Bill Giorgio Movies
- 1958
War of the Colossal Beast picks up a year after the end of The Amazing Colossal Man -- Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser), sister to the first film's 70-foot-tall Colossal Man, Lt. Col. Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan), believes that her brother is still alive, despite his fall off of Boulder Dam at the denouement of the first movie.Her hope is based on reports out of Mexico about a "very big man" attacking truckers and other passersby in a remote part of the country. As it turns out, Manning (played here by Dean Parkin, since Langan turned down the request to star in a sequel) is alive and hiding somewhere in the mountains, bigger than ever and suffering from serious brain damage, with a hideously deformed face that is covered in scar tissue and missing an eye. Every effort at communicating with the giant fails, and as things always transpire in movies of this sort (at least since the silent version of The Lost World), he breaks out of the place where he is being held and goes on a rampage. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Fraser, Dean Parkin, (more)
Attack of the Puppet People is one of the few "mad scientist" opuses of the 1950s to be motivated by loneliness rather than megalomania. John Hoyt plays Franz, a seedy European doll-maker who harbors a crush on his secretary Sally (June Kenney). When Sally makes plans to marry Franz' top employee Bob (John Agar), strange things begin to happen. Before long, both Bob and Sally have been shrunken to doll-size by Franz, who keeps a retinue of living "puppet people" to avoid being left alone. Eventually, the little ones rebel against their addlepated but basically harmless keeper, though there's never any "attack" per se. Most of the acting is amateurish, with the exception of the always reliable John Hoyt; the special effects are somewhat better, but still nothing to write home about. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Agar
- 1958
A man driving along a lonely back road at night is suddenly startled by what he sees, and is promptly killed by something that crashes through his windshield. The next day, in the nearby town of River Falls, teenagers Carol Flynn (June Kenney) and Mike Simpson (Gene Persson) decide to go looking for her father, who didn't get home last night. They find his wrecked truck and enter a nearby cave to begin searching for him. There they find his blood-covered hat and other signs of human remains and, as they go deeper inside, suddenly get trapped in a huge web -- then they spot its maker, a spider the size of a small house. They manage to escape and alert the county sheriff (Gene Roth), who doesn't take them seriously but does heed the warning of Mr. Kingman (Ed Kemmer), the science teacher at the local high school, to bring a pest-control crew along with his deputies, and a tanker loaded with DDT. They encounter the creature, and, after losing one of their men, dispatch it with the insecticide. Kingman persuades the sheriff to bring the carcass into town so that he can arrange to have it studied, leaving it in storage at the high school recreation room, for lack of anywhere bigger to keep it. As it turns out, the creature isn't dead, just stunned. As the local rock & roll band rehearses, the giant spider comes to bloodthirsty consciousness, breaking out of the building and ravaging the town. Bullets won't hurt it -- as Kingman says, you could punch holes in it all day without hitting a vital spot -- and the town is soon cut off when the telephone lines are knocked down. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Kemmer, Gene Persson, (more)
The plot of The Brain from Planet Arous has something to do with a huge floating brain which takes over the body of nuclear scientist Steve March (John Agar) as the first step in its takeover of the earth. Tipping off the fact that March is not himself are his strange eyeballs and his rather violent mood swings. Additionally, the arrogant alien brain occasionally leaves Steve's body to brag about its superiority. Meanwhile, a "policeman brain" from the villain's home planet hides out in the body of March's dog, awaiting the chance to arrest the renegade graymatter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Agar, Joyce Meadows, (more)
