THE CYCLOPS 1957 B/W Science Fiction Horror Film

My reason for watching this one was I wanted to see how they portrayed the cyclops nothing more. Never seen this film before unusal for me and sadly I won't be going looking for it again. When I saw the credits I realised that Lon Chancey Jr. was in it which to me was a plus sign. Myself an Lon go way back to my early teens when I sat through my first horror film (from behind the sofa) in which he was starring in The Wolfman (1941). Sadly by this stage of his career things were on a bit of a downward spiral.

It seems the financing for the film fell through and they had to rush to get it finished in 5 or 6 days and it shows. The plot test pilot Bruce Barton is missing somewhere in the jungles of Mexico (new to me I didn't know they had jungles in Mexico)and his girlfriend, Susan Winter organizes a search party. The team of 4 include Susan, scientist Russ Bradford, mining expert Martin "Marty" Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.) and pilot Lee Brand each with their own agenda for being there. While searching the area, however, they uncover extemely high levels of radioactivity from massive radium deposits in the area, which seem to affect the growth rate of both animals and humans. Apparently the theme of a monster created as a result of radioactivity was a common one in the 1950s. Their is some seriously bad acting and editing in this it looked like Chaney and Gloria Talbot (Susan) just didn't want to be there. Though saying that Gloria like many actresses of that time knew the visual effect of a good tight sweater.

My favourite line has to be from Russ Bradford, "the secret of continuous limitless multiplication of living cells in ordinary animals." said in one long gasping breath. So basically the film consists of the 4 of them running around in the jungle searching. The cyclops was spot on he didn't have many lines it's just the rest of the film was lacking thankfully at 66 minutes short enough.