Village of the Giants

Village of the Giants (1965) starring Tommy Kirk, Beau Bridges, Ron Howard, by Bert I. Gordon

In Village of the Giants, delinquent teenagers ingest a substance and grow thirty feet tall. They then proceed to take over a small town. And dance. A lot.

Review

In short, Village of the Giants is a bad movie … The kind that you sit and watch with friends to mock. It makes Attack of the 50 Foot Woman look like high art in comparison. Yes, it’s that bad. An 11-year-old Genius (young Ron Howard) creates “goo” that causes creatures to grow to enormous size. Tommy Kirk thinks he can make a fortune, with giant cattle, etc. But “bad teenagers” led by Beau Bridges steal it, eat it, grow enormous, improvise clothing, and … dance! Lots of dancing, with close-ups of giant cleavage. Which, I suppose, was supposed to be the selling point of the movie.

Bad effects, bad script, and a waste of some otherwise good actors.

Cast

• Tommy Kirk (Pajama Party) … Mike
• Johnny Crawford (El Dorado) … Horsey
• Ron Howard (The Andy Griffith Show, The Music Man) … Genius (as Ronny Howard)
• Joe Turkel (Tormented) … Sheriff
• Beau Bridges (Stargate SG-1 TV series) … Fred
• Joy Harmon (Cool Hand Luke) … Merrie
• Robert Random … Rick
• Gail Gilmore … Elsa
• Tisha Sterling (The Whales of August) … Jean
• Tim Rooney Tim Rooney … Pete
• Kevin O’Neal … Harry
• Charla Doherty … Nancy
• Toni Basil … Red
• Hank Jones (Herbie Rides Again) … Chuck
• Jim Begg (The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) … Fatso
• Debi Storm … Cora
• Rance Howard … Deputy
• Vicki London … Georgette

Editorial review of Village of the Giants courtesy of Amazon.com

The moment Village of the Giants opens, with sensual shots of slow-motion frugging, we know we’ve happened upon some Bad Teens. In search of kicks, the Bad Teens head into the village of Hainesville, populated by Good Teens, most of whom seem to be in their early 30s. The fun begins when a lovable tyke named Genius (an 11-year-old Ron Howard, by far the most assured actor in the cast) whips up some “goo,” which makes anything that eats it grow really big and develop a rakish disregard for scale. Soon these wild Bad Teens, led by a deeply embarrassed Beau Bridges and wearing their rebellious cardigans and Sansabelt pants, get their hands on the stuff.

They take over the town and celebrate with some giant slow-motion dancing, complete with lots and lots of footage of giant slow-motion cleavage to make sure we’ve taken in the full horror of the situation. There is not one disappointing moment in this entire movie: Just when you think it can’t possibly get any more ludicrous, it comes through and surprises you with a giant spider in the basement or a plan to distract the teens with yet more sexy dancing. Absolutely not to be missed. –Ali Davis