The Cyclops (film)

Plot

Test pilot Bruce Barton (Duncan Parkin) is missing and his girlfriend, Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott) organizes a search party, sent out in the jungles of Mexico. The team of scientist Russ Bradford (James Craig), mining expert Martin "Marty" Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.) and pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake) fly into an unknown territory. While searching the area, however, they uncover giant mutated earth animals such as giant snakes, lizards, behemoth bugs and oversized mammals.

More importantly, they encounter a mutated 50-ft tall, one-eyed human monster who became disfigured due to an exposure to radioactivity from massive radium deposits in the area. He kills Melville but appears to recognize the girl. When the cyclops tries to prevent the rest of the group from flying to safety, he is gravely wounded, and dies.

Cast

As appearing in The Cyclops, (main roles and screen credits identified):

Production

The main leads, Craig, Drake and Talbott signed up for the independent production, which was initially going to be a RKO production, but financing fell through. The Producer/director worked feverishly to complete the film before money ran out, with only five or six days allotted to shooting. Not making things any easier was having to contend with Lon Chaney Jr. who was habitually drunk. Duncan Parkin also played Col. Manning in the War of the Colossal Beast, which is the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man, basically playing the same disfigured giant in both films.

Production effects in The Cyclops were limited to backscreen projection, rudimentary matte work, and incorporating large images into the scenes. In the film, there is a scene in which the creature grabs Susan, but he also grabs the background as well, revealing the black color behind it. The discovery of the test pilot's aircraft involves dissimilar and haphazard debris scattered about in the form of a light aircraft wing, a P-51 Mustang canopy and a radial engine.

Reception

The Cyclops was released as a double-feature with Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, which also starred Gloria Talbott. A clip of The Cyclops was later used as part of the original opening sequence of WPIX Channel 11 New York's "Chiller Theatre" back in the 1960s. Film critic Leonard Maltin dismissed the film as "Nothing much in this cheapie."