This was and is a really good film and  – for the time – the special effects are excellent. The story too was an original concept at the time.

The stars of the film are Grant Williams as Scott Carey and Randy Stuart – funnily enough they appeared again together in a 1963 episode of Hawaiian Eye – Grant appeared in over 40 episodes of this famous TV series.  The Incredible Shrinking Man  is even shown today – as the above poster shows.  I wish I had known and would have gone to see this one in Bath.

Two Scenes that show the terrific special effects that this film had when Scott Carey’s wife played by Randy Stuart sees what is happening to her husband and above much later in the film when even smaller – and getting smaller by the day – Scott (Grant William) has to fight off a house spider in a thrilling sequence.

This is simply a superb science-fiction drama. Taking a holiday  on a boat, while his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) is below deck, husband Scott Carey (Grant Williams)  becomes exposed to a radioactive mist, that changes his body’s metabolism . Then a few weeks later it dawns on Scott that he is losing weight and getting smaller.

Much later in the film we had the attacks from a cat and a spider,  one soon feels great sympathy for this character and his family. Williams, a handsome actor gives a beautiful performance, and narrates over much of the film which later has no dialogue, but he is greatly aided by a wonderful score –  the title piece is haunting with its Trumpet solo set against an advancing cloud that gets bigger while the human frame dwindles.  Randy Stuart is terrific as the suffering wife,  and yet the following year’s “Man From God’s Country” – 1958, was  her last film although she continued to appear in TV series for a number of years afterwards – in fact up until 1975.

View the Film  Trailer on the link below:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vTIWloXBCww

Director Jack Arnold paces beautifully, Richard Matheson script is intelligent and the closing scenes have a wondrous quality that few films have ever matched.  Jack Arnold felt that Grant Williams should have got an Oscar for this acting performance – much of it acted out to nothing with the effects added in later – something that is done a lot these days with digital effects.  Of course it was done then with the superb matte paintings that we have covered on the Blog before – and will come back to again no doubt.

It seems also that the film was released in a very short version for an 8mm home projector – but this was not unusual at all at this time. Walt Disney did it with Treasure Island and The Story of Robin Hood as I have those films. I didn’t know though that this one was available.

This promotional item above was interesting too – above.