Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

There is so much to say about this terrible movie.I could write a review longer than the script but it's not worth my time. The trailer says "From The Depths Of Hell It Came,To Hold All Men Prisoner and Every Woman Slave!!" That's 100% false,it didn't do any of that. Not to mention that it's not a giant and they know where it's from..... This flick is so bad that the make-up "artist" gets his name in the opening credits and the make-up is just some dirt on the guys face. So anyway,a scientist and his daughter show up in some country town(sounds REAL familiar) and guess what?They immediately run into another scientist!!! Turns out the younger scientist was at a lecture given by the older one but the old guy doesn't remember.At the same time the sheriff shows up to hassle the old guy and warn him that the younger guy is probably a murderer, even though there's no evidence to support that. Most of the movie is spent using terrible writing and acting to get the characters to split up,it's silly. The old guy has come to town to search for artifacts to prove whites had been there centuries before Columbus and that one of them was a giant.After a few minutes of searching he decides to give up,then they stumble on a mass grave.They dig it up and without any evidence of a giant he gives up again.Then the younger guy finds the giant's armor while hitting on the older guy's daughter, AND IT'S JUST BURIED UNDER SOME LEAVES!!!!!!!! Oh,it gets worse. They decide to hang the armor on a tree and go to sleep.Guess what happens next?? You just wasted an hour and a half. Watch this movie expecting it to suck and it might not make you angry.If you never see it,you didn't miss anything.

Truth to tell, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from "Giant From the Unknown." I'd seen two of director Richard Cunha's later works, "Missile to the Moon" and "Frankenstein's Daughter," and had found them both incredibly awful, albeit entertainingly so. Indeed, the latter might just be my favorite bad movie of all time. Still, it was to my surprise that "Giant," although certainly not a good movie by any reasonable definition, turned out to be yet another entertaining diversion from director Cunha. In it, a Spanish conquistador, buried 500 years ago by Indians in what is now California, rises from the earth to cause more mayhem. As played by Buddy Baer (brother of heavyweight prizefighter Max), and featuring a makeup job by Jack "Frankenstein" Pierce, this giant does make for one imposing sight. Scientist Morris Ankrum, his daughter Sally Fraser, and an ex-student, Edward Kemmer, all happen to be in this CA mountain community when old Vargas goes on his rampage, and the three make for appealing leads. This film features a fair amount of suspense, some startling moments, not too many unintentionally funny lines, and a fairly compact story line. Granted, some of the backdrops look as phony as can be (that lake, that ersatz dam), and some details don't make much sense if one ponders them later, but darn it, this movie was kinda fun! Maybe I've been watching too many shlocky films lately, and my standards are starting to slip, but still, I did enjoy this one. The DVD looks nice and crisp, too, although the source material seems damaged in spots. All in all, I certainly do not regret having rented this one out....

Way way back in my childhood years (well okay, maybe not THAT far back!) I remember seeing this movie many times on the late late show. I was attracted to this film originally because I had previously seen THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN and I expected something more. When I say the giant of the title was just a little bit taller than the rest of the cast I was disappointed at first but the spell of this movie quickly won me over. I mean, how can you not like a movie that has former B western star Bob Steele as the no-nonsense sheriff of a small mountain town? Ed Kemmer (EARTH VS THE SPIDER), Morris Ankrum (INVADERS FROM MARS among many others) and Sally Fraser (WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST) are searching a mountain area with the foreboding name of Devil's Crag in the hopes of finding proof that a legendary renegade Conquistador named Vargas really did exist ("A man of unusual size and strength . . .a depraved degenerate of a man."). To their amazement they discover that he still does exist after some 400 years. Preserved by chemicals in the soil (so Morris informs us) he is revived by a bolt of lightning. Vargas (Buddy Baer, brother of prizefighter Max Baer and uncle of Max "Jethro Bodine" Baer Jr.) is no gentle giant though. At first he just slaughters cattle but then he graduates to people! His attack on mountain girl Joline Brand hints that a brutal sexual assault preceded her murder and he leaves local "crazy guy" Indian Joe hanging from a hook! The scientists join the sheriff and his posse to hunt down and destroy the giant but either he is too tough to be brought down by bullets or that is one really good suit of armour he is wearing. So can the mountain folk win out over the rampaging giant? Well luckily this film is now on DVD so you can find out without having to stay up until 2 in the morning like I did when I was a kid.The makeup for Buddy Baer was done by Jack Pierce, who created such memorable scary faces as the Frankenstein Monster, I'm-Ho-Tep, Kharis and the Wolfman. It was directed by Richard Cunha who gave us 3 other memorable late night classics: MISSILE TO THE MOON, SHE DEMONS and the unforgettable FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER.

RATING: *1/2 out of ****Director Cunha's first of four drive-in "horror classics" is merely typical, and not a big deal. It's about a trio of expeditionists unearthing an infamous 6' 6" Spanish Conquistador who promptly picks up his axe and stalks around the woods for a while.Ed Kemmer makes a likeable leading man, and Sally Fraser is the standard helpless heroine. Morris Ankrum seems hesitant to deliver his lines, and the film is sprinkled with enough silly acting to make it endurable for a single viewing.The film falls short with the title character; a helmeted tall man with dirt and mud on his face just doesn't terrify me. It's one of the last makeups done by genius artist Jack Pierce (famous for his timeless Wolf Man and Frankenstein designs for Universal), and not one of his best efforts. The giant does little during the time he's onscreen, and is disappointing.The best film director Cunha made in the genre - and required viewing for any fifties monster fan - is FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER.