Home Projectionist

Trick & Treat for October 19th:

ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN (1958; with Allison Hayes; directed by Nathan Juran)

It’s a shame that the Amazing Colossal Man perished in a tragic fall from atop Hoover Dam in 1957. Nancy Archer and the colossal Glenn Manning had something in common besides enjoying long walks. More importantly, the attacks Nancy inflicts on her hometown (and on us) during this film might have been prevented. In what might be one of the most unbelievable of all 1950s sci-fi movies (which is saying an amazingly lot), Nancy (Allison Hayes), the wife of the wealthy, philandering Harry, goes on quite a tear when she discovers Harry at a local diner with the town floozy, Honey Parker. Harry quickly discerns that Nancy has a big chip on her shoulder–a chip that in fact is literally a city bus.

You see, there was this alien spaceship Nancy happened to see one day. Out of this spacecraft stepped a weird alien (is there any other kind?), dressed like a Frenchman from the 1600s. Astonishingly, authorities do not believe Nancy’s story. Her encounter with the alien left some minor side effects–namely that she’s a bit taller. Which would be fine except that she’s about 45 feet taller. Always a fussy clothes shopper with nothing to wear, Nancy’s really in a pickle now, settling for a very large beach towel. She also has a newfound problem with trees and houses, and decides to do some urban renewal. Nowadays, Nancy could turn her bad luck and her unique new assets into a lucrative movie/TV deal, and possibly a very large Playboy spread. This being 1958 however, Nancy and her sarong must be dealt with by the use of force. This is a whopper of a tale for sure. But if you can suspend disbelief for 90 minutes, it’s one with some sweet, funny rewards. 

Who wants to wait until the 31st to wallow in Halloween indulgences and scary movies?! Home Projectionist doesn’t! And so we’ll have pairings of 31 Frights and 31 Bites every one of October’s 31 nights: a scary, snack size movie “trick”, and a delicious “treat” to go along with it.