309-The Amazing Colossal Man

Film Year:  1957
Genre:  Science Fiction
Director:  Bert I. Gordon
Starring:  Glenn Langon, Cathy Downs, William Hudson, Larry Thor
MST Season:  3

The Movie

If people would just read comic books a lot of problems could be avoided.  If Colonel Glenn Manning knew that radiation turns men into giant monsters like the Hulk, he wouldn't have ran right into the wave of a nuclear blast.  But alas, he did, and here we are.  Rather than turning into a beast when he's angry, Glenn just starts growing at an uncontrollable rate.  As he grows he becomes more confused and enraged, until he finally just breaks free and goes on a rampage.

Bert I. Gordon is back with round two, and probably my favorite of his various films features on the series.  The Amazing Colossal Man is about as stupid as a monster movie can get, but there's a beauty to its simplicity.  You don't have to pay for a shabby monster costume, just get the actor in there and shave his head.  No need for tiny sets when you can just super impose him as well.  Because of Colossal Man's lack of ambition in being extravagant there is something charming about it that almost works.

Still, the science is silly, made up of things such as "the human heart is made up of only one cell" and whatnot, but it's a film about a radiated mutant man that drastically changes size depending on what shot we're seeing.  Logic is thrown out the window early and often up until the point where we reach a climax that involves a giant novelty syringe that impales people.  And with such carelessness about what makes sense can you really blame me for having fun with it?

The Episode

The third season pendulum is swinging back now giving us more of what we'll see throughout the mid-section of the season, switching back and forth between Sandy Frank dubs of Japanese productions and cheesy black and white cheapies made by American International Pictures.  Personally I can't complain about that, because they're tapping into two wells that I greatly enjoy.  In the case of Amazing Colossal Man, an AIP Joint, we're given a film about as cheesy as you can ask for.  Riffing remains good-natured ribbing throughout, with a lot of taunting of our lead and bad giant puns.  The old-fashioned scientific naivety comes under fire quite often as well, though mostly with just eye-rolling jabs like "Give me a break."

I'd say this is an episode that just might coast on the movie they're watching, which could have some strong arguments for and against.  The movie is fun and I have fun watching it, which means that this riff was always going to be up my ally no matter what.  But I do contend that the riffing is quite funny at the best of times and I laughed fairly often at great lines.  I especially love the third act of the film, in which somehow the army loses track of a fifty foot man in the middle of the desert plains, and while searching Crow pipes up "Well there's a fifty foot guy but he's got hair so it can't be Glenn."

The host segments are a fair standard.  They're all charming and there's not really a loser in the bunch.  Mike has a wonderful guest spot as Glenn the Colossal Man and Crow and Servo get some wonderful pot shots at Joel during an exchange where they learn about tact ("And we know if you HAD breath mints you'd use them!").  The Invention Exchange offers a cute magic trick turning Kevin into a talking plant, while Joel turns a children's toy into a "Non-Permanent Tattoo" device.

As enjoyable as I find the movie, overall The Amazing Colossal Man is a good, not great, episode.  The movie epitomizes everything the show strives for receiving, though it's not really a endless stretch of laughs.  It's just funny, charming, and enjoyable.  I can't complain about that really, and I can recommend all give it a watch.

Good

The VHS and DVD

The Amazing Colossal Man never graced DVD, but Rhino Home Video did happen to release the episode on VHS.  Unfortunately the release was short-lived, as a lawsuit over the film rights forced them to remove it from shelves.  To this day the episode has yet to be re-released, despite the release of the episode featuring the sequel film, War of the Colossal Beast.

The host segments of the episode were included on the Satellite Dishes compilation featured in Shout Factory's Volume XXXIX collection.