A bit of a blind spot in my 50’s ‘Giant Monster’/’Radioactive Creature Feature’ hitlist, I caught ‘Attack of the 50 ft. Woman’ today for the first time. And conflicted is probably the best way I can describe it.

Despite the titling, the titular ‘Giant Woman’ doesnt become a plot element in the film till the 40 minute mark (its a 64 minute long film) and even then, shes only shown in ‘off screen’ or ‘obscured’ interactions, fleetingly, until around 7 minutes off the end of the film when she finally does appear…and doesnt really do very much…In part due to the limitations on the special effects of the time, and in part due to the film predominantly taking place in an arid desert on the outskirts of California. I guess what im trying to say is, if your coming here expecting the giant lady to turn up 20 minutes in; demolishing buildings, throwing guys 150 feet and picking up cars…Your going to be somewhat dissapointed.

Instead, the main plot follows ‘Nancy Archer’ an heiress with a diamond the size of a bar of soap around her neck who, the film establishes, is a recovering alcoholic with mental health issues, who’s been released (under guidence) from a sanitorium, who’s husband is a lying, cheating money grubber who she initially broke things off with, but as the film opens, they’re back together…on shaky grounds.

Her husband Harry, is ABSOLUTELY cheating on Nancy with another woman called Honey. and in the opening of the film Nancy is speeding away from a saloon bar after catching Honey and Harry sharing a somewhat tender moment. while racing through the desert however, Nancy is stopped dead in her tracks by a 30 foot tall spherical ‘satallite’ containing an even taller, unsettling alien being. Terrified, she speeds back into town to tell the cops. Who are convinced she’s relapsed and is on the booze, but humour her and head out to look for the 30-40 foot tall man and his craft…only to wind up empty handed.

Harry relays this to Honey as part of the madness he has to deal with, and Honey nonchalantly suggests getting Nancy re-locked up where she’d probably die of stress anyway…at which point, Harry would be able to claim her fortune and estate and whisk Honey off into a pampered lifestyle…

At first, the Harry is BEYOND dismissive of the idea…but it slowly grows on him…However, before he can really put any kind of plan in motion, Nancy; who by this point is on the verge of a mental breakdown at the fact that noone will believe her, takes Harry and a gun out into the desert one final time to try and find the giant man…and, unsurprisingly, they DO! with HORRIFYING consiquences for Nancy when Harry speeds off leaving her in the middle of the desert with the giant assuming he’s just managed to kill two birds with one stone.

Inoffensive is probably the best way to describe this picture. In terms of ‘Atom Age’ cinema, its not particularly AS bad as some of the absolute drech that this era spat out…AND mercifully it is on the short side…But at the same time, the only thing ‘Giant’ about this film is the scale of the false advertising. I can almost hear a 50s carnival grifter being like ‘WHAT?! Y’said ya wanted a giant woman attacking stuff! and in the last 5 minutes, what happens?!…no refunds.’

The script isnt actually too bad, if you take out the giant lady stuff, its actually a kind of darker picture about a couple planning on bumping off an heiress to steal her estate. brightened up with a few lighter hearted comedy cop moments and ‘local character’ types. the pacing is a little on the slow side, but nothing too pedestrian, the characters are all animate and reasonably lively. the dialogue is a little densly packed, as is the natura of 50s cinema…but its getting more ‘talky’ here than ‘expositiony’ which I think is a nice touch.

the act structuring is a little awkward, the first and third acts seem kind of miniscule compared to the second act, they transition well enough and set up the stalls fine. But once we hit that second act, thats where we seem to find most of the padding and the film kind of settles into an idling level tone wise, where it doesnt seem to ramp up or grow beyond what its already established in the first act. The themes of mental health, alcoholism and the representation of female empowerment here may be a little murky, but for the 50s, its interesting to see a film explore these themes…even if what its trying to say ultimately ends up getting a little lost.

Direction wise, this looks fine, a decent quality studio picture with some almost Lynchian moments peppered throughout (largely around the spacship and alien sequences, and in the more domestic settings) its a good quality production that reminded me of films like ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ and ‘The Giant Claw’ (sans the bird the size of a battleship)

the cine is crisp, with some nice light play, good solid shadow work in places, Id have been fascinated to see what this film looked like in colour. The effects work is a little lacking in my opinion, with some of the ‘off screen’ giant limbs looking particularly clunky and awkward. Its the right side of cheese though, so im sure you MST3K fans will find a charm to this one.

The Performances are probably the best aspect of this production with Allison Hayes giving a really solid performance as Nancy here, working a solid range of emotions with a strong physicality…it’s ironically the point where she becomes the ’50 ft. woman’ that we really kind of lose the heart of this production as her dialogue evaporates, and she loses all of that wonderful physicality.

William Hudson as her husband Harry is equally great, playing the slimey cheating husband role really well with some venemous deliveries peppered throughout and a demeanour thats a mixture of frustrated and beyond the point of caring.

These two are backed by a supporting cast who, for the most part, seem to be having fun with their roles, but in a way that doesnt sacrifice the quality of the performance, theres a nice undercurrent of self aware comedy to their deliveries. But also a good level of restraint NOT to turn this into a hamfest. and thats JUST the right kind of tone this thing needed to be the best it can be. with the sheriffs team in particular coming across as likeable and a little hokey, but also clearly still aiming for a performance that isnt grating.

Throw in a fairly generic orchestral ‘WOMP WOMP WOMPPPPP!!’ 50s B-movie soundtrack, and ‘Attack of the 50ft Woman’ is a solid and enjoyable picture thats ultimately let down by the lack of its titular premise. more ladies smashing down towerblocks and kicking cars 100 feet into the air, and this would have been a firm favourite. As it stands? I can see myself definitely revisiting this film in future. But whether my thoughts will improve on a rewatch seem unlikely.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/attack-of-the-50-foot-woman/