The Incredible Shrinking Man ***** (1957, Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton, Raymond Bailey, William Schallert) – Classic Movie Review 2759

Jack Arnold’s famous 1957 sci-fi movie is a hugely popular, much loved cult classic, based on the novel The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, with a screenplay by him and Richard Alan Simmons.

Grant Williams stars as Robert Scott Carey, who steadily shrinks after being doused in a radioactive cloud while sunning himself on his cabin cruiser with his wife Louise (Randy Stuart). Then, while driving, he is accidentally sprayed with an insecticide and he finds that he has begun to shrink, a few inches at first. Medical science is powerless to help him and, at just six inches tall, he can only live in a doll’s house – until he is prey for a cat and a spider.

It is one of the great Fifties sci-fi classics, with a chilling story, mostly still persuasive special effects, given its age, and precisely judged direction from Arnold, Universal Studios’ fantasy king of the Fifties.

Also in the cast are April Kent, Paul Langton, Raymond Bailey, William Schallert, Frank J Scannell, John Hiestand, the 4′ 2″ Billy Curtis (‘Midget’), Helene Marshall, Diana Darrin, Joe LaBarba, Luce Potter and Regis Parton.

The backroom boys deserve a big hand, or at least a name check. The sets are designed by Alexander Golitzen and Robert Clatworthy. And those pioneering special effects are by Clifford Stine, Tom McCrory, Charles Baker, Fred Knoth, Roswell A Hoffman and Everett H Bronssard.

It originally ran 81 minutes with the UK version cut to 71 minutes. Director Joel Schumacher made a spoof remake in 1981: The Incredible Shrinking Woman, with Lily Tomlin, Charles Grodin and Ned Beatty.

The cat is played by ‘feline actor’ Orangey.

William Schallert, the veteran character actor and former SAG president, died on 8 May 2016 at the age of 93,

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2759

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