The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
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88% of critics liked it
(17 reviews) -
80% of users liked it
(3,600 ratings)
The screen's great existential science fiction film, The Incredible Shrinking Man stars Grant Williams in the title role. While catching some rays on his brother's yacht, Scott Carey (Williams) is enveloped by a mysterious dark cloud. Soon after, he discovers that he's getting thinner --… More The screen's great existential science fiction film, The Incredible Shrinking Man stars Grant Williams in the title role. While catching some rays on his brother's yacht, Scott Carey (Williams) is enveloped by a mysterious dark cloud. Soon after, he discovers that he's getting thinner -- and smaller. Despite the assuring attitude of his family doctor (the inevitable William Schallert), Scott is losing an inch's worth of height with each passing day. It is finally determined that he has developed an "anti-cancer," a by-product of a new strain of insecticide. By the time he's reached the size of a small boy, Scott has become world-famous. But the phenomenon has adversely affected his personality, turning him into a tyrant, lashing out at the world in general and his faithful wife in particular. An anti-toxin briefly halts the shrinking process, whereupon Scott joins a midget troupe, where he is briefly "accepted" for what he has become. But before long he's shrinking again, becoming so tiny that he is forced to live in a dollhouse. When Scott is attacked by his pet cat, his wife assumes that he's been killed; in fact, Scott, by now so minuscule that even a garden-variety spider poses a deadly threat to him, is hiding in his cellar. By film's end, Scott is no larger than an atom. Uncertain of what is in store for him, he steps out into the mists, summing up his newfound philosophy: "Smaller than smallest, I meant something too. To God there is no zero. I still exist!" Adapted by Richard Matheson from his own novel, The Incredible Shrinking Man is enhanced by its superb special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Jack Arnold
- Genres
- Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror
- In Theaters
- Feb 22, 1957 Wide
- Studio
- MCA Universal Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Geoff Andrew, Time Out
A moving, strangely pantheist assertion of what it really means to be alive. A pulp masterpiece.
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Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Unless a viewer is addicted to freakish ironies, the unlikely spectacle of Mr. Williams losing an inch of height each week will become tiresome before Universal has emptied its lab of science-fiction clichés.
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
The surreal intensity of outsize objects that loom as the hero shrinks is handled effectively, and the mystical happy ending is a better payoff than one would expect of the genre.
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Rob Humanick, Suite101.com
Earns its ponderous tone, and the final moments are as fitting as they are unexpected.
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, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Notable for its relatively intelligent script, for some imaginatively amusing special effects, and for an existential streak which finally has our (tiny) hero pondering the meaning of existence.
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Cast
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Grant Williams
as Scott Carey
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Randy Stuart
as Louise Carey
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April Kent
as Clarice
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Paul Langton
as Charlie Carey
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Raymond Bailey
as Dr. Thomas Silver
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William Schallert
as Dr. Arthur Bramson
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Frank J. Scannell
as Barker
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Helene Marshall
as Nurse
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Diana Darrin
as Nurse
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Billy Curtis
as Midget
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John Hiestand
as TV Newscaster
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Lock Martin
as Giant (cut)
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Regis Parton
as Bit
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Luce Potter
as Midget
