War of the Colossal Beast

War of the Colossal Beast
Film poster by Albert Kallis
Directed by	Bert I. Gordon
Produced by	Bert I. Gordon
Written by	Bert I. Gordon (story) George Worthing Yates
Starring	Sally Fraser Dean Parkin Roger Pace
Music by	Albert Glasser
Cinematography	Jack A. Marta
Edited by	Ronald Sinclair
Production company	Carmel Productions
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release dates	June 30, 1958 (1958-06-30) (United States)
Running time	69 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

War of the Colossal Beast (aka Revenge of the Colossal Man and The Colossal Beast) is a 1958 black-and-white science fiction film directed by Bert I. Gordon, produced by Carmel Productions, and distributed by American International Pictures. It continued the storyline of the 1957 movie The Amazing Colossal Man, although it was not marketed as a direct sequel and featured a different cast.^[1] Both The Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal Beast were later mocked on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Plot

Upon hearing of several recent robberies of food delivery trucks in Mexico, Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser), Army officer Lt. Col. Glenn Manning's sister, becomes convinced that her brother (Dean Parkin) survived his fall from the Boulder Dam (as seen in The Amazing Colossal Man). ^{[Note 1]} Along with Army officer Major Mark Baird (Roger Pace) and scientist Dr. Carmichael (Russ Bender), she goes to Mexico to look for her brother.

Manning had, in fact, survived his fall, but was left disfigured and nearly mindless. Manning is captured, drugged by the Army, taken back to the United States, but again escapes and goes on a rampage through Los Angeles and Hollywood. Eventually, Joyce makes him come to his senses. Realizing what he has done, Manning kills himself by electrocution on high-voltage power lines near the Griffith Observatory.

Cast

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 black-and-white.^[2] 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 Col. Manning, especially since a dream sequence flashing back to the original film featured Glenn Langan, the star of the earlier film.

Reception

War of the Colossal Beast was originally double billed with Attack of the Puppet People. Film 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." ^[3] Film reviewer Leonard Maltin was more succinct, "Forget it."^[4]

Mystery Science Theater 3000

War of the Colossal Beast was featured in season 3, episode 19 of the Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Amazing Colossal Man was also shown in season 3. Mike Nelson again portrayed the film's title character. As opposed to his first encounter with Joel and the Bots, he shows more gentleness to them after seeing the transmission picked up by his "goofy dental work", but is still somewhat adamant when he tells them why Bert I. Gordon did not pick him for the sequel.^[5]

See also

• List of American films of 1958

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: War of the Colossal Beast

• War of the Colossal Beast at the TCM Movie Database
• War of the Colossal Beast at the Internet Movie Database
• War of the Colossal Beast at AllMovie