Product Description

Nancy Archer has had an alien encounter and it's left her 50 ft. tall! Now she sees the men in her life from a new angle--looking down on them--and it's time to fight back! Year: 1993 Director: Christopher Guest Starring: Daryl Hannah, Daniel Leroy Baldwin, William Windom

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26676 in VHS
• Released on: 1997-09-02
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 66 minutes

Amazon.com
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... especially when you're fending off The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman! One of the most beloved camp classics of the 1950s begins with a three-way recipe for sci-fi disaster: Cheating husband Harry (William Hudson) is married to alcoholic heiress Nancy (Allison Hayes), but he's got a scheming mistress named Honey (Yvette Vickers) and a burning desire for Nancy's lavish inheritance. But before the greedy lovers can say "Super-Size Me," the insanely jealous Nancy gains a towering advantage: After exposure to radiation from a spherical alien satellite, Nancy grows to a height of (yep, you guessed it) and proceeds to wreak havoc as a giant dame with an attitude problem. As often happened with cheesy sci-fi and horror films of the Eisenhower era, the movie's deliriously exploitative poster promised more than the movie actually delivers, which perhaps explains why director Nathan Juran (whose next film was the comparatively lavish The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) opted to be credited as "Nathan Hertz." And while the special effects are cheesy and cheap (involving oversized miniatures, repeated process shots, see-through double-exposures, and a giant, rubbery arm used for King Kong-like clutching scenes), it's still possible to feel a hint of compassion for poor ol' Nancy, and that--along with the enjoyable performances of Hayes, Hudson, and Vickers--is probably why Attack has gained such a loyal cult following over the decades. Fueled by atomic-age paranoia and timeless human foibles, it's a feminist revenge thriller with lasting appeal, remade in 1993 with better special effects and Daryl Hannah in the title role. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

I am Woman, watch me grow
When I was a little boy living in the Woodside Housing Projects in the early 1960s, a status symbol amongst the kids was how many times one had seen "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" on TV. It seemed like it was on TV every week, on the Zacherley-hosted "Chiller Theater". Clips from it were even featured on the opening intro of "Chiller Theater", along with clips from "Plan 9 From Outer Space", "The Ape Man", "Killers From Space", "The Cyclops", and "Frankenstein's Daughter". Kids were easy to please back then.
This soon-to-be 45 year old kid STILL loves this film. "Attack" is essentially a trashy soap opera, featuring a philandering husband, an alcoholic heiress, a sexy "other woman", and, to top it off, a 30 foot giant who, in the words of artist Frank Dietz, looks like a gigantic Fred Mertz in a Roman costume!
Alcoholic heiress Nancy Archer (played by the voluptuous Allison Hayes, who died WAY too young), sees a flying saucer, which looks like the bubble Glinda travels in in "The Wizard of Oz". The 30 foot Fred Mertz lookalike emerges from the craft, and covets Nancy's fabulous diamond, "The Star of India". He wants it to power his spacecraft, or maybe for his own personal jewelry collection. Of course, everyone thinks that Nancy is just seeing pink elephants, including her two-timing, fortune-hunting husband Harry. Harry and his sexy girlfriend Honey Parker, (played by red-headed vixen Yvette Vickers) want Nancy committed, so they can get their greedy, sweaty little hands on her millions. What they don't bargain for is that Nancy has become contaminated by radiation from her encounter with Fred Mertz. Nancy then grows to a statuesque 50 feet, her hair turns honey blonde in the process, and she goes on a rampage, determined to wreak her vengeance on the slimy Harry and the sluttish Honey. The image of Ms. Hayes, in her matching bedsheet bra and half-slip, is an unforgettable icon. The film is a little slow going, and the "Attack" doesn't come til the last 10 minutes of the film, but it is fascinately, entertainingly awful to watch. The women's clothes look like they came straight out of a 1958 Frederick's of Hollywood catalogue, the dialogue is atrocious, and the special effects are cheesy-you can see through the Fred Mertz giant and the titular character (yes, it's a pun). The film also has that crazy 1950s iconography. The "desert community" home of the Archers (I like to think that they didn't live far from Las Vegas), the big cars with tailfins, and, of course, the sexy "broads". One can imagine what Russ Meyer would have done with this film! My favorite line occurs in the film after Nancy's first encounter with the jewelry-snatching giant, and Nancy says to Harry, "I think he was after my diamond!" I may also add, on a personal note, that two of my dearest friends, a married couple, are named Nancy and Harry. We all get a big laugh out of it! One final anecdote: I'm pretty sure Federico Fellini saw this film and was impressed. The hilarious Italian comedy "Boccaccio 70", comprises of 3 stories directed by different directors. The Fellini-directed story, "The Seduction of Dr. Antonio", deals with a straightlaced, uptight moralist and his encounter with a 50-foot tall Anita Ekberg. WOW!

fun cinema stuff
This movie was great fun, terrific acting, amusingly poor special effects but a camp 1950s scary movie classic that would definitely would be worth the purchase if it had been restored and presented in widescreen. I've seen this film many times but now I'd like to see the complete film.

GIVE IT A BREAK
The majority of the reviewers bash this one. My only complaint is I wish the producer and director would of had more vision to have the 50 ft. woman actually tear up a city and a walk over a highway like the cover of the video. She also could have been the giant about 30 minutes longer than in the film. These are 1950's special effects and the obvious poor acting is the make out scenes with her cheating husband (William Hudson) and girlfriend (Yvette Peters) in the dance club. Allison Hayes is brilliant as the 50 ft. woman. This could have been equal to "King Kong" and "Godzilla", but it's still an all-time classic.