The Cyclops (1957)

An expedition to Mexico finds and does battle with a mutated 25-foot man with one big eye.

Director:

Bert I. Gordon

Writer:

Bert I. Gordon

Stars:

James Craig, Gloria Talbott, Lon Chaney Jr.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
James Craig	...	Russ Bradford
Gloria Talbott	...	Susan Winter
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Martin 'Marty' Melville (as Lon Chaney)
Tom Drake	...	Lee Brand
Duncan 'Dean' Parkin	...	The Cyclops (Bruce Barton) (as Duncan Parkin)
Vicente Padula	...	The Governor (as Vincent Padula)
Marlene Kloss	...	The Salesgirl
Manuel López	...	The Policeman (as Manuel Lopez)

Storyline

Susan Winter undertakes an expedition to a remote area of Mexico, hoping to find her fiance, Bruce Barton, whos plane-crashed there some time ago. The area is suspected to have a good supply of uranium, so Susan has promoted this to wealthy Martin Melville to get money for her expenses. In addition to Melville, she is accompanied by guide Russ Bradford and pilot Lee Brand in his small-engine craft. But the plane crashes, stranding the four in an isolated valley, which they soon discover is highly radioactive and inhabited by mutated life forms - giant insects, enormous lizards, and a 25-foot-tall human male with a deformed face, just one eye, and only brute animal instincts to feed and protect its turf...

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Plot Keywords:

mexico | creature feature | punched in the face | mexican government | loss of fiancee | 

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Taglines:

It was a monster - yet it was a man!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Maldição do Monstro

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

B&H Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

66 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The cyclops myth almost certainly originated in the Greek islands, which in prehistoric times were the home of dwarf mastodons. By the classical period they were all extinct, but their jumbled bones could be found in caves (and still are). Like the modern elephant, the skull has a central opening for the nasal passage of the trunk, which resembles a human eye socket, whereas the real sockets are further back and rather indistinct - thus it looks like the skull of a giant man with one eye.

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Goofs

After landing, and Lon Chaney and the pilot are thinking about leaving the rest of the group by stealing the plane, Look closely, the planes wheels are still chocked with rocks. They could not have taken off.

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Connections

Referenced in Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

User Reviews

The Cyclops (1957) **

Absurd but fun 1950s silliness from Bert I' Gordon, as a woman (Gloria Talbott) hires a team of three men to fly into a remote area of Mexico to help find her missing fiancé who disappeared a few years earlier. What they discover is a forsaken land contaminated by radiation which has produced giant animals and reptiles, as well as a raging 25-foot tall bald man with one eye. The highlight of this show is Lon Chaney as a punchy hot-head on the expedition, who cares more about finding uranium than he does saving a man's life. The monster itself becomes annoying with his consistently dubbed roars and growls.

** out of ****