Giant from the Unknown (1958)

"All white men die!", 24 November 2009

Local geologist Wayne Brooks (Ed Kemmer) teams up with visiting archaeologist Dr. Fredrick Cleveland (Morris Ankrum) to search the local mountains for the remains of a 300+ year old Spanish conquistador and a reputed giant of a man named Vargas. Another draw for Brooks is the opportunity to spend a little time with the Dr.'s vacuous but attractive daughter, Janet (Sally Fraser). The team is about to give up when Janet accidentally discovers a Spanish graveyard. But is there more here than helmets and breastplates? It's not long before the giant Vargas makes his return and sets his own sights on young Janet and anything else he can maim and destroy.

By all rights, I've most likely overrated Giant from the Unknown. It features a multitude of easily identifiable weaknesses – a plot that moves at the break-neck pace of a slug, the dim-witted Janet randomly stumbling on the Spanish artifacts, Sheriff Parker's beyond ridiculous persecution of Brooks (Why in God's name would anyone think that Brooks would be running around the country-side slaughtering cows and destroying hen houses?), Bob Steele's laughably bad performance as Parker, the whole notion of Vargas "living" in a sort of suspended animation for 350 years, and the poorly done special effects in the film's finale. Giant from the Unknown literally has everything you could hope to find in any regular bad movie. It would be easy to write it all off as badly made 50s junk, but for whatever reason and despite these many shortcomings, I found myself inexplicably enjoying the movie. Entertainment can be different from one person to the next. And, it's often difficult to put a finger on what you find entertaining in a movie. All I know is that for most of Giant from the Unknown, I was entertained. I went for the characters, I got a kick out of legend Jack Pierce's Vargas make-up, and I enjoyed the acting of Keemer and especially Ankrum. Ankrum is one of those actors who's good in everything I've seen him in. Sure, it takes some patience to get through the slow parts in Giant from the Unknown (and there are a bunch of 'em), but it's worth it. There's a good little movie here if you just look for it. Like I said, it's difficult to explain, but I'm giving this one a 6/10.

6/10