The Cyclops [Remaster]

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'The Cyclops' released by Warner Archives in September, 2018.BLU-RAY & EXTRA'S: The picture is very good just as most of these Warner Archive movie releases are. You won't see any obvious defects such as dust, lines, spots, tears, etc. The movie takes place mostly in the day time so that loss of picture quality at night isn't really an issue. The movie is shown in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. I was quite satisfied with the picture.The extra's are minimal as is the norm with Warner Archive movies. You get a trailer with no audio and subtitles.PLOT SYNOPSIS: Susan Winter enlists the help of a scientist, Russ Bradford, a finance guy, Marty, and a pilot, Lee Brand. Marty is helping finance the trip because he believes he will find uranium deposits where they are going and wants to make a claim. They are going searching for Susan's husband, who is/was a test pilot who went down in Mexico 3 years ago. The local officials won't allow them to search the area and are forced to fly illegally.They are forced down near the designated area by strong winds. Once down, they encounter animals of extraordinary size. Eventually they find a cave with the remains of an old airplane along with some personal artifacts. At this point a 25 foot tall human-like being approaches the cave. He is obviously too big to enter the cave. The team eventually realizes that this is the person they are looking for. The former pilot, Bruce, has a badly deformed face and can't speak and seems to be irrational. He appears to recognize his wife. Marty ends up losing his wits because he wants to leave immediately. He ends up instigating the cyclops and the team must find a way to escape and get back home.UHHHH...ABOUT THE PREMISE OF THIS MOVIE... : I strongly dislike the premise of this movie. I know it's science fiction, but why can't the writers come up with a better reason to go hunting for a missing person? A test pilot named Bruce Barton goes missing in his airplane and they decide to go looking for him after he's been missing for 3 years? Not to mention, they are breaking the law to do so? This in itself would be OK if the disappearance was more recent. But, again, after 3 years!?! What on earth would lead anyone to believe that he is still alive. He disappears in the middle of nowhere and makes no contact, yet his girlfriend is convinced that he is somehow alive? You'd figure they'd figure out that he couldn't possibly be alive after finding all kinds of monsters in the area. Even if he had managed to survive the crash, surely he would have no chance of surviving in such a hostile environment. After almost being killed by these creatures, you'd think they'd all get the picture and exit, pronto. I have to go with Marty on this one. I've seen this many times in science fiction movies where the supposed 'heal' wants to run and nobody listens."LOOK, HE'S TRYING TO REMEMBER SOMETHING": You'd think that it would be obvious that the Cyclops was Susan's husband. There is nobody around for many miles and they find the remains of an airplane in the cave. Keep in mind that they've already figured out that something is in that Mexican water. They have already seen numerous extra large animals. What took so long for them to deduce that the Cyclops was Susan's husband? Talk about being in denial!PRODUCTION: This movie was made in 1957 and was released by Allied Artists. It was released as part of a double feature with 'Daughter of Dr. Jekyll'.-This movie was directed by Mr. BIG himself, Bert I. Gordon. He is best known for his movies in which people or creatures are enlarged to epic sizes along with one movie in which people are shrunk.-This movie co-stars an aging Lon Chaney Jr. Most people think of Chaney Jr. as the star of 'The Wolfman'. He also starred in many horror, suspense and mystery movies over his career. He was the son of the 'Man of a Thousand Faces', Lon Chaney.-Gloria Talbott also starred in a few horror films herself. She was the star of the excellent (despite it's campy title) 'I Married a Monster from Outer Space'. She also starred in 'The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll' and 'The Leech Woman'.-Dunkin Parkin plays the 'Cyclops' in this movie and also plays the giant in 'The Amazing Colossal Man'.-Along with what seems like a million other movies, the cave scene was shot at Bronson Caverns near Los Angeles. HOW WERE THE SPECIAL EFFECTS?: I think that the 'Cyclops' himself looked pretty good. The make-up wasn't that good but it did come across as horrific looking. Some of the creatures did not look good. More specifically the lizards and the spider effects were weak. WHAT OTHER MOVIES IS MR. BIG RESPONSIBLE FOR?: He started out with King Dinosaur and then filmed this one. From there he directed:-'The Amazing Colossal Man' - A military man gets accidentally enlarged similar to 'The Cyclops'.-'Beginning of the End' - Giant grasshoppers are the pest in this one.-'Earth vs. the Spider' - It's more like a town versus a giant spider.-'War of the Colossal Beast' - Sequel to 'The Amazing Colossal Man'-''Attack of the Puppet People' - People are shrunk instead of enlarged.-'Village of the Giants' - A few people are enlarged along with a few animals.-'The Food of the Gods' - There are mainly enlarged Rats but also Wasps and a chicken-'Empire of the Ants' - Self explanatory....giant ants.'Mr. Big' directed many other movies that did not involve his enlargement special effects. It's these science fiction movies listed above that he is best known for.ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:-Lon Chaney Jr. looks as if he needs a fix. He was reportedly drunk throughout the production and it looks it.-As has been pointed out elsewhere, Lon Chaney probably should have played the pilot. He does not look the part as a wall street investor type.-Noticing a bent twig makes you part Indian, at least according the pilot, Lee Brand, in this movie.-You really have to love these movies. In order to escape, the group has to walk by a sleeping Cyclops. It's quite obvious that, not only is it sound asleep, making this easy, they could easily just go around it. The area is wide open.-The roar of the cyclops sounds just horrible. I don't mean that in a scary way.-I think that a weakness of this movie is that the team is almost never really in any danger. The only time they really get into any trouble is when Marty inexplicably taunts the cyclops and ends up getting killed.-A minor issue I have with the movie relates to the appearance. All the animals and the pilot were affected by the water. They were all enlarged buy only the pilot was deformed. Why only the pilot and none of the animals?CONCLUSIONS: This movie would not be for today's younger audiences unless they were a fan of black & white, horror and science fiction movies. This movie is genre film for enthusiast's of 50's science fiction. There isn't anything unique that makes this movie stand out among the rest of the genre.I'm giving the picture 4 stars. I'm giving the movie 3 stars and the extra's 1 star.Recommended obviously for fans of Bert I. Gordon movies.Recommended for fans of 1950's science fiction movies.Recommended for fans of Lon Chaney Jr.

Most B-film sci-fi from the 1950s revolved around radiation disasters or space invaders. "The Cyclops" falls into the previous category, and while it offers a diverting variation on the theme, it's not the greatest of its kind. A young woman is convinced that her fiance is still alive, despite crashing his small plane into a Mexican mountain valley three years before. She corrals 2 male accomplices to fly her into that valley and search for her lost love. In Mexico they are joined by an ambitious entrepreneur, a drunken pest who hopes to mine uranium from the valley; his only function in the film is to establish radiation as a plot element. In the valley, they find gigantic lizards and a huge eagle that preys on a monstrous mouse. It takes them a while to realize that radiation in the valley has caused the animals to grow to unheard-of sizes. Then they discover a 25-foot giant human male, badly disfigured and non-vocal, and it again takes them a curiously long time to figure out that this tragic figure is really the young woman's lost fiance, whom radiation has turned into a dangerous monster. (Said monster disposes of the drunken pest, who has already made radiation a significant part of the plot and is no longer needed, so the crew got rid of him in the quickest fashion imaginable.) The FX are standard for the time and the film budget (almost 100% of the action takes place outdoors, otherwise known as free scenery). The disfigured giant's makeup is far from convincing--the rear edge of his bald cap, at the nape of his neck, is clearly visible at certain moments, and at one point is very noticeably frayed. The giant animals are obvious process shots, and there are annoying continuity problems throughout the film. Primarily interesting as an historical relic, "The Cyclops" will repay the dedicated student of '50s sci-fi but not many others.

these Sci-Fi movies of the 50s hold a special place in my heart, and there were so many that were made by Bert Gordon with those really cheesy ( in their defense, the technology just wasn't there yet) special effects placing a giant man or animal in the same scene with live actors where it was painfully obvious and phony.but the stories themselves were always interesting and the pacing of these movies were terrific, and they moved along quicker than you could doubt what you were watching! LOL.....And of course, they had their favorite actors that appear in so many of these films, including the lovely Gloria Talbot who is the main heroine in this movie. You also see veteran horror actor, Lon "the Wolfman" Chaney.Another flimsy plot excuse gives us once more a giant man, appropiatly scarred over his face so that he is horrible to look at, and again, roaring like a hurt animal, instead of a human. There is a certain pathos to these tortured characters if you have also seen the two Colossal Man movies, and this one is no exception. Once again, it is the familiar theme of radiation exposure that causes him and all of the animals and insects in this secluded valley to grow to enormous size. The hilarity of this timeworn theme is evident for anyone who has the slightest knowledge of the ugly death that follows radiation exposure, but where would these Giant Men, or for that matter, all of the X-Men be without it!Those familiar with these 50s movies will be pleasantly surprised to see that they are mostly available on Amazon Prime, and with the added addition of closed captions which are so important to me nowadays.

One of the first horror flicks I saw as a kid was Bert Gordon’s “Amazing Colossal Man’ and, even back then, it was sorta a ‘colossal’ disappointment! Gordon’s cheap visual effects, that often allowed the ‘background’ scenery to be visible ‘through’ the superimposed ‘giant’ creatures, left a lot to be desired - and his apparent penchant for big bald guys running around in loin-cloths didn’t help much either!“The Cyclops” exhibits many of these deficiencies, but is perhaps a bit more engaging than some of the other similar fare. The plot (again) springs from the 50’s fixation with nuclear paranoia - as a small party of adventurers fly into ‘forbidden’ territory and crash-land in a highly radioactive area that has caused gigantic mutations to emerge - including the ‘lost’ fiancé of the female leader of the group. Lon Chaney Jr puts in a spirited performance as the un-likeable uranium prospector and most of the other actors do what they can with the ridiculous script they have been given. Gordon mostly uses ‘forced-perspective’ tricks to achieve his illusions of over-sized creatures and the ‘see-thru’ phenom is again in evidence in several scenes. The cyclops make-up is pretty good for the first few seconds that it is manifested, but the shock value quickly wears off as Gordon doesn’t really develop the ‘monster’ beyond a bunch of mindless roaring & flailing around.The ‘so bad it’s good’ factor that makes this clunky effort semi-enjoyable might have been worth $5 in the bargain bin - but at $25. I would question the value. I’m afraid I left the ‘Cyclops’ viewing experience feeling pretty much like I did with the ‘Colossal Man’ - that it was a colossal dud! To his credit Bert Gordon did finally make a fairly decent film with “The Magic Sword” - I would recommend spending one’s time & $$$ on IT!

バート・Ⅰ・ゴードン監督の１９５７年作品「サイクロプス」一つ目の巨人サイクロプスと巨大化した生物（実物との合成）が珍奇な印象を残す。放射能を多量に含んだ谷で遭難した恋人のパイロットを捜索に訪れた女と一行が見たものは、巨大に成長したトカゲ、鼠、蜘蛛、鷹等であった、そして洞窟で飛行機の残骸を発見すると、そこへ現れたのは、腰巻一つ巻き付けただけの一つ目の巨人であった、この巨人の顔が日野日出志の漫画みたいで笑える。この巨人が恋人のなれの果てだったというわけで、ウルトラＱの「変身」を彷彿させる物語。ゴードン監督は、同年に「戦慄プルトニウム人間」を翌年にその続編「巨人獣」と巨人映画を続けて公開するが、観た感じこれが一番キワモノっぽい。また女主人公に同行する男たちのひとりは、怪奇映画ファンにはお馴染みロン・チェニーｊｒであった。