Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Starring Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon, George Douglas
Directed by Nathan Juran
Distributed by Warner Home Video
The year — 1958. A gallon of gas was twenty-five cents, the Wham-O company introduced the Hula Hoop, and the only thing hotter than Elvis Presley, The Ed Sullivan Show, and the films of Alfred Hitchcock were monster movies. These things were being released by the dozens, and the public was eating them up. Here we are almost fifty years later, and tragically enough some of these great B-movie classics still have yet to surface on DVD. Is there no justice? Where are my Saucer People? Have the Teenage Frankensteins and Werewolves disappeared for good? As a film collector this can be most annoying. Thankfully Warner Home Video is now pumping out the goodies, and hopefully this will serve as the trickle before the flood. First up — Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman!
It looks as if the lovely Nancy (Hayes) has hit rock bottom. Thanks to all manner of torture from her lowlife cheating husband Harry (Hudson), Nancy has found herself recently checked out of a sanatorium, broke, and saddled with a drinking problem. There’s no question things are looking really down for her. That is until she runs into an opaque alien while driving through the desert. Said alien grants her the power to grow to mammoth heights, and as a result this woman scorned is now setting out to settle the score with her adulterous hubby by shoving a huge foot straight up his and his mistress (Vickers)’s asses!
Be warned, this is far from a special F/X extravaganza even for its time. Giant Nancy never really looks as if she’s on the screen with whatever she’s sharing it with, and the Kong-like model of her huge hand looks sillier than a clown at a wake! The main attraction here is the script, which is laughable beyond words. Your sides will be splitting as you’re treated to such dialogue as “Now you pulled a boner tonight and you know it”! Now, I know what that means nowadays, but somehow I don’t think it meant quite the same thing back then. Nevertheless, this is how I shall be greeting people for the next two months minimum, if only to see the look on their faces as they shun me in a state of disgust! YAY! Nothing like putting that extra little uncomfortable exclamation point on a session of small talk!
Speaking of extras, there’s not much in the way of them to be found on this DVD. Other than a commentary by star Yvette Vickers and horror historian Tom Weaver, we don’t get a single other thing. Not even a trailer. Still, the commentary is engaging, funny, and at times really sweet. A good alternative to a silly little film.
What more can be said? Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman is a classic slice of American cheese. It doesn’t get much funnier than this, folks! 100% camp!
Special Features
Audio commentary by star Yvette Vickers and horror historian Tom Weaver
2 1/2 out of 5
Special Features:
1 out of 5
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