The Cyclops
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
Written by Bert I. Gordon
1957/USA
B&H Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] The first monster you have to scare the audience with is yourself. — Wes Craven [/box]
Bert I. Gordon specialized in giant creatures. This fun movie features several.
The story is set in Mexico. Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott) is searching for her fiance, whose plane crashed in an inaccessible valley three years ago. The Mexican government denies her permission to land her own plane there, partially due to the somewhat shady group of men that accompany of her. One of them is Marty Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.), who has taken his “scintillator” along to explore for uranium.
The party evades the government and makes an emergency landing in the valley. Marty immediately discovers that the place hides a massive radioactive deposit. He does everything possible to sabotage the rest of the mission so he can return to the city and file a mining claim. Susan and the others have bigger troubles, however. The radioactivity has caused all the fauna to grow uncontrollably.
This is an entertaining lark for fans of the genre. We get a giant eagle and mouse and a battle between giant lizards, along with the title creature.
Trailer
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