16/03/2008

GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN (1958)


I think the 'monster' in this is pretty effective - okay, it's basically just a big guy in armour, but the fact that the film is in black and white lets us imagine the ghastly colour the creature must be - sickly green? A horrible deathly grey perhaps? Who knows?There are pleasing performances from all the main characters, and pretty inept ones from the supporting cast, which is actually something that I usually enjoy in 50's Sci-fi. The performance of 'Indian Joe' alone is worth the cost of the DVD.The story itself is standard monster movie fare - the residents of Pine Ridge are up in arms about some mysterious animal mutilations - which of course turns out to be the work of the Giant From The Unkown - who we see resurrected later on - so how come he managed to kill all the animals beforehand? Hmmmm.Anyway, the young scientist/hero Wayne Brooks (Edward Kremmer, who played the teacher in Earth vs The Spider) is under suspicion by the local policeman.Cue the appearance of eminent archaeologist Prof. Cleveland (Morris Ankrum of Earth vs Flying Saucers - and I think he was in Invaders Fron Mars as well?)and his beautiful daughter Janet. To cut a long story short the Giant From The Unknown kills Wayne and the professor, and marries Janet - okay, sorry, we know that sort of thing never happens in these sort of affairs, not when we have a hero like Wayne Brooks to appear and bash the giant about a bit before he falls off a bridge to his certain (because there hasn't been a sequel) death. Wayne and Janet then get together and - we hope - fall in love.My fave moment in the film that you might like to look out for is when a policeman sneaks up behind the giant with his rifle raised - and instead of shooting him proceeds to use it as a rather ineffective club - great stuff!In sumary then - 10/10, obviously!

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