‘Nature gone mad!’
The Cyclops is a 1957 science-fiction horror film written, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon.
Main cast:
James Craig – Bigfoot | Venus Flytrap
Lon Chaney Jr. – The Wolf Man | Son of Dracula | Spider Baby
Gloria Talbott – Daughter of Doctor Jekyll | I Married a Monster from Outer Space
Tom Drake – House of the Black Death | The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe | Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Duncan ‘Dean’ Parkin (The Cyclops) – War of the Colossal Beast
Plot:
Test pilot Bruce Barton (Duncan Parkin) is missing and his girlfriend, Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott) organizes a search party, sent out in the jungles of Mexico. The team of scientist Russ Bradford (James Craig), mining expert Martin “Marty” Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.) and pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake) fly into unknown territory. While searching the area, however, they uncover giant mutated earth animals such as giant snakes and lizards, behemoth bugs, oversized mammals.
More importantly, they encounter a mutated 50-ft tall, one-eyed human monster who became disfigured due to exposure to radioactivity from massive radium deposits in the area. He kills Melville but appears to recognise the girl…
Reviews:
“Some of the later horror sequences seem strong for the children, although they are probably more inured to this sort of thing than their elders. Jack H. Young’s special makeup, the technical effects by Bert Gordon, and Ira Morgan’s camera work all combine to create some effective horror sequences.” The Hollywood Reporter
” … like most of Gordon’s output there’s fascinatingly weird curiosity in viewing The Cyclops with its endearingly inept special effects as the rear projected images often having that low budget patented partially invisible look to them and the stilted and often time unintentionally hilarious dialogue.” The Oak Drive-In
“The special effects (and they are certainly “special”) are the usual melange of “ghost” critters that crop up in Gordon’s flicks. Nonetheless they have a malignant charm about them that will make your eyes bug out and your jaw drop at their brazen crudity. And yet the eye has it as the make up job for the single orbed giant of the title surpasses all the tackily rendered, superimposed pituitary pestilence of the enlarged iguanas, spiders and birds.” Cool Ass Cinema
“The sheer hamminess of the acting and the paucity of the of the Cyclops itself make for some memorable moments…” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction
Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Trailer:
YouTube review:
