Hokey 50s sci fi from Bert I Gordon, who despite the prevalent hokum, crappy effects and cheap sets, keeps cranking fun flicks from the 1950s sci fi heyday. It's one of those films, if you first saw it as a kid, it's left a pretty strong impression, just with the horrendous makeup. That was back before we noticed things like plot inconsistency and illogical character behavior, both of which are pretty rampant in this film. Apart from the monster makeup, which is one of the most powerful and distinctive of all 50s sci fi monsters, Gloria Talbot is the best thing this movie has to offer, as a young woman who undertakes a mission into remote Mexico to find her fiancée, missing for three years after a plane crash. She and her unlikely cohorts discover instead a lost world of gigantic animals (very poorly matter or even superimposed real animals, depicted in large size) and, of course, her surviving fiancée, now grown to gigantic proportions due to radiation abounding in the area, horribly disfigured and mute due to injuries from the crash. There's a still powerful bit of pathos in the confrontation between Talbio and her fiancée, but the rest of the story plays out pretty dully, although the film remains entertaining if you're able to suspend your disbelief and overlook the gaping holes in logic and behavior of the characters. An effective monster movie score from Albert Glasser, who scored most of Bert I. Gordons sci fi films, gives the plot most of its propulsion. This film was reported made in 1955, which puts it as a precursor to Gordon's THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957) and its sequel, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1958), wherein the big dude sports the same makeup used for THE CYCLOPS. Other than the similarity in height and appearance, the film's story lines are unrelated.
42 Reviews
Amazingly dull...for a genre that has no business ever being dull.
planktonrules19 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I love 1950s monster flicks. Despite the often cheesy special effects and low-budgets, they were often a ton of fun. So, whenever one of them comes on TV that I have not seen, I am sure to tune in and cheer for the giant ant, crab or whatever the screenwriters dreamed up in this installment. Some are great and some are pretty stupid, but they are enjoyable. However, "The Cyclops" manages to do something that few of them could do--it bored me half to death. So, it had the cheesy effects and budget but lacked fun.
The film begins with a wife (Gloria Talbot) hiring a pilot to go on a seemingly fruitless search for long-lost husband. Not surprisingly, they discover the husband has been turned into a giant cyclops and other creatures in this wilderness have turned giant-sized as well. Guess why this is...yup, atomic radiation!! Along for the ride are handsome James Craig and worthless Long Chaney, Jr.--and I say worthless because his part was incredibly one-dimensional even for one of these films. Every minute Chaney was on screen he whined and complained and schemed and I was thrilled when his character was killed! So why else didn't I like the film? After all giant creatures and atomic radiation--two sure ingredients for 50s-style fun! Well, the problem is that there is no suspense at all, little action and in the end, the survivors simply got aboard their plane and flew off...and the credits rolled. Sluggish and not at all fun...this is one you can skip.
The film begins with a wife (Gloria Talbot) hiring a pilot to go on a seemingly fruitless search for long-lost husband. Not surprisingly, they discover the husband has been turned into a giant cyclops and other creatures in this wilderness have turned giant-sized as well. Guess why this is...yup, atomic radiation!! Along for the ride are handsome James Craig and worthless Long Chaney, Jr.--and I say worthless because his part was incredibly one-dimensional even for one of these films. Every minute Chaney was on screen he whined and complained and schemed and I was thrilled when his character was killed! So why else didn't I like the film? After all giant creatures and atomic radiation--two sure ingredients for 50s-style fun! Well, the problem is that there is no suspense at all, little action and in the end, the survivors simply got aboard their plane and flew off...and the credits rolled. Sluggish and not at all fun...this is one you can skip.
The Vidiot Reviews...
capone66617 June 2018
The Cyclops
The upside to being 50-feet tall is you can make money just by standing outside car dealerships waving.
However, the mutated features of the colossus in this horror movie might scare off customers.
When Susan's (Gloria Talbott) test pilot boyfriend Bruce (Duncan Parkin) crashes over a mysterious area of Mexico, she hires a pilot (Tom Drake) to take her, a scientist (James Craig) she just met and a shady mining consultant (Lon Chaney Jr.) to the cursed region where gargantuan creatures are rumoured to dwell.
Unfortunately Susan's rescue party is more interested in harvesting the radium that turned Bruce into a mindless Cyclops than in helping her subdue him.
Just one of many radioactive giant B-movies released in the 1950s, what sets this black-and-white jungle adventure apart is the Cyclops' unforgettable design and Lon Chaney's drunken performance.
Incidentally, a thoughtful gift for a giant is a hot air balloon poncho. Yellow Light
vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca
The upside to being 50-feet tall is you can make money just by standing outside car dealerships waving.
However, the mutated features of the colossus in this horror movie might scare off customers.
When Susan's (Gloria Talbott) test pilot boyfriend Bruce (Duncan Parkin) crashes over a mysterious area of Mexico, she hires a pilot (Tom Drake) to take her, a scientist (James Craig) she just met and a shady mining consultant (Lon Chaney Jr.) to the cursed region where gargantuan creatures are rumoured to dwell.
Unfortunately Susan's rescue party is more interested in harvesting the radium that turned Bruce into a mindless Cyclops than in helping her subdue him.
Just one of many radioactive giant B-movies released in the 1950s, what sets this black-and-white jungle adventure apart is the Cyclops' unforgettable design and Lon Chaney's drunken performance.
Incidentally, a thoughtful gift for a giant is a hot air balloon poncho. Yellow Light
vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca
My first movie!
goodvibe-128 June 2004
This was the first movie I ever saw! I was 2 years old and my brother was 4. Scared the be-jesus out of me! Hey, I was only 2. Down through the years, I became an avid reader of FaMOUS MOnsters of Filmland magazine, and NEVER saw it covered, and nary a publicity pic from Dear Old Uncle Forry! At 12, I watched War Of The Colossal Beast on the Saturday matinée, only to be thoroughly disappointed that it wasn't "that" movie.
Fast-forward to 1984. I went with my brother and his wife to a video rental store in a nearby town and the video box was one of those Elvira thingies...but "something" about that title... I showed it to my brother with a quizzical look and he flashed me a strange half-smile...
Anyway, I found it, (or should I say..."we" found it!) in 1984 after it had been aired on network t.v. only once (to my knowledge) back in 1962 or '63! Needless to say, we had a neat little "reunion" that Saturday afternoon! Ain't life fun?!?!?!?!
Fast-forward to 1984. I went with my brother and his wife to a video rental store in a nearby town and the video box was one of those Elvira thingies...but "something" about that title... I showed it to my brother with a quizzical look and he flashed me a strange half-smile...
Anyway, I found it, (or should I say..."we" found it!) in 1984 after it had been aired on network t.v. only once (to my knowledge) back in 1962 or '63! Needless to say, we had a neat little "reunion" that Saturday afternoon! Ain't life fun?!?!?!?!
One-Eyed Man in the Country of the Bland
henri sauvage18 March 2013
Some day, film historians who have entirely too much time on their hands might attempt to settle the question of which is Bert I. Gordon's "best" cheesy sci-fi film -- which would require hair-splitting on such an infinitesimal scale that in the end it could probably only be resolved by gladiatorial combat.
On the other hand, there should be near-universal agreement that this is hands-down his worst. "The Cyclops" is just plain dull, even though it at times rips off -- er, I mean, echoes -- the Greek legend of Ulysses and Polyphemus. Gloria Talbott is literally this movie's only redeeming feature: she's the reason I give it two stars out of ten, instead of one. Well, her and the classic Stinson Voyager monoplane.
She certainly emotes her heart out, during that forty-minute scene -- OK, maybe it was only ten minutes, but it sure seemed much, much longer -- in which she and her mates have been trapped in a cave by her radioactively-enlarged, brain-damaged, horribly disfigured fiancé. Ever-versatile Paul Frees supplies the monster's voice, in what may be the longest continuous series of inarticulate grunts and growls recorded outside of a Screamin' Jay Hawkins session.
One way you could look at this movie is as a test-bed for plot elements of "The Amazing Colossal Man" and especially its sequel, "War of the Colossal Beast". My advice to anyone who isn't a Gordon complete-ist, though, would be to skip this one and go straight to the other two, which despite their ultra-cheap special effects and lower end of the B-list actors are still somewhat entertaining.
On the other hand, there should be near-universal agreement that this is hands-down his worst. "The Cyclops" is just plain dull, even though it at times rips off -- er, I mean, echoes -- the Greek legend of Ulysses and Polyphemus. Gloria Talbott is literally this movie's only redeeming feature: she's the reason I give it two stars out of ten, instead of one. Well, her and the classic Stinson Voyager monoplane.
She certainly emotes her heart out, during that forty-minute scene -- OK, maybe it was only ten minutes, but it sure seemed much, much longer -- in which she and her mates have been trapped in a cave by her radioactively-enlarged, brain-damaged, horribly disfigured fiancé. Ever-versatile Paul Frees supplies the monster's voice, in what may be the longest continuous series of inarticulate grunts and growls recorded outside of a Screamin' Jay Hawkins session.
One way you could look at this movie is as a test-bed for plot elements of "The Amazing Colossal Man" and especially its sequel, "War of the Colossal Beast". My advice to anyone who isn't a Gordon complete-ist, though, would be to skip this one and go straight to the other two, which despite their ultra-cheap special effects and lower end of the B-list actors are still somewhat entertaining.
THE CYCLOPS (Bert I. Gordon, 1957) *1/2
Bunuel197623 January 2010
This was easily the most disappointing among the numerous B.I.G. efforts I included in this challenge – and not because the copy I watched was out-of-synch all the way through! The premise in itself was not bad – it plays a bit like THE LAND UNKNOWN (1957) incidentally – but the treatment left a lot to be desired, defeating a good cast (James Craig, Gloria Talbott, Tom Drake and Lon Chaney Jr.) in the process. Talbott goes to look for her missing husband in some remote territory we learn was hit by radioactivity; she is accompanied by his best pal Craig, philosophical drunken pilot Drake (actually the best of the lot) and Chaney (annoying as a sourpuss obsessed by uranium). The biggest let-down proves the titular creature itself, though his look is decent enough under the circumstances (Gordon would tread similar territory in the {hopefully better} THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN {1957} and its sequel, WAR OF THE COLOSAL BEAST {1958}): his relentless moaning is not only baffling but it even nullifies Chaney's own previous grumpiness!; besides, he does very little of consequence except fight a giant snake (the then-pioneering magnified lizards of ONE MILLION, B.C {1940}, also with Chaney, get another work-out here – as had been the case with the even more execrable ROBOT MONSTER {1953}); and it takes an awfully long time for the heroes – but not the viewer – to realize that he is really what has become of Talbott's unlucky spouse! By the way, looking at the IMDb entries on this one, I was shocked to learn Michael Elliott gave this a *** rating and even considers it Gordon's best "radioactive monster" outing!
I Am No Man.
rmax3048237 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Barely watchable. Maybe it helps if you're stoned to the point at which everything seems absurd, and you can appreciate the absurdity.
Gloria Talbot's husband crashed in the Latin American jungle a long time ago and she hires a small plane with three guys -- James Craig (a kind of scientist), Tom Drake (the pilot), and Lon Chaney, Jr., a greedy slob who is quickly disposed of by the eponymous monster.
The plane lands in a vast and veritable plano filled with uranium or some radioactive substance. The substance irradiates the living things in this wasteland and causes them to grow to enormous size. If they're already grown when they first encounter the radiation -- as Talbot's husband was -- well, too bad for them.
This story has nothing to do with the Odyssey. The 50-foot-tall Cyclops is the remains of Talbot's unfortunate husband. He has a normal body but half is face is covered by an ugly prosthesis that shows his bare teeth. And he simply can't shut up. He's always going AGGHHH! or UNNHH! and sometimes his terminal contours indicate some sort of inquiry, as in AGGHHH? The male actors are schlubs, except for Lon Chaney, Jr., the booze-wrecked remnants of an actor who was once able to clear that bar. The poor guy sweats, trembles, and shouts -- more pitiful in his own way than the disfigured Cyclops.
I've always liked Gloria Talbot, though she was more of a presence than an actress, with her sharply defined, pretty features. She had a sassy figure too, as revealed in a photo in the Navy Times, which I used to read when I still had a reason to. But she can do nothing to save this cheesy piece of trash.
Gloria Talbot's husband crashed in the Latin American jungle a long time ago and she hires a small plane with three guys -- James Craig (a kind of scientist), Tom Drake (the pilot), and Lon Chaney, Jr., a greedy slob who is quickly disposed of by the eponymous monster.
The plane lands in a vast and veritable plano filled with uranium or some radioactive substance. The substance irradiates the living things in this wasteland and causes them to grow to enormous size. If they're already grown when they first encounter the radiation -- as Talbot's husband was -- well, too bad for them.
This story has nothing to do with the Odyssey. The 50-foot-tall Cyclops is the remains of Talbot's unfortunate husband. He has a normal body but half is face is covered by an ugly prosthesis that shows his bare teeth. And he simply can't shut up. He's always going AGGHHH! or UNNHH! and sometimes his terminal contours indicate some sort of inquiry, as in AGGHHH? The male actors are schlubs, except for Lon Chaney, Jr., the booze-wrecked remnants of an actor who was once able to clear that bar. The poor guy sweats, trembles, and shouts -- more pitiful in his own way than the disfigured Cyclops.
I've always liked Gloria Talbot, though she was more of a presence than an actress, with her sharply defined, pretty features. She had a sassy figure too, as revealed in a photo in the Navy Times, which I used to read when I still had a reason to. But she can do nothing to save this cheesy piece of trash.
A strong cast and a decent idea sunk by indifferent direction and annoying special effects.
lemon_magic25 September 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I had a chance to see "The Cyclops" as part of a retro double feature a few weeks back, and it's a classic indication of the perversity of human nature that the annoyance value of this movie kept me thinking about it long after I stopped pondering classics such as "Bride of Frankenstein".
This movie has a fine cast, but they appear to be mostly going through the motions on this one, probably because the lapses in logic and plot holes in the screenplay make it impossible for most people to take it seriously. Lon Chaney has a particularly ridiculous character to play, and while I am a fan of this great actor, I almost cheered when his character bought it.
The special effects are, well, about what you'd expect from Bert I. Gordon. I've never seen a person apparently so obsessed with traveling mattes and gigantism; if he'd done it better, it would be inspiring. As it is, his technical limitations make for really contrived and unconvincing scene layouts.
Not bad enough to be funny, not good enough to be involving, but I kept watching in case something interesting or magical happened before the end. It didn't.
By no means the worst movie in the Bert I Gordon canon that I've seen..."Village Of the Giants" was much worse in spots. (But it also some cheerfully goofy dance scenes,. bawdy teen freakouts, and some hot babes to enjoy.) I felt especially bad for Talbott and Chaney.
This movie has a fine cast, but they appear to be mostly going through the motions on this one, probably because the lapses in logic and plot holes in the screenplay make it impossible for most people to take it seriously. Lon Chaney has a particularly ridiculous character to play, and while I am a fan of this great actor, I almost cheered when his character bought it.
The special effects are, well, about what you'd expect from Bert I. Gordon. I've never seen a person apparently so obsessed with traveling mattes and gigantism; if he'd done it better, it would be inspiring. As it is, his technical limitations make for really contrived and unconvincing scene layouts.
Not bad enough to be funny, not good enough to be involving, but I kept watching in case something interesting or magical happened before the end. It didn't.
By no means the worst movie in the Bert I Gordon canon that I've seen..."Village Of the Giants" was much worse in spots. (But it also some cheerfully goofy dance scenes,. bawdy teen freakouts, and some hot babes to enjoy.) I felt especially bad for Talbott and Chaney.
Possesses a bracing sense of wonder
fertilecelluloid30 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Whenever a light plane flies overhead, I look upwards and my imagination soars... and this terrific B-movie is why. As a very, very young lad, I cowered in my chair at 4am from the terror this flick presented. A group of explorers travel to an unchartered island to search for a missing adventurer. Not only do they find him, they find themselves trapped in a jungle were they are menaced by snarling prehistoric creatures.
Clearly inspired by "The Lost World", "King Kong", "The Land Unknown", "Three Came Back" and "The Lost Continent", this short feature made up for in thrills what it lacked in finances. In retrospect, the monsters weren't that believable, and the suspense scenes weren't all that suspenseful, but the film possesses a bracing sense of wonder and possibility and tells a fascinating story.
This was the film that triggered my love of fantasy and made the idea of taking a small plane to an island lost in time very enticing (even to this day).
The "cyclops" of the title is a strange, scary creation and menaced my juvenile psyche for decades.
Little did I know that director Bert I. Gordon would thrill me almost twenty years later with "Food of the Gods".
Clearly inspired by "The Lost World", "King Kong", "The Land Unknown", "Three Came Back" and "The Lost Continent", this short feature made up for in thrills what it lacked in finances. In retrospect, the monsters weren't that believable, and the suspense scenes weren't all that suspenseful, but the film possesses a bracing sense of wonder and possibility and tells a fascinating story.
This was the film that triggered my love of fantasy and made the idea of taking a small plane to an island lost in time very enticing (even to this day).
The "cyclops" of the title is a strange, scary creation and menaced my juvenile psyche for decades.
Little did I know that director Bert I. Gordon would thrill me almost twenty years later with "Food of the Gods".
Keep an "Eye" on the Uranium
sol121820 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Laughable monster movie with Lon Cheney Jr playing of all things the sleazy and unethical stock manipulator Marty Melville who's out to make it big by discovering the biggest uranium despots in the entire world. What the greedy and muddled headed Marty didn't seem to get into his thick skull was that the place where he was to make his claim was declared strictly off-limits by the Mexican Government and he would end up behind bars if he ever filed a claim for it! Marty got hooked up with Susan Winters, Gloria Talbert, and her pilot and good friend Lee Brand & Russ Bradford, Tom Drake & James Craig, in them trying to find her long lost fiancée Bruce Benton, Duncan Perkins, who got himself lost in the woods or the Yucatan Mountains when his plane crashed there three years ago.
Told by the Mexican officials not to travel there or end out being prosecuted for trespassing the quartet makes their way into the Yucatan mountain range where Bruce is supposed to be and end up finding out that it's loaded with tons and tons of precious uranium. What they soon find out is that the place is crawling with giant rodents lizards insects and birds that the uranium has somehow caused to grow as much as a dozen times the average size. One of the creatures inhabiting that area is a 25 foot one eyed bald headed man, with half his face blown away, who turns out to be Susan's long lost lover & fiancée Bruce Benton!
With Bruce seeing Susan he tries to get in on with her but his size and injuries, as well as not having a suite and pants big enough to fit him, makes that all impossible for the poor guy in that no preacher or minister will ever participate in officiating in their marriage! Susan herself gets second thoughts when she gets a good look at Bruce, who's face looks like a cracked egg with the yoke exposed or dripping out of it, and realizes that he's not exactly her type which makes the dejected and stood-up guy really lose it.
***SPOILERS*** Marty who from the way he acted was anything but interested in being in the movie got his wish by being killed by Big Bruce whom he was trying to gun down when the big guy,in being told to get lost by Susan, went bananas. After having it out with what looked like a 50 foot giant reticulated python, that looked and acted like it was heavily tranquilized, Bruce took off against Susan and Lee & Brand only to slip up and end up going blind when Russ poked him in his only good eye with a fiery hand-made lance! With that or Bruce out of the way the trio,Susan Russ & Lee, flew off into the sunset back to civilization where their faced with a stretch behind bars but at least don't have to face Bruce and his animal friends which would be far far worse!
Told by the Mexican officials not to travel there or end out being prosecuted for trespassing the quartet makes their way into the Yucatan mountain range where Bruce is supposed to be and end up finding out that it's loaded with tons and tons of precious uranium. What they soon find out is that the place is crawling with giant rodents lizards insects and birds that the uranium has somehow caused to grow as much as a dozen times the average size. One of the creatures inhabiting that area is a 25 foot one eyed bald headed man, with half his face blown away, who turns out to be Susan's long lost lover & fiancée Bruce Benton!
With Bruce seeing Susan he tries to get in on with her but his size and injuries, as well as not having a suite and pants big enough to fit him, makes that all impossible for the poor guy in that no preacher or minister will ever participate in officiating in their marriage! Susan herself gets second thoughts when she gets a good look at Bruce, who's face looks like a cracked egg with the yoke exposed or dripping out of it, and realizes that he's not exactly her type which makes the dejected and stood-up guy really lose it.
***SPOILERS*** Marty who from the way he acted was anything but interested in being in the movie got his wish by being killed by Big Bruce whom he was trying to gun down when the big guy,in being told to get lost by Susan, went bananas. After having it out with what looked like a 50 foot giant reticulated python, that looked and acted like it was heavily tranquilized, Bruce took off against Susan and Lee & Brand only to slip up and end up going blind when Russ poked him in his only good eye with a fiery hand-made lance! With that or Bruce out of the way the trio,Susan Russ & Lee, flew off into the sunset back to civilization where their faced with a stretch behind bars but at least don't have to face Bruce and his animal friends which would be far far worse!
After all these years I still love it!
reptilicus24 August 2005
Bert I. Gordon, when you hear that name many people smile but some tremble. Many of us remember his back projected monsters (THE BEGINNING OF THE END), transparent giants (THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN) and his malevolent ghosts (TORMENTED). Okay so his effects were usually less than special but his movies were always entertaining. That brings us to the movie I am here to-night to talk about, THE CYCLOPS.
Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott, looking just so gosh-darn sexy with that short haircut) is searching for her fiancée who vanished 3 years earlier while flying over a dangerous mountain range in South America. Refused permission to fly into that same mountainous area she and her crew go anyway. On board is Russ (James Craig) who is secretly in love with Susan and is probably hoping all they find is a pile of bones, pilot Lee (Tom Drake) who is just in it for the money, and Marty (Lon Chaney) who is looking for uranium. Oh he doesn't want to mine it; he just wants to file a claim as part of an elaborate stock swindle he is planning.
Okay so they make it to the lost valley (actually the ubiquitous Bronson Canyon) and right away Russ sees, or thinks he sees, a giant lizard. Lon finds his uranium, in fact the whole valley is loaded with it; he's gonna be rich!
While exploring the group discover there are indeed giant lizards, also giant spiders, birds, rodents and . . . well . . . every living thing in that valley is huge! Russ starts thinking maybe it isn't uranium in the ground but some other, more dangerous radioactive element (hey it was the 50's, you had to keep "radiation" in the plot!). Guessing they all might start growing too if they hang around too long Russ, Marty and Lee all want to split but Susan says no . . . and she has the keys to the plane! (So 3 guys can't overpower 1 woman just long enough to take the keys? Just keep repeating "It's only a movie . . .only a movie . . .")
Finally they all locate a cave where it looks like someone has been living. In fact someone is still living there, a 25 foot high one eyed monster (Duncan "Dean" Parkin). Now hands up all of you who know right away who the giant cyclops really is. Ah . . . I thought so!
From then on it's a race to see if they can get back to the plane before the giant gets them. Do they make it? Oh come now, you don't expect me to spoil the ending, do you?
There is a nice behind the scenes story attached to this movie. Lon Chaney's biological mother, Cleva Creighton, visited to location every day to bring Lon his lunch. If it seems a little odd that a 51 year old man should be brought lunch by his mom consider this; Lon Sr and Cleva divorced under bitter conditions and Lon told his young son that Cleva was dead. When Lon Jr found out the truth it created a rift between him and his father that never really closed. After the death of his step mom, Hazel Hastings, in 1932 Lon tracked down Cleva and remained very devoted to her until her death in a Hollywood nursing home in 1967.
The makeup for the Cyclops was handled by Jack Young and it is very good, quite convincing and scary as all heck! Duncan Parkin also played the title role in WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST wearing an equally scary makeup design. Paul Frees got a hefty payday for standing in an echo chamber and growling to dub the Cyclops "voice".
Now forget the fact that you can see right through some of the monsters and that matte lines are jumping all over the place. After nearly 50 years this is still a fun movie. Pop some corn, open up some root beers and get comfy on the sofa some Saturday afternoon and enjoy this one. You'll be glad you did!
Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott, looking just so gosh-darn sexy with that short haircut) is searching for her fiancée who vanished 3 years earlier while flying over a dangerous mountain range in South America. Refused permission to fly into that same mountainous area she and her crew go anyway. On board is Russ (James Craig) who is secretly in love with Susan and is probably hoping all they find is a pile of bones, pilot Lee (Tom Drake) who is just in it for the money, and Marty (Lon Chaney) who is looking for uranium. Oh he doesn't want to mine it; he just wants to file a claim as part of an elaborate stock swindle he is planning.
Okay so they make it to the lost valley (actually the ubiquitous Bronson Canyon) and right away Russ sees, or thinks he sees, a giant lizard. Lon finds his uranium, in fact the whole valley is loaded with it; he's gonna be rich!
While exploring the group discover there are indeed giant lizards, also giant spiders, birds, rodents and . . . well . . . every living thing in that valley is huge! Russ starts thinking maybe it isn't uranium in the ground but some other, more dangerous radioactive element (hey it was the 50's, you had to keep "radiation" in the plot!). Guessing they all might start growing too if they hang around too long Russ, Marty and Lee all want to split but Susan says no . . . and she has the keys to the plane! (So 3 guys can't overpower 1 woman just long enough to take the keys? Just keep repeating "It's only a movie . . .only a movie . . .")
Finally they all locate a cave where it looks like someone has been living. In fact someone is still living there, a 25 foot high one eyed monster (Duncan "Dean" Parkin). Now hands up all of you who know right away who the giant cyclops really is. Ah . . . I thought so!
From then on it's a race to see if they can get back to the plane before the giant gets them. Do they make it? Oh come now, you don't expect me to spoil the ending, do you?
There is a nice behind the scenes story attached to this movie. Lon Chaney's biological mother, Cleva Creighton, visited to location every day to bring Lon his lunch. If it seems a little odd that a 51 year old man should be brought lunch by his mom consider this; Lon Sr and Cleva divorced under bitter conditions and Lon told his young son that Cleva was dead. When Lon Jr found out the truth it created a rift between him and his father that never really closed. After the death of his step mom, Hazel Hastings, in 1932 Lon tracked down Cleva and remained very devoted to her until her death in a Hollywood nursing home in 1967.
The makeup for the Cyclops was handled by Jack Young and it is very good, quite convincing and scary as all heck! Duncan Parkin also played the title role in WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST wearing an equally scary makeup design. Paul Frees got a hefty payday for standing in an echo chamber and growling to dub the Cyclops "voice".
Now forget the fact that you can see right through some of the monsters and that matte lines are jumping all over the place. After nearly 50 years this is still a fun movie. Pop some corn, open up some root beers and get comfy on the sofa some Saturday afternoon and enjoy this one. You'll be glad you did!
Super Sized Fun
Rainey-Dawn4 June 2016
Crazy, super sized fun film! It's one of those large creatures films that was so popular in the 1950s thru the early 1960s. If you like those types of sci-fi, horror films then you might like The Cyclops! Susan Winters' (Talbott) fiancée is missing. He has not shown back up from his trip to Mexico so Susan decides to get help from Martin Melville (Chaney) to fund her trip in exchange for some of the uranium that is suppose to be in rich supply in the area. She enlists the help of Russ Bradford (Craig) as a guide and Lee Brand (Drake) a pilot. What they discover are an abundance of uranium, over-sized creatures and The Cyclops! I really enjoyed watching this film again after years of no-see! 7.5/10
Giant Man.
AaronCapenBanner18 October 2013
Bert I. Gordon directed this film that stars Gloria Talbott as Susan Winter, who organizes an expedition to find her missing fiancée in Mexico, where he was last seen. Three men(played by Lon Chaney Jr., Tom Drake, and James Craig) join her, since there is rumored to be a vein of uranium in the area, which is worth a fortune. They do find her fiancée, who has sadly become mutated by the uranium to giant size, insane with one eye. Other mutations also exist, and it becomes a desperate fight for survival of the group, trying to get back to their airplane. Afternoon movie favorite for years, film is ruined by poor F/X and a much too abrupt ending, though does have a good cast at least.
Typical 50's B scifi; goofy and fun!
Dhawley22 June 2001
Another great 50's Bert I. Gordon offering. Woman sets out in remote South American jungle area to try and find missing fiance. Hires rough, gruff, alcoholic Lon Chaney Jr. as her reluctant pilot. Crashes in remote area. Something is watching...big time. Seems her fiance has grown to gigantic proportions due to high radiation content of area; also had the misfortune to lose an eye along the way (hence the title). Interesting factoid is that the same actor (Dean Parkins) who played the fiance/cyclops was in the previous Bert I. Gordon film War of the Colossal Beast, using essentially the same makeup. Great rainy Saturday afternoon fair. Fun watching a (probably really) tanked up Lon Chaney Jr.
Watch this with one eye closed - or better yet, close both of them.
scsu19757 November 2022
Writer/Director/Producer Bert I. Gordon had a thing for making movies about giant and/or teenie weenie people. This one obviously falls into the first category.
Gloria Talbott plays a woman searching for her fiancé, who was lost in a plane crash somewhere south of the border. Now if you can't figure out who the title character is from that clue ...
Talbott enlists the aid of 40s' leading men James Craig and Tom Drake. For laughs, she also brings along Lon Chaney, Jr. Guess which one turns rotten. Guess who doesn't come back alive.
We are treated to a few giant lizards and a giant hawk eating a giant rodent. Radiation is to blame.
The Cyclops does not show his face (if you want to call it a face) until 45 minutes into this 65-minute opus. He is about 25 feet tall, has lost one eye, and all of his marbles. He wears a diaper. He kills a giant snake. He grunts and says "Bwaaaaah" a lot - kind of like the sound Ralph Kramden made when he threw his back out while bowling.
Gloria Talbott plays a woman searching for her fiancé, who was lost in a plane crash somewhere south of the border. Now if you can't figure out who the title character is from that clue ...
Talbott enlists the aid of 40s' leading men James Craig and Tom Drake. For laughs, she also brings along Lon Chaney, Jr. Guess which one turns rotten. Guess who doesn't come back alive.
We are treated to a few giant lizards and a giant hawk eating a giant rodent. Radiation is to blame.
The Cyclops does not show his face (if you want to call it a face) until 45 minutes into this 65-minute opus. He is about 25 feet tall, has lost one eye, and all of his marbles. He wears a diaper. He kills a giant snake. He grunts and says "Bwaaaaah" a lot - kind of like the sound Ralph Kramden made when he threw his back out while bowling.
The Cyclops
phubbs10 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This was director Bert I. Gordon's third movie in what would become a long line of (50's) classic sci-fi/giant creature movies. Almost any movie Gordon directed could easily fall into a top ten of 50's schlock B-movie sci-fi epics. Epics such as 'King Dinosaur', 'Earth vs. The Spider', 'Attack of the Puppet People', and 60's legend 'The Magic Sword'.
But like some of Gordon's other movies (and many other movies of the time) the basic story here is all too familiar. Essentially a team of experts travel to a remote part of the world only to discover giant creatures living there, and that's it. And yes once again the reason for these giant abnormalities is a dose of good old-fashioned 50's radiation. The only real differences here from other similar themed movies are, the team of experts is searching for a missing person and the remote location is in Mexico; not the usual distant undiscovered island. Alas everything else we see here is by the books and highly formulaic.
The lead scientist Russ Bradford (James Craig) is a well built, well rounded, good looking chap with a stylish Flynn-esque moustache. The second expert Marty Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the more trigger happy unpredictable character who gets upset and flustered quickly putting the others at risk. Pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake) is the in-between character so to speak, he is sensible and well rounded but also easily led astray. And naturally you can't have a movie like this without an attractive female character to put in peril and so you have Susan Winter (Gloria Talbot), the woman who has organised the search and rescue mission.
The giant creatures discovered are all regular creatures such as lizards, birds, bugs, and some small mammals. All of which consisted of the usual stock footage which had been crudely projected against live action footage of the actors. Twas the standard effect for movies like this at the time but here it looks especially poor, mainly down to a lack of budget and time restrictions. What's amusing is the fact that the animal footage is clearly completely different location wise to the live action location footage with the actors. In some scenes the actors were obviously in some botanical garden area somewhere (in Hollywood probably) whilst in others its clearly a set.
On top of that the actors really don't seem to be reacting to the giant threats all that much. Clearly they had no real idea how to react and where to look, plus their lack of amazement at the discovery of giant creatures is somewhat of an eyeopener frankly. Most people would be understandably shocked and amazed by finding giant animals alive and well roaming around Mexico. Not these experts, it's just an inconvenience for them. Also, did they actually show footage of a small rodent actually being killed by a bird of prey??
The location for all these giant radioactive animals also raised some questions. Supposedly these creatures dwell in the jungles of Mexico, but initially the search and rescue mission was clearly flying over a mountainous desert region of Mexico. And when the team land they are still in a mountainous desert region. Now I'm no expert on Mexico but the northern part is more desert and the southern part is more green I believe, so where exactly where the team supposed to be? And not one person had ever reported these giant creatures? Not even the giant human cyclops?
Ah yes the giant human cyclops, the titular character. Now this character turns out to be the missing person but, like the animals, has mutated due to the radioactivity in the area. Not sure why he has become a disfigured one-eyed mutant seeing as all the other creatures just got bigger but whatever. Also not sure why this person didn't manage to leave the region in search of help before he mutated into a cyclops but again whatever. The makeup for this giant mutant was actually well done (for the time) and pretty disturbing. His huge bulging non-blinking eye, bald head, and nasty disfigured mouth with protruding teeth were probably quite terrifying for folks back in the 50's. Sure he does literally nothing other than lurch around and growl (why is he unable to talk?) but kudos on that makeup job.
In the end it's actually pretty typical and amusing that the team of experts manages to find this missing guy...but end up killing him. Yup, they go through all that and just end up blinding him before killing him...somehow. Before the credits role we see the cyclops lying dead (in a horrendous projection shot) but I'm not really sure how. They don't try to help this guy, they don't seem to care about the giant animals, and they don't seem overly bothered about the large deposits of radium in the area that caused all this. They just kill the cyclops and fly away to safety in a happy ending. Maybe they looked further into these things when they got back to the good old US of A.
So in the end I can't really recommend this Gordon directed feature I'm afraid. I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking here, I knew exactly what I was gonna get, but it's just not on the same level of enjoyment as other similar themed movies. Dare I say its actually just a poor movie? Everything about this was just badly done, seemingly lacking any sort of real passion. Not even Chaney's stupidly rash character could elevate this much. I found myself somewhat bored to be honest although I do appreciate how this early project was a building block for Gordon and later (better) features.
4/10
But like some of Gordon's other movies (and many other movies of the time) the basic story here is all too familiar. Essentially a team of experts travel to a remote part of the world only to discover giant creatures living there, and that's it. And yes once again the reason for these giant abnormalities is a dose of good old-fashioned 50's radiation. The only real differences here from other similar themed movies are, the team of experts is searching for a missing person and the remote location is in Mexico; not the usual distant undiscovered island. Alas everything else we see here is by the books and highly formulaic.
The lead scientist Russ Bradford (James Craig) is a well built, well rounded, good looking chap with a stylish Flynn-esque moustache. The second expert Marty Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the more trigger happy unpredictable character who gets upset and flustered quickly putting the others at risk. Pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake) is the in-between character so to speak, he is sensible and well rounded but also easily led astray. And naturally you can't have a movie like this without an attractive female character to put in peril and so you have Susan Winter (Gloria Talbot), the woman who has organised the search and rescue mission.
The giant creatures discovered are all regular creatures such as lizards, birds, bugs, and some small mammals. All of which consisted of the usual stock footage which had been crudely projected against live action footage of the actors. Twas the standard effect for movies like this at the time but here it looks especially poor, mainly down to a lack of budget and time restrictions. What's amusing is the fact that the animal footage is clearly completely different location wise to the live action location footage with the actors. In some scenes the actors were obviously in some botanical garden area somewhere (in Hollywood probably) whilst in others its clearly a set.
On top of that the actors really don't seem to be reacting to the giant threats all that much. Clearly they had no real idea how to react and where to look, plus their lack of amazement at the discovery of giant creatures is somewhat of an eyeopener frankly. Most people would be understandably shocked and amazed by finding giant animals alive and well roaming around Mexico. Not these experts, it's just an inconvenience for them. Also, did they actually show footage of a small rodent actually being killed by a bird of prey??
The location for all these giant radioactive animals also raised some questions. Supposedly these creatures dwell in the jungles of Mexico, but initially the search and rescue mission was clearly flying over a mountainous desert region of Mexico. And when the team land they are still in a mountainous desert region. Now I'm no expert on Mexico but the northern part is more desert and the southern part is more green I believe, so where exactly where the team supposed to be? And not one person had ever reported these giant creatures? Not even the giant human cyclops?
Ah yes the giant human cyclops, the titular character. Now this character turns out to be the missing person but, like the animals, has mutated due to the radioactivity in the area. Not sure why he has become a disfigured one-eyed mutant seeing as all the other creatures just got bigger but whatever. Also not sure why this person didn't manage to leave the region in search of help before he mutated into a cyclops but again whatever. The makeup for this giant mutant was actually well done (for the time) and pretty disturbing. His huge bulging non-blinking eye, bald head, and nasty disfigured mouth with protruding teeth were probably quite terrifying for folks back in the 50's. Sure he does literally nothing other than lurch around and growl (why is he unable to talk?) but kudos on that makeup job.
In the end it's actually pretty typical and amusing that the team of experts manages to find this missing guy...but end up killing him. Yup, they go through all that and just end up blinding him before killing him...somehow. Before the credits role we see the cyclops lying dead (in a horrendous projection shot) but I'm not really sure how. They don't try to help this guy, they don't seem to care about the giant animals, and they don't seem overly bothered about the large deposits of radium in the area that caused all this. They just kill the cyclops and fly away to safety in a happy ending. Maybe they looked further into these things when they got back to the good old US of A.
So in the end I can't really recommend this Gordon directed feature I'm afraid. I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking here, I knew exactly what I was gonna get, but it's just not on the same level of enjoyment as other similar themed movies. Dare I say its actually just a poor movie? Everything about this was just badly done, seemingly lacking any sort of real passion. Not even Chaney's stupidly rash character could elevate this much. I found myself somewhat bored to be honest although I do appreciate how this early project was a building block for Gordon and later (better) features.
4/10
Nothing new in the way of cheap science fiction.
mark.waltz15 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
There's uranium in the Mexican hinterlands, bringing down a plane and ironically where passenger Gloria Talbott's missing boyfriend happens to be hiding among the gigantic creatures grown to huge proportions to their regular size. Desert lizards become dinosaur sized, a giant hawk devours a huge dog-sized rat, and the one-eyed title character seeks to find out his past through grunts and groans. So what do the other three passengers on the plane decide to do? Destroy him to put him out of his misery. It's all pretty dumb, with the creature looking like he's got a piece of lettuce over his eye with plastic costume shop teeth in his mouth to give the illusion of deformity due to radio active contact. Lon Chaney Jr. delivers a weak performance as the oldest member of the quartet with seemingly nefarious plans that have no real impact on the plot. James Craig us dull as the pilot, seemingly in love with Talbott and must break the shocking news of who the Cyclops is. Ultimately amateurish and not even funny in a silly way, this ranks as a boring stinker that seems hastily rushed out of the B studio assembly line and would be considered a stinker a decade before it came out.
Cheap Movie Goes Over Familiar Ground
mrb198012 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I always liked the perky and pretty Gloria Talbott. She was almost always saddled with pretty poor roles (I guess "The Leech Woman" was a fairly good one) in low-budget productions. True to form, Talbott appears in this impoverished sci-fi/horror movie about yet another guy grown to monstrous size.
The fiancée of Susan Winter (Talbott) is a test pilot who disappeared in Mexico, so Talbott joins a group of searchers trying to find him. Well, they do...and he's grown to monstrous size with a large hole where one of his eyes should be. The remainder of the movie focuses on the monster trying to kill the expedition's members, including the crazy Melville (Lon Chaney, Jr.). The story ends with the monster dead and the survivors flying away.
The movie comes to us courtesy of schlockmeister Bert I. Gordon, who specialized in 1950s monster movies with really poor special effects. He delivers another turkey here, including a monster who's identical to the one in "War of the Colossal Beast" (maybe Gordon had some leftover makeup). The whole thing is so cheap and embarrassing that I felt sorry for the cast. Even by Gordon's low standards, this one's really bad.
The fiancée of Susan Winter (Talbott) is a test pilot who disappeared in Mexico, so Talbott joins a group of searchers trying to find him. Well, they do...and he's grown to monstrous size with a large hole where one of his eyes should be. The remainder of the movie focuses on the monster trying to kill the expedition's members, including the crazy Melville (Lon Chaney, Jr.). The story ends with the monster dead and the survivors flying away.
The movie comes to us courtesy of schlockmeister Bert I. Gordon, who specialized in 1950s monster movies with really poor special effects. He delivers another turkey here, including a monster who's identical to the one in "War of the Colossal Beast" (maybe Gordon had some leftover makeup). The whole thing is so cheap and embarrassing that I felt sorry for the cast. Even by Gordon's low standards, this one's really bad.
More 50's Radiation Fun
sddavis6320 March 2015
Yeah. I get it. It was the era. There was atomic testing going on all over the place and people were truly afraid of World War III breaking out. But for all the fears of the general public, it was a huge opportunity for Hollywood, and especially for independent movie makers with low budgets to cash in. So there were all kinds of movies in the era that dealt with the fears about the effects of radiation. "The Cyclops" was one of those. It's passable. What more can I say. Certainly not great, and actually not even good, but passable if you're looking to kill a little bit of time.
Susan (Gloria Talbott) is searching for her long lost fiancé. His plane crashed in a remote part of Mexico and his fate is unknown, but the Mexican government doesn't want her to search for him. It's a restricted area. But she gets a team together. James Craig plays a long time friend and bacteriologist, Tom Drake is the pilot she hired and Lon Chaney, Jr. (reduced to such movies because he can't escape from the Wolfman) is the multi-millionaire who finances them. He's interested not in Susan's fiancé, but in uranium. This remote part of Mexico is full of uranium. But uranium, of course, is radioactive - and that has consequences.
Everything in this region (well, the animals anyway) grows to a huge size - including a disfigured human with only one eye whom the team stumbles upon. OK. They, for some reason, don't get it for a while but it's pretty obvious who the cyclops is. So for a while we watch the group do battle with the various gigantic creatures (well, actually, they spend more time watching the various gigantic creatures) until they figure out the mystery and escape. No. There's not really much more to this than that.
As you'd expect in a low budget B movie from the 50's the effects and makeup are pretty weak. Everybody seemed to try, but still the performances were OK at best, but no more. It's passable. It'll kill some time. It's no better than that. (3/10)
Susan (Gloria Talbott) is searching for her long lost fiancé. His plane crashed in a remote part of Mexico and his fate is unknown, but the Mexican government doesn't want her to search for him. It's a restricted area. But she gets a team together. James Craig plays a long time friend and bacteriologist, Tom Drake is the pilot she hired and Lon Chaney, Jr. (reduced to such movies because he can't escape from the Wolfman) is the multi-millionaire who finances them. He's interested not in Susan's fiancé, but in uranium. This remote part of Mexico is full of uranium. But uranium, of course, is radioactive - and that has consequences.
Everything in this region (well, the animals anyway) grows to a huge size - including a disfigured human with only one eye whom the team stumbles upon. OK. They, for some reason, don't get it for a while but it's pretty obvious who the cyclops is. So for a while we watch the group do battle with the various gigantic creatures (well, actually, they spend more time watching the various gigantic creatures) until they figure out the mystery and escape. No. There's not really much more to this than that.
As you'd expect in a low budget B movie from the 50's the effects and makeup are pretty weak. Everybody seemed to try, but still the performances were OK at best, but no more. It's passable. It'll kill some time. It's no better than that. (3/10)
The Cyclops (1957) **
JoeKarlosi24 October 2010
Absurd but fun 1950s silliness from Bert I' Gordon, as a woman (Gloria Talbott) hires a team of three men to fly into a remote area of Mexico to help find her missing fiancé who disappeared a few years earlier. What they discover is a forsaken land contaminated by radiation which has produced giant animals and reptiles, as well as a raging 25-foot tall bald man with one eye. The highlight of this show is Lon Chaney as a punchy hot-head on the expedition, who cares more about finding uranium than he does saving a man's life. The monster itself becomes annoying with his consistently dubbed roars and growls.
** out of ****
** out of ****
Great Bert I. Film
campbellcm-8370917 October 2018
My first monster movie
sa01424627 January 2005
One of the zillions of 50's horror/sci-fi-flix this probably was (one of) the first monster movies I ever saw, I must have been around 5 years old when it was aired on Chiller Theater one Saturday night in suburban New York. I remember particularly freaking out and screaming when the giant cyclops popped up from behind a pile of boulders in a cave sometime during the film. The film left such an impression on me that certain scenes are still vivid even though it's been 40 years since I've seen the movie. I'd love to see it again and show my kids.
The Cyclops in old Mexico
bkoganbing16 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Three men and the woman who is financing the expedition go into a forbidden part of the Mexican desert. Gloria Talbott is searching for her fiancé who was an aviator and went down in the region three years earlier. Her fiancé's best friend James Craig who is a scientist is along, pilot Tom Drake, and Lon Chaney, Jr. who is looking for uranium deposits is along.
Radioactive material they find all right, it makes ordinary creatures grow to incredible size. One of those creatures is a 25 foot deformed man with only one eye like the legendary cyclops of Greek mythology. I think we know what happened to the fiancé.
Bert Gordon produced this one for Allied Artists on an Allied Artists shoestring budget. But the studio got its money's worth. Some nice sincere performances from the cast about a human tragedy.
The Cyclops is worth a look.
Radioactive material they find all right, it makes ordinary creatures grow to incredible size. One of those creatures is a 25 foot deformed man with only one eye like the legendary cyclops of Greek mythology. I think we know what happened to the fiancé.
Bert Gordon produced this one for Allied Artists on an Allied Artists shoestring budget. But the studio got its money's worth. Some nice sincere performances from the cast about a human tragedy.
The Cyclops is worth a look.
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