Ahh, the 50's, an age when the drive-in was becoming a regular weekend event for teenagers and a decade where the threat of atomic war fuelled many a low-budget monster movie. It was also a time where an independent studio could easily slip a movie into the theatres and make some sort of return profit on it. Believe it or not, there was once a time where Hollywood didn't (seem to) own all the screens at your local multi-plex. Of these atomically fuelled sci-fi/horror flicks, Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman is probably one of the best known. Now, it might not be because it's a good movie, because it isn't that great, but having a catchy title and a cool looking poster (which Warner has seen fit to reprint on their DVD box art) can just as easily make a movie worm its way into society's conscious.

The movie opens up with a news report of a strange meteor sighting which means nothing to Harry (William Hudson) who's too busy plotting with his mistress a way to get rid of his wife, Nancy (Allison Hayes). Seems that Nancy isn't only rich, but she's a bit mentally unstable, which may prove to be an advantage for our two schemers. But things get extremely wacky when Nancy sees a giant glowing sphere (and a giant hand reaches for her) in the middle of the highway. After rushing back to the town she has a hard time proving to people what she saw, much to the delight of Harry who is looking to spin her outrageous tale into proof that she needs to be "put away".

From here Mark Hanna's script plays out like a story more about infidelity than an actual sci-fi flick, and while it's an interesting direction to go considering most of the 50's sci-fi flicks were more concerned with monster mayhem, it just manages to make the movie more dull than it needs to be. In fact, if you're looking for the poster art's promise of our newly gigantified Nancy plucking cars off the freeway overpass, you're sure to be disappointed. Hayes' character doesn't really become the "50 Foot Woman" of the title until the last ten minutes (for most of the movie she's chained up in her bedroom steadily growing in size while her doctor wonders what's wrong with her) and even then all she manages to do is walk through a few electricity towers and screech at her cheating husband.

Director Nathan Hertz (who is also credited as Nathan Juran from time-to-time) helmed a bunch of these types of flicks in the 50's with The Brain From Arous, The Deadly Mantis and 20 Million Miles To Earth and he brings yet another workman-like effort to this flick like he did to those but manages to throw in one funky scene where some magnifying globes on the alien ship distorts a few of our actors features. As with most Allied Artists productions this is a pretty cheaply made flick but at least it's made competently enough and doesn't try to overstep its budget restraints (the effects, while cheesy, aren't overdone). Hayes gets to go over-the-top as our wronged wife turned giant and Hudson makes for a good scuzz-bag hubby getting to spout lines such as, "you pulled a boner tonight and you know it".

Almost fifty years after its release, Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman is considered a cult classic, but it's not nearly unintentionally funny enough to deserve that tag. It's not a bad little flick and it's made well enough, it's just fairly dull and doesn't deliver enough oversized mayhem for my liking. Still, it has its fans and even managed to be remade (which a more satirical spin) for HBO in 1993 with Daryl Hannah in the lead role. (Chris Hartley, 7/26/07)

Directed By: Nathan Hertz.
Written By: Mark Hanna.

Starring: Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: While the picture does have a few flickers on occassion the transfer here looks very good and is surprisingly pretty clean looking. Warner have brought a movie that's almost a half-century old to DVD and made it look quite fine to boot.

Extras: Available either by itself or in the "Cult Camp Classics, Volume One" box set (that also contains two other Allied Artists efforts: The Giant Behemoth and Queen Of Outer Space) the only extra is a pretty fun little commentary track with co-star Vickers and moderator Tom Weaver which offers some decent insight and stays listenable for the length of the movie.