THE 31 MOVIES OF HORROR-WEEN: MOVIE #3: ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. MONSTER MANIA (1999) ***

Elvira hosts this sequel to the fun documentary/clip show Monster Mania.  Like its predecessor, it originally aired on AMC.  This one, as the title implies, is a salute to giant monster movies.  It’s only an hour long and is a fairly concise history of the subgenre, so fans of monster mashing are likely to enjoy it. 

Narrated by Billy (Lost in Space) Mumy, the special explores early dinosaur films (Gertie the Dinosaur and The Lost World) whose innovations eventually lead to the greatest giant monster movie of all, King Kong.  Other segments are on Atomic Age terrors (like Beginning of the End and Tarantula), giant humans (Dr. Cyclops, War of the Colossal Beast, and Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman), and of course, lots of screen time is devoted to the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla.  There’s also a bit on British efforts like Gorgo and Konga.  The longest sequence is on Ray Harryhausen’s special effects work for films such as Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and 20 Million Miles to Earth. 

This is fun for a while, but by the time the focus shifts to the TV shows of Irwin Allen (Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Land of the Giants), the documentary starts losing its way.  It also completely glosses over monster movies of the ‘80s (a brief clip of the Alien Queen from Aliens is about all we get) and the then-new ‘90s films like Starship Troopers and Mighty Joe Young don’t get much screen time.  I will give it points for covering a film that is largely ignored in these kinds of documentaries:  Georges Melies’ The Conquest of the Pole, which featured the screen’s very first giant monster (and the first scene of a man getting eaten by a giant monster).

The movies are represented by a good mix of film clips, trailer snippets, and behind the scenes photos.  Interviewees like Donald F. Glut, Bob Burns, and Forrest J. Ackerman lend their expertise and are fun to listen to.  If it wasn’t so rushed near the homestretch, Attack might’ve been better than the original Monster Mania.  As it stands, I’d say they are about even Steven.