one of the 50's most gruesome make-ups. Totally effective!
Using drugged bread, the Colossal Beast is captured and transported back to California, where he is restrained in an airport warehouse. A very amusing sequence shows how government bureaucrats keep passing the buck to each other as far as responsibility for the giant goes. Joyce tries her best to get humane treatment for Glenn, but when he inevitably breaks loose and goes on the rampage, the Army must do everything it can to contain him. The film ends tragically near the Griffith Park Observatory, with one of the coolest switches from black and white to color that you're likely to see.
This is hardly great art and unintentional hilarity ensues from some outrageous lines, but there is something pathetic and moving about the plight of the monstrous giant as he struggles to survive in a world full of enemies. Sally Fraser is cute as Joyce and Dean Parkin makes for an effective monster as the Colossal Man, complete with some beast-like growls and grumbles. Stock footage from the first movie is obviously used to pad the running time, but brings those who missed the first movie up to speed on Manning's back story.
I think the effects here are much better than in the first film. The Beast looks much more solid and substantial and again, that make-up is SO gruesome. But Bert I Gordon seems to be confused as to The Beast's scale. We're told he's 60 feet tall, but when he first appears, he looks almost 600 FEET tall!
The obvious humanity of Glenn Manning, even in beast-like mode, gives him a lot more pathos than the giant bugs and dinosaurs running amok around the same time. Along with "Earth vs. The Spider", I'd rank this as one of Mr. B.I.G.'s best monster flicks.