The Colossus of New York (1958)

A brilliant surgeon encases his dead son's brain in a large robot body, with unintended results...

Director:

Eugène Lourié

Writers:

Thelma Schnee (screenplay), Willis Goldbeck (story)

Stars:

John Baragrey, Mala Powers, Otto Kruger

Cast

Complete credited cast:
John Baragrey	...	Dr. Henry Spensser
Mala Powers	...	Anne Spensser
Otto Kruger	...	Dr. William Spensser
Robert Hutton	...	Dr. John Robert Carrington
Ross Martin	...	Dr. Jeremy 'Jerry' Spensser
Charles Herbert	...	Billy Spensser

Storyline

Jeremy Spensser, genius humanitarian, is killed in an accident just after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. His father William, a brilliant brain surgeon, works on the body in secret before burial; later revealing to his other son Henry that he has the brain on life support and hopes to encase it in a robot body! The resulting being is large, strong, and develops many strange powers. Initially it has Jeremy's gentle personality but this, too, begins to change, and a year later it decides to end its long seclusion... Unusual piano music score.

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Plot Keywords:

brain | robot | toy airplane | dead woman on floor | death ray | 

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Taglines:

Towering above the skyline ~ an indestructible creature whose eyes rain death and destruction!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

June 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Koloss von New York

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Jeremy (the Colossus) crashes through the glass wall at the end of the movie, the very next scene there is a woman lying on the floor and the man to the left of her looks down at her. In the scene following, the Colossus starts shooting eye beams. The eye beam then hits the woman, now standing, and she falls to the floor, in the same position.

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits text rises out of New York harbor, as its reflection on the water sinks to the bottom of the screen.

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Connections

Featured in 100 Years of Horror: Man-Made Monsters (1996)

User Reviews

A lost gem from the 1950s!

This is one of the most under-rated, unappreciated sci-fi films of all time.

Any boob with a few million dollars and free access to CGI special effects can make a movie that will dazzle the great, unwashed public. If you doubt this statement, just take a peek at "Day After Tomorrow".

But it's not so easy to make an intelligent and thought-provoking film on a show-string budget in the by-gone year of 1958.

And yet, Eugene Lourie did exactly that. I feel sorry for the people who dismiss this fine little film just because it doesn't live up to standards which they could never have met if they'd been given the same challenge.

Folks, if you weren't a KID in the 1950s, you can't really be expected to understand why that unique decade produced sci-fi films that inspired America to go to the Moon.

In other words, the spaceships that went to the Moon in our MOVIES might have been dangling from strings, but they inspired us to get off our buns and make it happen in real life.

Sadly, the current generation seems content to sit with a Nintendo controller in their hands and blast video villains all day long.

Gee, what a great legacy for their children . . .