Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

USA, 1958, 16mm, 1.85, b&w, 65′
13.4. | 18:30 | Slovenian Cinematheque

directed by Nathan Juran (as Nathan Hertz) written by Mark Hanna cinematography Jacques R. Marquette music Ronald Stein editing Edward Mann cast Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon

SEE A FEMALE COLOSSUS… HER MOUNTAINOUS TORSO, SKYSCRAPER LIMBS, GIANT DESIRES!

Harry and his mistress (Yvette Vickers) are scheming to get rid of his wife Nancy (Allison Hayes) and get their hands on her family fortune. Harry’s philandering has pushed Nancy into a life of booze and on the brink of insanity. Until the day she experiences an alien encounter, and her rage swells to colossal proportions. Scorned, furious and fifty feet tall, Nancy sets off to find her husband and prove that big girls don’t cry, they get even.

From the treasure trove of drive-in kings, the Woolner Brothers, and Allied Artists (formerly Monogram), comes the legendary exploitation schlock Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,a prime example of ‘50s low-budget sci-fi horror, a cult camp classic and one of the ultimate “so bad it’s good” films. A B-movie postcard of 1950s American cultural and political climate, in which Cold War paranoia of space invasion and nuclear monsters meets the dangers of a burgeoning sexual revolution that shook the pillars of traditional gender roles and the family ideal. For some “a fantastic proto-feminist fable”, for others “a fifty foot wet dream”, for director Joe Dante simply a “perfect” film.

“Nancy Archer, kidnapped by a monster in a flying saucer, returns to earth, where she shoots up to fifty feet, bursts through her roof, becomes a female King Kong.”
– Joe Bob Briggs, Joe Bob Goes to the Drive In

“Some people consider this to be one of the great inadvertent comedies of the 1950s.”
– Bill Warren, Keep Watching the Skies!

“There’s that scene where all the lumber from the cafe roof falls down, and one of the wooden beams crushes the table I’m supposed to be hiding under. And afterwards, there’s a shot where I’m lying there with all the debris around me. Well, after we filmed that scene, I looked up and noticed there was a nail on a board that was about two inches from my head. It could have gone right into my skull! But who thinks things like that are going to happen?”
– Yvette Vickers