The War of the Colossal Beast (1958) starring Sally Fraser, Dean Parkin
Synopsis
In The War of the Colossal Beast, an insane and disfigured gigantic man wreaks havoc on a small town. And only one person has a chance at stopping him …
Review
War of the Colossal Beast is a sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man. Despite falling to his death at the end of the previous movie, his sister believes that he survived … somehow. And he traveled to Mexico … somehow. Both, without being seen, despite being 60 feet tall.
Lt. Col. Glenn Manning, the “colossal beast” of the title, is severely brain damaged. In addition, his face has been severely damaged. Partly to cover the fact that he’s being played by a different actor in the sequel.
Soon, the military finds him in Mexico, where they capture him. How? He’s been surviving by stealing trucks and eating whatever is inside. So, they drug a bunch of bread, which he eats, falls, asleep, and he’s captured. Unsurprisingly, he escapes shortly after, and goes on a rampage. He nearly destroys a school bus full of children. But, his sister manages to talk him out of it. Finally, he recovers his wits enough to call to her. “Joyce …”. Shortly before he electrocutes himself on high voltage wires.
In short, The War of the Colossal Beast is an entertaining, though not very original, film. AMC recently showed a 15-minute version of the film. What’s sad to say is that it pretty much covered the highlights of the entire film in that time.
Editorial review of The War of the Colossal Beast courtesy of Amazon.com
WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST picks up a year after the first movie (THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN) ended — Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser), sister to the first film”s 70-foot-tall Colossal Man, Lt. Col. Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan), believes that her brother is still alive, despite his fall off of Boulder Dam at the denouement of the first movie.
Her hope is based on reports out of Mexico about a “very big man” attacking truckers and other passersby in a remote part of the country. As it turns out, Manning (played here by Dean Parkin, since Langan turned down the request to star in a sequel) is alive and hiding somewhere in the mountains, bigger than ever and suffering from serious brain damage, with a hideously deformed face that is covered in scar tissue and missing an eye.
Every effort at communicating with the giant fails, and as things transpire, he breaks out of the place where he is being held and goes on a rampage through Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Thrill as a bus load of high school kids hangs in the balance over Griffith Observatory as helicopters circle and the Army surrounds the crazed giant. It is up to Joyce to save these kids, the City of Los Angeles and her doomed brother in the final battle of THE WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST !!!!!