46.1 The Giant Monster Movies of 1957, feat. Patrick Ripoll of 96 Greers (1 of 3)

FROM THE FURTHEST REACHES OF SPACE AND THE DEEPEST DEPTHS OF THE SEA CAME ALIENS, MUTATED CREATURES, AND OTHER LARGE, SCARY ALLEGORIES!

Welcome to another patented Genre Grinder deep dive into a specific year where a specific genre peaked. This time, Patrick and Gabe are looking at 15 of 17 movies about gigantic monsters released in some capacity during the year 1957 (festival, roll-out, wide, et cetera). The other two are a lost film (Tokyo 1960) and one already covered on a different episode of Genre Grinder (Quatermass II). Not unexpectedly, the conversation carried on for some time, so the complete 15-movie discussion will be spread over three episodes.

In part one, following an intro to the genre and era, we’re covering Nathan H. Juran’s 20 Million Miles to Earth, Roger Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters, Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Kurt Neumann’s Kronos. 

Here’s the full Letterboxd list we are working from: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/1957-giant-monster-movies/

00:00 – Intro: Why were there so many Giant Monster movies in 1957?

13:21 – 20 Million Miles to Earth and the cinema of Ray Harryhausen

42:47 – Attack of the Crab Monsters and the cinema of Roger Corman

1:02:46 – The Incredible Shrinking Man and post-WWII gender politics

1:26:40 – Kronos 

1:48:27 – Outro

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