War of the Colossal Beast [Blu-ray]

Director: Bert I. Gordon Bert I. Gordon

Overview

War of the Colossal Beast picks up a year after the end of The Amazing Colossal Man -- Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser), sister to the first film's 70-foot-tall Colossal Man, Lt. Col. Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan), believes that her brother is still alive, despite his fall off of Boulder Dam at the denouement of the first movie.Her hope is based on reports out of Mexico about a "very big man" attacking truckers and other passersby in a remote part of the country. As it turns out, Manning (played here by Dean Parkin, since Langan turned down the request to star in a sequel) is alive and hiding somewhere in the mountains, bigger than ever and suffering from serious brain damage, with a hideously deformed face that is covered in scar tissue and missing an eye. Every effort at communicating with the giant fails, and as things always transpire in movies of this sort (at least since the silent version of The Lost World), he breaks out of the place where he is being held and goes on a rampage.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/10/2020
UPC:	0826663207279
Original Release:	1958
Rating:	NR
Source:	Shout Factory
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:08:00
Sales rank:	17,558

Special Features

New 2k scan of A Fine-Grain Film Element; New "Size Matters: Bert I. Gordon at AIP" - A Career Retrospective featuring interviews with filmaker Bert I. Gordon, Author Justin Humphreys

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Roger Pace	Maj. Baird
Sally Fraser	Joyce Manning
Dean Parkin	Col. Glenn Manning
Russ Bender	Dr. Carmichael
Charles Stewart	Capt. Harris
George Becwar	Swanson
Robert Hernandez	Miguel
Rico Alaniz	Sgt. Luis Murillo
George Alexander	Army Officer
George Navarro	Mexican Doctor
John McNamara	Neurologist
Bob Garnet	Correspondent
Howard Wright	Medical Corps Officer
Roy Gordon	Mayor
George Milan	Gen. Nelson
Warren Frost	Switchboard Operator
Bill Giorgio	Bus Driver
Loretta Nicholson	Joan
June Jocelyn	Mother
Jack Kosslyn	Newscaster
Stan Chambers	TV Announcer
Hal Torey	Actor
Rod Dana	Actor

Technical Credits

Samuel Z. Arkoff	Executive Producer
Bert I. Gordon	Producer,Special Effects,Director
James H. Nicholson	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

This sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man isn't nearly as strong dramatically as its predecessor, but it does offer some diverting chills and a short running time, even by the standards of late-'50s sci-fi B-pictures. The film's low budget shows when the makers avoid having the titular monster wreck Los Angeles as he'd previously demolished part of Las Vegas -- instead, the script has a 70-foot giant with a face out of a nightmare and no "social skills" whatsoever (or even the ability to string together two coherent thoughts, or to breathe without grunting loudly) hide out effectively in Los Angeles until he turns up in Griffith Park, holding a single busload of junior high school students hostage (that is, literally holding their tour bus, which ought to have been nearly as big as he is) until he comes to his senses. Producer/director Bert I. Gordon saved a gimmick for the end, one which had been used the previous year in AIP's I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, by suddenly switching to color for the final shot. Appropriately, War of the Colossal Beast was originally released on a double bill with the more dramatically coherent Attack of the Puppet People, another Gordon film that actually uses footage from The Amazing Colossal Man in one of its scenes.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder