• Source: War of the Colossal Beast

War of the Colossal Beast (a.k.a. Revenge of the Colossal Man and The Colossal Beast) is a 1958 black-and-white science fiction film, written, produced, and directed by Bert I. Gordon for his Carmel Productions, and starring Dean Parkin, Sally Fraser, and Roger Pace. It is the sequel to Gordon's earlier The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and was distributed theatrically by American International Pictures as the bottom half of a double feature with Attack of the Puppet People. The film's storyline picks up where The Amazing Colossal Man left off, although it was not marketed as a sequel and features a different cast. The film's brief death-scene finale was filmed in color.




Plot


Upon hearing of several recent robberies of food delivery trucks in Mexico, Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser), Army officer Lt. Colonel Glenn Manning's sister, becomes convinced that her brother (Dean Parkin) survived after being exposed to radiation from an atomic bomb (as seen in The Amazing Colossal Man). Along with Army officer Major Mark Baird (Roger Pace) and scientist Dr. Carmichael (Russ Bender), Joyce goes to Mexico to look for Glenn and finds that he has, in fact, survived, but was left disfigured and nearly mindless by the trauma of his fall. Manning is eventually captured, drugged by the Army, and transported back to the United States. He is able to escape again and goes on a rampage through Los Angeles and Hollywood. He nearly kills a school bus full of children. Joyce reasons with him, and he slowly is brought back to his senses. Now realizing what he has become and what he has done, Manning commits suicide by electrocuting himself on high-voltage power lines near the Griffith Observatory.




Cast


Duncan "Dean" Parkin as Lt. Colonel Glenn Manning/Colossal Man
Sally Fraser as Joyce Manning
Roger Pace as Major Mark Baird
Russ Bender as Dr. Carmichael
Rico Alaniz as Sgt. Luis Murillo
Charles Stewart as Captain Harris
George Becwar as John Swanson
Roy Gordon as Mayor
Robert Hernandez as Miguel
George Milan as General Nelson




Production



War of the Colossal Beast was produced, directed, and written by Bert I. Gordon and co-produced with Samuel Z. Arkoff. Although most of it is shot in black-and-white, the ending was shot in color for the electrocution scene and doctored in black-and-white. The producers decided to use the very heavy make-up on Dean Parkin as a way to disguise the fact that a different actor was playing Colonel Manning, especially since a dream sequence flashing back to the original film featured Glenn Langan, the star of the earlier film. Dean Parkin also played the lead monster role in another Bert I. Gordon film, The Cyclops.
Some of the tiny-sized props created for The Amazing Colossal Man by special effects technician Paul Blaisdell were featured again in this sequel via flashbacks.




Reception and legacy


Contemporary film fan-historians Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester noted that the film was "... a low-budget ship with Bert Gordon at the helm, so the special effects are unsurprisingly average; one always knows the 'giant' was filmed separately and mixed in with other shots".




= Mystery Science Theater 3000

=
War of the Colossal Beast was featured in season 3, episode 19 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.




See also


List of American films of 1958
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman




References






= Notes

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= Citations

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= Bibliography

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External links



War of the Colossal Beast at IMDb
War of the Colossal Beast at the TCM Movie Database
War of the Colossal Beast at AllMovie
Said MST3K episode on Shout Factory TV

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Dan Stevens
• Akame ga Kill!
• War of the Colossal Beast
• The Amazing Colossal Man
• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
• Bert I. Gordon
• Attack of the Puppet People
• Sally Fraser
• The Cyclops (film)
• List of science fiction films of the 1950s
• Ronald Sinclair
• Warren Frost