Starring Lou Costello, Dorothy Provine, Gale Gordon, Jimmy Conlin, Charles Lane
Directed by Sidney Miller
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A rubbish collector in a town where every business is owned by a local tycoon secretly dates the tycoon's niece, but changes come when she is exposed to atomic energy and grows to a tremendous size.
The first film to star Costello without longtime straight man Bud Abbott (following the end of their partnership), and the only solo film Costello made before his death, is a real oddity. Costello doesn't have a straight man in the cast to react off of, and instead serves as a genial sad sack hero in opposition to Gordon's corporate villain, who's launching a campaign for governor with a television crew in town to profile him. It's definitely a comedy, but there's not many laughs due to a weak script, although there's certainly no lack of outlandish moments. Louis DeWitt, Jack Rabin, and Irving Block, who provided special effects for a great number of 1950s films, do the same here, and do a more than serviceable job of making Provine appear 30 feet tall. The highlight is an overhead shot of a giant barn with a hole in the roof exposing Provine as she takes a shower from Costello with a hose at the top of a ladder. Comedy is attempted via scenes of an army troop convinced the giant Provine is an alien plotting an invasion, and a computer Costello's designed and programs by spouting technobabble to it. Again, I hardly laughed but it's a good natured enough picture and there were a number of sequences and exchanges that made me smile.
No comments:
Post a Comment