ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN (1958)

Director: Nathan Juran (as Nathan Hertz)

Writer: Mark Hanna

Producer: Bernard Woolner

Cast: Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Ken Terrell, George Douglas, Frank Chase, Roy Gordon, Otto Waldis, Eileen Stevens, Michael Ross, Dale Tate, Thomas E. Jackson, Lennie Smith, Lou Southern, Herschel Graham

Wealthy heiress Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) encounters a UFO in the California desert. The giant humanoid (Michael Ross) from the huge spherical ship takes her diamond pendant. She is later found in a coma at her home. Infected by the alien contact, Nancy grows to a gigantic size. Her unfaithful husband Harry (William Hudson) and his mistress Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers) plot to have her committed to an asylum or murder her to get control of her money. When the giant Nancy comes out of her coma, she has a giant grudge to settle.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

For all of its legendary schlocky reputation, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman is quite a unique example of '50s sci-fi horror. There is the giant extraterrestrial visitor and radiation involved that turn a woman into the titled monster. Aside from those science fiction gimmicks, this film plays out very differently than others of its genre and time. There is no military or government involvement, just the local police. That is probably due to the film’s low budget holding off on any public menace until the finale. This is an intimate story about a marriage that is already doomed to fail. We do not even know how it went bad. We are left to assume that “handsome Harry” is just a gigolo jerk that does not appreciate his rich and beautiful wife Nancy. He has already moved on to another beautiful woman that is just as greedy and duplicitous as he. Maybe Harry just can’t handle Nancy’s emotional problems and her heavy drinking. But for all we know, he drove her to the bottle and the sanitarium. All we are really privy to is the dysfunction of this marriage. Adding to the conflict is that Nancy still loves Harry, even as she suspects his motives and infidelity.

This all sounds like pretty heavy-duty drama. It’s not as far as character development is concerned. Everyone is just the way they are and are not going to change, which is probably much more typical of real-life people. We are seeing the end of a failed marriage, and all that remains is to see who suffers as a result. That this is impacted by a science fiction phenomenon makes for a really oddball concoction of a movie.

Much has been written about the feminist angle of this film. I can certainly see it as a legitimate consideration. It may be no coincidence that as the title of this movie is shown at the beginning of the film, words of the film’s title grow to fill the screen, but the last word “WOMAN” is separate and held on screen a bit longer. I can see this movie as an outlet for the frustration of unhappy women in a man’s world of the '50s. I have to wonder if it was truly intended that way by the filmmakers, but it is possible that they were as influenced by the same zeitgeist of the times as anyone else. Did they have any message in mind, or did they just pick up on common frustrations to enliven the conflict and justify the conclusion? Regardless, this film has given me an excuse to use the word “zeitgeist” in a review, which means that I am intellectually justified in obsessing about this crazy flick.

Some of the themes in Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman are pretty heavy, but the story is quite simple: Harry treats his wife like dirt, and when his wife becomes empowered there is hell to pay. The fun of the whole thing for me is seeing a trite and miserable domestic situation obliterated when the sci-fi shit hits the fan. Until that happens, it is also fun to watch the three principles keep behaving in the same way that is leading them all to ruin. This is certainly a different aim and result than just about any other science fiction movie I can think of.

Allison Hayes as Nancy Archer is sympathetic and just about her own worst enemy. She is rich and beautiful, so she doesn’t have any reason to be dependent on Harry. He so clearly makes her miserable, but she just won’t let him go.

William Hudson as Harry can be as smooth, patronizing, or belligerent as the situation calls for. It’s a good performance that really greases the wheels for this train wreck of a situation heading off a cliff. I love how he bullies around Nancy’s devoted butler Jess (Kenneth Terrell). Harry even grunts his contempt as he slugs Jess the first time.

Maybe Harry can’t appreciate Nancy because he has so much in common with Honey Parker. Harry and Honey both want to have fun together with lots of money and they don’t have any scruples about how they get it. Getting money that they don’t deserve is a thrill for them. They really deserve each other. Yvette Vickers as Honey is just as naturalistic in her performance as Hudson is in his. Her character is obviously a vamp and a tramp, but she comes across as if it’s business as usual. She manages to put across as much sexual sizzle as the '50s cinema would allow.

Much derision has been directed at this film for its subpar special effects. Their biggest problem is the giants being depicted by double exposures over some scenes. They are often translucent and appear to be ghostly. The scale for the size of the giant Nancy is all over the place. Then there is that giant hand prop that doubled for both the giant alien and giant Nancy. For the times it is used as the male alien’s hand they added some hairy patches to it.

Despite these deficiencies, the final Nancy rampage works to some degree. The shots of Allison Hayes interacting with miniatures in slow motion to suggest her size and mass are pretty well done. There seems to have been some thought that went into how all the shots and sound effects would cut together to convey the action when Nancy is trashing the hotel room and then Tony’s Bar and Grill looking for Harry. Ronald Stein’s score repeating the opening theme helps propel these scenes. I think his theme for this film is one of the best pieces of science fiction music ever. I never tire of watching the gigantic Allison Hayes on her mission of vengeance strut about to Stein’s stirring music.

Of course, the idea of a 50-foot woman somehow being kept sedated in her bedroom is outrageous. Even if the room could be big enough, wouldn’t the floor collapse beneath her weight? 

Even more uproarious is the scene with the incredibly snide TV anchorman (Dale Tate) conducting very personal harassment of Nancy Archer on the air during his newscast. How does her drinking and marital strife ever qualify as news for broadcast? Was such conduct ever allowed in the '50s? I am tempted to think that this is some drunken delusion on Nancy’s part. Otherwise, Nancy should have also made the time to level KRKR-TV Studios and tear that arrogant talking head limb from limb.