The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 American science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel The Shrinking Man. The film stars Grant Williams as Scott and Randy Stuart as Scott's wife Louise. While relaxing on a boat, Scott is enveloped by a strange fog. Months later, he discovers that he appears to be shrinking. By the time Scott has reached the height of a small boy, his condition becomes known to the public. When he learns there is no cure for his condition, he lashes out at his wife. As Scott shrinks to the point he can fit into a doll house, he has a battle with his family cat, which leaves him lost and alone in his basement, where he is now smaller than the average insect.

Synopsis

After Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.

Plot[]

Warning: this text contains details about the plot/ending of the film.

Robert Scott Carey, known as "Scott", is on vacation with his wife, Louise, when a strange mist covers him. Six months later, Scott notices his clothes are too large, suspects he is shrinking and seeks medical advice. At first dismissive, Scott's doctor confirms his shrinking using X-rays. Scott is referred to a medical research institute, where it is determined Scott's exposure to the mist, combined with his later exposure to a pesticide, rearranged his molecular structure, causing him to shrink. Scott tells Louise in light of his predicament she is free to leave him. Louise promises to stay, as Scott's wedding ring falls off his finger.

Scott's condition makes him a national curiosity. Media attention forces Scott into seclusion inside his home. Scott is advised to sell his story and he begins keeping a journal of his experiences. Scott's humiliation causes him to lash out at Louise in frustration. An antidote is discovered arresting Scott's shrinking at three feet in height, but doctors warn him that he will remain that height unless something is found to reverse his condition. Emotionally broken, Scott goes out and meets Clarice, a carnival worker and female dwarf, who is exactly Scott's height. Clarice encourages Scott and he is inspired to continue his journal. Later, Scott notices he is now shorter than Clarice, and dejectedly runs home.

Scott shrinks small enough to live in a dollhouse and becomes more tyrannical. When Louise leaves home on an errand, Scott falls into his basement after Butch, the family cat, attacks him. Louise returns and assumes Butch ate Scott after she finds a bloody scrap of Scott's clothing. Louise prepares to move out, with Scott's brother, Charlie, helping.

Scott encounters much hardship navigating his basement. The water heater bursts, but when Charlie and Louise come to investigate, Scott is too small for them to hear his screams for help. Scott next battles a large spider while finding food and shelter for himself. He ultimately kills the spider with a straight pin, and collapses in exhaustion. He awakens small enough to escape the basement through one of the squares of a window screen. Scott accepts his fate of shrinking to sub-atomic size. He is no longer afraid, concluding that no matter how small he becomes, he will still matter in the universe because God will know he exists.

Cast[]

Cast adapted from the American Film Institute.

Grant Williams as Robert "Scott" Carey
Randy Stuart as Louise Carey
April Kent as Clarice Bruce
Paul Langton as Charlie Carey
Raymond Bailey as Dr. Silver
William Schallert as Dr. Bramson
Diana Darrin as the nurse
Billy Curtis as midget
Orangey as Butch the cat

Production[]

Richard Matheson's idea for the original novel was inspired by a scene in the film Let's Do It Again, where Ray Milland's character leaves an apartment with the wrong hat. It is much too large for Milland and sinks down around his head and ears. Matheson sold the rights to Universal on the condition that he write the screenplay. It was Matheson's first screenplay, a writing format he felt he adapted to quickly. Matheson's initial script followed Scott Carey already shrunken and battling a spider in his basement. His rewrite is told in flashback form: scenes of Carey and the spider are interspersed with scenes telling the story of Carey's gradual loss in height.

The film was already into its second month of production before the novel was published in May 1956 by Gold Medal Books. Producer Albert Zugsmith added the word "Incredible" to Matheson's title and passed the script to Richard Alan Simmons, who removed the script's flashback structure. Matheson later discussed working with Universal, finding that the producer had a "very commercial mind" which made the script weaker in terms of character. In an interview in Cinefantastique magazine, Matheson stated he protested sharing a screen credit with Simmons. The screen credits list Matheson as the writer, while the shooting script lists both Matheson and Simmons. Pre-production was originally set to begin on April 20, 1956, but it started officially on April 24. The cast consisted of mostly unknown actors. Director Jack Arnold phoned Randy Stuart, who was a personal friend, asking if she would be interested in doing the film. Zugsmith initially wanted Dan O'Herlihy to play the role of Scott Carey. O'Herlihy had just been nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Robinson Crusoe. After reading the script, he refused to play another isolated character, not wanting to be typecast in that kind of role. Grant Williams was cast because Universal had him pegged to become a star. On April 4, 1956, Williams and Stuart were screen tested and deemed acceptable for the roles of Scott and Louise Carey.

Release[]

The Incredible Shrinking Man opened in New York on February 22, 1957. This was followed by a screening in Los Angeles on March 27, 1957, and a wider release in April. Actress Randy Stuart recalled the film was either "second or third, I think third, after The Ten Commandments" in terms of how much money it made against what it cost. Variety reported that by the end of the year it had grossed $1.43 million, making it one of the highest grossing science fiction films of the decade (for comparison, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea grossed $8 million, Journey to the Center of the Earth grossed $4.8 million, The Thing from Another World grossed $1.95 million, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers grossed $1.2 million).

The film was reissued theatrically in 1964, but otherwise was rarely shown on television and screened only occasionally at science fiction conventions. It was released on laser disc in 1978 and 1991, on VHS in 1992, and on DVD in 2006 (as part of a box set containing a collection of Universal-International's science fiction films). Arrow Video released the film on Blu-ray in 2017. In July 2021, The Criterion Collection announced a blu-ray of the film with a new 4K digital restoration; its bonus material includes audio commentary from Tom Weaver and David Schecter.

Reception[]

Arnold's biographer Dana M. Reemes described The Incredible Shrinking Man as initially being received as a routine to above average film; its reception has steadily grown ever since. Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a fascinating exercise in imagination, as terrifying as it is funny [...] Science-fiction admirers who are accustomed to finding food for thought as well as vicarious thrills in such flights of fancy will not be disappointed, either." The Monthly Film Bulletin praised the film, and declared it a "horrifying story that grips the imagination throughout", one that "straightforward, macabre, and as startlingly original as a vintage Ray Bradbury short story, for all its peaceful and resigned conclusion—opens new vistas of cosmic terror". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film, writing that "unless a viewer is addicted to freakish ironies, the unlikely spectacle of Mr. Williams losing an inch of height each week, while his wife, Randy Stuart, looks on helplessly, will become tiresome before Universal has emptied its lab of science-fiction clichés." "Brog." of Variety commented that the film was not thoroughly satisfactory, but had enough good qualities, specifically declaring "unfoldment is inclined to slow down on occasion, resulting in flagging interest here and there". The review noted the special effects and cinematography were "visually effective", but that "portions of the background score are overworked", which distracted from the plot. The film was the winner of the first Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1958.

Martin Rubin discussed the film in a 1974 issue of Film Comment and compared it to its contemporaries in the genre. He found it did not have the "schoolboy cynicism and moralizing of a Roger Corman film, nor any of the hysteria common to the Red-scare science-fictioners of the Fifties". He felt the story was well-suited to Jack Arnold, noting a "WeIlesian director would have overinflated this film and compromised its sense of the ordinary with shadows and angles, while a more accomplished stylist of almost any other order would have softened it too much—such attitudes are better off in the horror film." Rubin also compared it the other science fiction films Arnold made in the 1950s—The Creature From the Black Lagoon, It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula, Revenge of the Creature, and The Space Children—finding them competitively "interesting in patches", but lacking in comparison to the "unity and clarity" of The Incredible Shrinking Man, which "totally fulfills its central metaphor without being unduly constricted by it".

Ian Nathan of Empire referred to the film as a classic of 1950s science fiction films, and noted how the everyday objects found at home are "transformed into a terrifying vertiginous world fraught with peril. A confrontation with a 'giant' spider, impressively realised, as are all the effects, for its day, has become one of the iconic image [sic] of the entire era." Tim Lucas declared that the film "remains one of the perfectly realized science fiction films", noting it was "less about science then a masterful example of the 'what if' branch of speculative human drama".

External links[]

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