War of the Colossal Beast

1958 "The towering terror from hell!"
3.9| 1h9m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 04 June 1958 Released
Producted By: Carmel Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Glenn Manning, "The Amazing Colossal Man," believed dead after falling from the Hoover Dam, reemerges in rural Mexico, brain damaged, disfigured, and very angry.

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Reviews

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
thejcowboy22 An irate Mr. Swanson is frustrated to the whereabouts of his supply packed truck in the area of Guavos,Mexico.. Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser) sister to the late Glen Manning The 60' Colossal Man hears about the story and meets with the exasperated Mr. Swanson in a Beverly Hills Hotel suite. The spacious room has a well stocked bar which makes you wonder who has a drinking problem? Anyway after a final drink Joyce is off to Mexico to meet with the Mexican Police chief. The Police Chief explains that a young man named Miguel was brought in to the local hospital in shock, screaming Giant man in Spanish. Joyce and the officer went back to the spot where Miguel was found. The tire tracks of a truck end and with no truck in sight. Joyce believes that 60' brother Glen is still alive and well living behind a large Mexican Mountain range feasting on trucks for sustenance.Enter Major Baird and Dr. Carmicheal who has a penchant for making Chloral hydrate bread in mass quantities. Major Baird and Joyce venture out in the hills and find a graveyard of discarded and weathered trucks with Glen's sticky fingerprints on one of the trucks. I believe it was the Cheetos truck. Anyway a rumbling noise followed by a loud moan and overly disfigured Glen Appears in all his Baldness minus one eye. Joyce and the Major hide to one side as Glen with a new truck in hand digs through to find food scraps inside the rear compartment, moans again and throws the truck in the valley below.Love that scene! The next plan is to capture our Giant man by loading a truck filled with chemically filled bread. The chase scene is also worth watching as well. Off to L.A. in a cargo plane as Glen is flown Non-stop to LAX airport where Mayor Roy Gordon objects having a Giant land in his airport. After several rejections the Mayor concedes and lets the Glen filled plane land. The next scene shows Glen in an airplane hanger tied down fighting his way out as Glen and the Army get involved in a game of tug-of-war which Glen wins and crawls out and on to the tarmac's of LAX. Glen smashes a roof of one of the warehouses but is gunned down with sleeping gas. Joyce only wants the best for her brother but the argument here is that Glen has little or no intelligence to speak off and by all accounts has brain trauma. Glen escapes again through the streets of L.A. without anyone seeing him on the sunset strip. Finally Glen is spotted in Griffith Park as the Army with spot lights and weaponry are ready for a final confrontation. Laurie Edwards from nearby Glendale left her sweater home and went on field trip to the nearby observatory with her class. Mrs. Edwards drove over to give her the sweater but Glen beat everyone to the punch by picking up the school bus with Laurie and her classmates inside. Now we have a hostage situation on our hands and Joyce gets into the mix as a mediator. Poor Joyce, Poor Laurie, Poor Laurie's Mom. Poor classmates and Poor Glen. What a sequel. As for Glen what's next? What ever it is it will be done in a Colossal way.
Aaron1375 I have seen snippets of the original film, The Amazing Colossal Man, and I have known of this film. My viewing of this film came from an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 whom also did the first film too. Not sure why they released the sequel episode before the original though. Suffice to say, the film was a bit of a letdown. The effect of Glenn's face having the skin off one side revealing a skeleton was actually pretty good. The problem with the film is that this colossal beast does not really get to terrorize much at all in this one and there is not much of a war going on as about the only action the military does is drive vehicles into position. The finale is as weak as they come with nothing really happening, poor colossal beast does not even get to throw one thing or trash a building. The premise is pretty good, but there just is not a lot going on here, unfortunately. Just scenes of speculation and then the colossal beast appears and gets captured and spends most of the film on his back. Even with the riffing from the gang from the satellite of love it was kind of dull.The story has strange occurrences happening in Mexico as trucks are disappearing. Glenn's sister immediately suspects her brother is the cause despite him taking a mortar round to the face and seemingly plummeting to his doom from the dam. Well, she is able to investigate and sure enough Glenn is alive, although he is not doing to good as he seems more animal now than human, pilfering from trucks to find food to survive. The army is able to capture him alive and plan to fly him to an island where he can live out his days in peace; unfortunately, he has other plans as he escapes his binds and begins to cause a panic within the city! This made for a rather bland episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Just seems a film about a giant going on the rampage would pack more riffs within it than this film ended up doing. The short with Mr. B that preceded the film had more good riffs than this one. It was still an okay episode though and still a lot better than the weakest episode of Mystery Science Theater, the Hamlet episode, but just not their strongest movie. Curious to see if the Amazing Colossal Man is better, as I find that when they riff a sequel to a film they have already done, the first film usually has the better riffing. Happened with the Master Ninja films and that Japanese film featuring the star wolves.So, the film had some potential for both being a pretty good 50's science fiction movie and episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it kind of misses the mark on both counts. Had rather good make up design and seeing Glenn the first time is a bit jarring, but a lot of the film just kind of whiffs after that and it also seemed Glenn was not a consistent size because at some points he looks like he towers over all and in other scenes he looks like he is no taller than an average size tree. It also seems they could have added more action, but instead added padding especially at the end with the mom and the coat. As a Mystery Science Theater episode, it may be sequel fatigue that caused them not to be as sharp as usual. Still, not a horrible movie, just a film that had a pretty good idea, but just did not add enough too it to back up that good idea.
utgard14 ...that's where the Amazing Colossal Man came out to play. Well, that's how the song lyrics would go if they were written for this movie, Bert I. Gordon's sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man. It's cheaply made with excessive footage from the first movie used as flashbacks to pad the runtime. Even with this it barely clocks in at an hour. It takes awhile before we even see the Colossal Man and, even then, he doesn't do much. If your movie's one selling point is a giant bald guy throwing cars around and junk, you'd better deliver. The sad fact is it's a remarkably dull movie where very little happens. I don't mind a low budget and lots of cheese as long as it's a fun movie. This isn't much fun, sadly. Cool "partially exposed skull" makeup on the giant, though.
fwdixon War of the Colossal Beast is the sequel to the Amazing Colossal Man and is directed by Bert I. Gordon. Those of you unfamiliar with the first movie just have to know the Col. Glenn Manning was turned into the Colossal Man via that 50's favorite, radioactivity, and was shot off Boulder Dam and presumed deceased at the conclusion of that picture. This picture picks up with Manning being found in Mexico, still a giant but now horribly disfigured and apparently insane. The Army captures him and brings him to Los Angeles on the somewhat shaky presumption that nothing could possibly go wrong with bringing a violently insane 60 foot man to a major population center. Well, of course Manning breaks free and proceeds to terrorize Griffith Park. His loving sister confronts him and snaps him back to sanity. At that point he decides to electrocute himself on some convenient high tension wires. The End.This American International (the hallmark of quality!) picture is actually pretty good given the genre and its (low) budget. I feel it is superior to The Amazing Colossal Man. The special effects are at once both cheesy and surprisingly effective. There's also plenty of footage from the original picture shown in flashback moments and some stock footage thrown in for good measure. The film moves along at a nice clip and the acting is acceptable, if at times a tad overwrought. A nice touch in the grand electrocution finale is the switch over to glorious color, so the viewer can fully enjoy the disintegration of Col. Manning. My "B" Movie Meter: 8.5*