The Incredible Shrinking Man
Nov 14, 2012
(Jack Arnold, 1957, USA, 81mins, 35mm)
Young marrieds Scott and Louise are out in their boat for a quiet weekend getaway. Suddenly enveloped in a strange mist, Scott is covered with a dust they at first think odd, but then don’t think much about. But in the days and weeks afterwards, what seems like nothing more than bad sunburn envelops Scott’s sense of manhood and then puts him at a bizarre threat. Despite the cheesy sensationalism of the title, this remains one of Universal’s and Hollywood’s smartest science fantasy films of the 1950s. The script is one of the best from Richard Matheson, with the H-bomb fallout that blew in from the US bomb tests in Bikini Atoll hanging heavy over its meaning; but like Invasion of the Body Snatchers it’s not just rich with Cold War paranoia, but also with hints at the 1950’s more private psychological anxieties. A pulp masterpiece and according to Universal, this is the last 35mm print of this movie in know existence