"I saw a satellite!" I take it this film was made -before- the universally known term "UFO" was around.Wow, what a lame load of garbage. Is this EVER a movie from the 50's - lots of cigarettes, lot's booze, lot's of convertibles and lot's of painfully shrill hysterics, but more Boredom then anything. I bet there are at least a handful of nostalgic souls out there, who consider this to be a classic. However, with complete confidence, I can tell you that it wasn't good then and it sure as hell isn't good now. Just another lame and tedious, vintage, low-budget Sci-Fi flick - which now, nearly 60 years later, is even less impressive. This movie actually started out well, but VERY briefly, I like it's title screen - but after that it's all downhill from there. Here's yet another example where a movie might have been good, had a completely different group of people worked on it.Included here is an incomplete list of things you can expect to see when watching Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Right out of the gates you have the shrill and over-wrought acting from Allison Hayes, a gold digger husband and a cast of dull, paper-thin characters, painfully dated photographic effects (that you can literally see through that which is intended to be solid), hokey attempts at slapstick - that usually miss there mark and capping things off is a short-lived, very tepidly paced and entirely unspectacular finale. When she goes on her so-called rampage through town, the movements of our 50 foot maiden wield very little weight and even less speed, she emotes practically no emotion (a pleasant countenance if anything) and an overall VERY tame approach was taken. In short, this movie sucks. This stinking scrap of celluloid by-product currently maintains a (laughably inaccurate) 5.0 rating. After having seen the movie I can quickly and easily arrive at this conclusion, which is: Anyone who rates this weak and dated schlock above one or two stars, is obviously basing their rating from a purely and -completely- NOSTALGIC point-of-view (you can bet money on it) and that often has a way of over-riding people's logic and any critical assessment they might of had. Sorry to sound like a snob, but Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is exquisitely lame and those effects! Wwhheewww och! There are many good old black and whites out there, that are plenty worthy of nostalgic attachment, but with Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.................well, not so much.Another thing that I've noticed over the years, is that no Sci-Fi from the 50's is all that exciting (if they are, it's usually because of how terrible they are) and most Sci-Fi from the 50's (and beyond) are throw-away's. Sci-Fi is the hardest genre to excel in, evidently not everyone has the mind of George Lucas.Interesting Contrast's: The Incredible Shrinking Man vs. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. When you compare these two films, you'll find that they are absolutely the -exact opposite- of each other and here's why. Made only a year apart, in one the lead is played by man, the other by a WOman, one involves micro-nized size (1 inch tall or so), the other involves gigantism (50 feet tall) but most importantly, one of these vintage films is great - while the other is terrible. One is fun, the other a total bore.Did anyone notice that funny continuity? When the hubby was going to over-dose her with a syringe, then the nurse walks in, she turns on the lights, screams (of course) and he's suddenly holding a vastly smaller syringe.
... View MoreATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN has two things going for it: Allison Hayes (do the math); she's definitely a stand-out in her bed-sheet bikini (IF that's what it is), even if she IS a tad "transparent" throughout most of the movie (those parts that actually FEATURE her, that is: she spends far too much time OFF screen, if you ask me). Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't her hair change color when she "blossomed?" Most of the movie's as gorgeous as the star, and the music is often Great; only the not-so-special effects tend toward Low End Laughs. Storywise, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN is a Tragedy: the Heroine gets f---ed over by her sorry-a-- husband, then ends up dead. So much for Happy Endings...
... View MoreMonsters from the Id. This Movie came Late in the 1950's Sci-Fi Cycle but it Contains Much of the Decades Angst and Subconsciously Displays a Rich Array of the Era's Fears and Uncomfortable Social Conventions.The Poster...Wonderfully Prolific Artist Reynold Brown Designed this Classic and it Contains an Ultra-Sexy, Larger than Life, Voluptuous Woman Straddling an Iconic Freeway and that Most Descriptive of Eisenhower Prosperity and Abundance, the Automobile.Pubescent Boys...Baby Boomers who Watched Allison Hayes in this Movie in the Back Seat of a Car at the Drive-In or Seated in a Balcony at the Local Movie-Theatre, or on TV, Certainly were made all Tingly by the Sight of this Sexy Woman in Revealing Cleavage and Skin Tight Clam-Diggers. That Definitely Contributed to the Pleasurable Memories and Added to the Cult Fever for the Film.Flying Saucers...Here for some Unknown Reason were Called Satellites (the Sputnik fear), and the Term is Spoken Many Times as if to Shout it to the World. The Most Eerie Part Takes Place inside the Sphere Transposing Low-Budget Corrugated Cardboard, Goldfish Bowls, and Fog into a Surreal Scene. It Includes Diamonds as Fuel for The Flying Saucer and are there as Reminder (probably unintentionally) of the Decades Opulence.Radiation...Another Movie where that Unleashed Cancer Causer Transfigured a Benign Creature into a Monster.Female Bondage (Housewives and a Woman's place)...Although Unintentional, it Manifested an Underlying Feminine Fear of Subjugation and Restriction. The 50 Foot Woman is Literally put in Chains and Doped Up.Overall, a Movie that Reaches Things on such a Subconscious Level can't Help but be Remembered, Embraced, Nervously Laughed At, Ridiculed, Loved and Hated. But the Lasting Legacy of the Film Really says More about Ourselves than the Movie's Competence or Lack Thereof.Besides All of that Mumbo-Jumbo, the Movie is a Hoot.
... View MoreThis movie is fun mainly for the over-the-top characterizations of a neurotic socialite whose slimy husband is cheating on her with the most vulgar floosie in town.The storyline is beyond strange...A giant human-like alien touches the neglected woman and thereby causes her to grow to 50 feet tall. Er...OK.Hysterical in nearly every previous scene, our heroine remains inexplicably mute about her bizarre transmutation, wanting only to channel her new-found strength into rubbing out her spouse and smooshing his paramour. Her work in these regards complete, it seems somehow tragic to see the giantess killed in the final frame. (Hadn't she suffered enough?)I looked up the extremely voluptuous actress who played Nancy on Wikipedia and was surprised to learn that this former Miss America contestant died as an invalid at age 47, apparently the victim of a similarly peculiar fate!
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