The Incredible Shrinking Man
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| The Incredible Shrinking Man | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Jack Arnold |
| Produced by | Albert Zugsmith |
| Written by | Novel: Richard Matheson Screenplay: Richard Matheson Uncredited: Richard Alan Simmons |
| Starring | Grant Williams Randy Stewart April Kent Paul Langton Billy Curtis |
| Music by | Uncredited: Irving Getz Hans J. Salter Herman Stein |
| Cinematography | Ellis W. Carter |
| Editing by | Albrecht Joseph |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) |  April 1, 1957 |
| Running time | 81 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$ 750,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his novel The Shrinking Man (ISBN 0575074639).
[edit] Plot
Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is contaminated by a radioactive cloud and pesticide, and slowly begins shrinking. When he's three feet tall, he briefly becomes friends with a female circus dwarf, but then continues to shrink, eventually being reduced to living in a dollhouse. After nearly being killed by a cat, he winds up trapped in the basement and has to battle a voracious spider, his own hunger, and the fear that he may eventually shrink down to nothing. After defeating the spider, the hero accepts his fate and (now so small he can escape the basement by walking through a space in a window screen) looks forward to seeing what awaits him in ever smaller realms.
The original book version is slightly different and contains a much more darker tone; The book is told through flashbacks, as it picks up with Scott in the basement battling the spider. Scott Carey, and his wife Louise have a five-year-old daughter named Beth. He encounters a drunken pederast when he's 42 inches tall and some teenage toughs when he's three feet tall. He also had some disturbing sexual tensions towards his daughter's 16 year old babysitter, Catherine. And finally a strain relationship with his wife.
[edit] Production
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The camera work and effects were considered remarkable and imaginative for their time.
The theme of size-changing was explored in several other movies of this period, including Jack Arnold's earlier Tarantula, in which a synthetic food causes several animals to grow to massive size. The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) explored the opposite idea of uncontrolled growth. Attack of the Puppet People was rushed into production by American International Pictures and Bert I. Gordon in 1958. Other notable films of this genre include Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Fantastic Voyage. The final permutation (female shrinkage) eventually appeared in 1981 with The Incredible Shrinking Woman, in which Lily Tomlin played the wife of an advertising man; she shrinks as a result of exposure to household products. Currently there are plans for a remake of The Incredible Shrinking Man as a comedy which will revolve around a magician (slated to be Eddie Murphy) who suddenly starts to dwindle and frantically searches for a way to revert back to his previous size.
[edit] External links
- The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) at the Internet Movie Database
- Review by Science Fiction Weekly
- Book to Movie comparison
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