THE CYCLOPS (1957)

THE CYCLOPS (1957)

Tagline: The Strangest Monster the World Has Ever Seen...

(Sci-Fi, Horror, I Am Radioactive) [PG]

Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating. I think it would have been a [PG] due to a bit of blood. This movie was part of a double feature when it came out theatrically with DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL which also starred Gloria Talbott.

I lied…I’m not half-Indian. 

In this one, Susan Winter’s fiancé Bruce has disappeared and she gets an expedition to go try to find him in a remote area of Mexico. The plane they are in crashes, but is still able to fly. Susan decides the search party should stay in the area but Marty who is financing the trip discovers that there is what he believes to be Uranium all around them, so he’s in a slight rush to make a quick buck. It doesn’t take long before they discover radiation is also present and has caused the animals and other creatures to mutate into more gigantic forms of themselves. To make matters worse, one of the inhabitants is a 25-foot-tall unblinking cyclops. No, that’s not a typo. This cyclops just isn’t going to blink at all. 

First off, the pacing is actually fine in this one. We at least see some giant animals pretty quickly. The entire movie is only 66 minutes long making it one of the shorter 1950’s sci-fi flicks. In spite of that, it does have about a 25-minute lull right smack dab in the middle of its run time. It doesn't affect the pacing, but it does affect seeing anything cool. 

Acting wise James Craig is good as Russ Bradford, but Gloria Talbott kills it as Susan Winter in this basically carrying the film on her back. Talbott is most famous for DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. Lon Chaney Jr. best known for THE WOLF MAN just seems a bit off this whole movie. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it isn’t just that he was playing a greedy scumbag. My favorite character though is Lee played by Tom Drake. Drake was in over 100 movies and TV shows, but I liked him in this because he literally gets the only funny lines in this whole movie.  

Oddity: There is a scene in the plane where Lon Chaney Jr. is sweating like crazy but no one else is. I am a dude that sweats a lot, but Lon makes me look like an amateur. In another scene, it looks like one of the lizards is getting dragged off-screen because it’s getting too close to where the actors would need to be.

Effects wise we don’t really get a cyclops the way you would think of one. He’s basically a dude with 1 eye who groans a lot. In fact, the cyclops is played by the same actor that was in THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST. Having said that, I imagine if they centered the eye any more than they did, the actor playing the cyclops wouldn’t be able to see at all. The prosthetic looks a bit goopy, but it’s fine for this movie since the cyclops is supposed to be a product of radioactivity. I think they could have done better on a few close-ups of the cyclops' hands. 

What we do get is a pretty cool angle shot of the plane with the cyclops in the front window. It’s actually my favorite scene in the movie. Overall this thing is pretty fun because of the added giant animals, but it’s got the same “grunty” problems that WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST had. If you can get past that and the fact that none of our main characters are going to ever be allowed back in Mexico again, this one is going to be pretty solid. 

For me, this gets a 4 out of 7. I think it was slightly better than “just okay”.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF B & H PRODUCTIONS INC. COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Purchases made at Indy Planet for any issue of DARK 30 will go towards funding the next issue.