The Incredible Shrinking Man
Tags: cult

Plot synopsis:
Six months, after an exposure to a strange and radioactive mist, Scott Carey begins to shrink. After facing such trials as confounded doctors and his angry cat, he accidentally gets locked in the basement, where he must battle a spider.===================================================The title and credits are in white font over a black background, which dissolves to a swirling fog. We open on the shore with waves gently rolling on to a beach, then a boat gently bobbing on the ocean. Robert Scott Carey (Grant Williams) narrates a few lines, "The strange, almost unbelievable story of Robert Scott Carey, began on a very ordinary summer day. I know this story better than anyone because I am Robert Scott Carey." Carey and his wife of six years, Louise (Randy Stuart) are resting on the bow of his brother's boat. They are on vacation and soaking up some sun. Louise goes below to get Scott a beer. A strange cloud or patch of fog approaches. Scott attempts to make his way below, but the shimmery fog coats his head and body with what appears to be glitter before he can do so.Six months later the milkman makes his morning delivery to the Carey home. Louise gives the cat some of the milk then goes into the house to finish preparing breakfast. Scott asks about his clothes. They are too loose. Pants and shirts are too large. He is losing weight and chides his wife about her cooking as the cause. He asks Louise to pick up a bathroom scale. Increasingly concerned, he visits his family physician, Dr. Arthur Bramson (William Schallert) and is told his height measures five-feet and eleven inches. Scott informs the doctor, "I've been six foot, one-inch since I was seventeen." The doctor chalks his weight loss up to overwork and stress. He reassures Scott that, "People just don't get shorter." A week later Scott notices even his bathrobe doesn't quite fit right. When Louise suggests a visit to the doctor, Scott informs her he saw a doctor a week ago. They prepare for bed and he kisses his wife and notices he's getting shorter. He gets in bed and plays with his cat, Butch. He returns to see Dr. Bramson again. Now Bramson has a series of X-rays taken at different times to compare. He confirms that Scott is indeed getting smaller. He is at a loss to explain why. He refers Scott to the California Medical Research Institute. More tests and X-rays follow. Dr. Thomas Silver (Raymond Bailey) tells Scott that he is losing vital chemical elements, Nitrogen, Calcium and Phosphorus. The doctor does find something that doesn't belong--he describes it as an anti-cancer. The doctor asks about exposure to insecticide. Scott tells him two months before he passed a truck on the highway that was spraying trees. Next the doctor inquires about a radioactive exposure. Scott says no, but Louise reminds him of the mist on Charlie's boat six months earlier. The two different exposures combined to start a process in Scott's body that causes him to shrink. Scott and Louise get in their car. They talk about the implications of his condition and their marriage. Before they drive off, Scott's wedding ring falls off his shrinking ring finger.His brother, Charlie Carey (Paul Langton), stops by the house to inform Scott that the loss of a major account means no more paychecks. Charlie suggests Scott, now about the size of a five year old, make the nosy reporters pay for his story. In debt and now unemployed, Scott does sell his story. Louise calls the telephone company and asks for an unlisted phone number. Outside a crowd of reporters and gawkers try to see Scott. Louise informs her husband that they must wait for an unlisted line. Scott overreacts and directs his anger at Louise. Their marriage is starting to show signs of stress. Scott's behavior towards her, the incessant phone calls, and the pounding on their front door is too much for Louise. She begins sobbing. She tries to reassure Scott that the doctors are working on an anti-toxin.Scott keeps a journal. He notes today's numbers--his height (36 ½ inches) and weight (52 pounds). Louise is in the basement working on a dress. The phone rings, Scott answers, and tells his wife, "The anti-toxin, they found it." Dr. Silver injects Scott and reminds them both that there is no guarantee. He gives the odds as 50/50. Scott must stay at the institute for a week. The next week Scott, Louise, Dr. Silver and his nurse (Diana Darrin) meet. The nurse reports Scott is the same height and weight as a week before. Dr. Silver tells Scott it seems the process has stopped, but re-growing back to a normal size is an entirely different matter. Scott becomes morose; His marriage is deteriorating. He grabs his coat and leaves the house. He walks over to a carnival. The Carnival Barker (Frank Scannell) introduces one of his acts, a 36 ½ inch midget. Scott realizes the world sees him as a freak. He leaves the carnival without entering and walks over to a Café for coffee. He sits at a table and is greeted by a woman, Clarice Bruce (April Kent). Her friend (Billy Curtis) reminds her not to be late for the show before he leaves the café. Clarice joins Scott at his table for coffee. She tells him she was born a midget. She tries to reassure him that life is worth living. She leaves for her show. The outing helped Scott's mood, "That night I got a grip on life again. I went back to work on my book. It absorbed me completely". Sometime later he shows the journal to Clarice in the park. It improves his mood greatly. But as they get up off the bench, Scott notices he's shorter than Clarice. "It's starting again." He panics and runs off.Scott is now living in a doll house. The house shakes as Louise walks down the stairs. Louise calls out to him and he walks out onto the balcony to speak to her. She informs him she's going out shopping. He reenters his doll house and shuts the door. Louise opens the front door, and then returns to the desk for something. Butch the cat slips in unnoticed. She leaves the house and closes the door. Scott is now about six inches tall. He knows his behavior is worse. He is more tyrannical and demanding with Louise. He contemplates suicide, but he still has hope for a medical cure. The cat sniffs around the doll house. Scott tries to nap inside. He hears the cat sniffing. He picks up a makeshift knife and goes to the door. He opens it. The cat snarls at him. He slams the door shut. Butch goes to an open window of the doll house and paws inside. He scratches Scott. The cat manages to pull the doll house away from the wall enough to get inside. Scott exits and runs under a chair. The cat knocks him down and begins to toy with his potential meal. Scott spots the lamp cord and the lamp on the table above dangerously close to the edge. He pulls the cord, topples the lamp which scares off the cat. This gives him a chance to escape to the basement. He pushes the door closed on the cat, but before he can close it completely the cat pushes back. Louise, re-entering the house, allows a gust of wind to blow the basement door open and flings Scott down into Louise's sewing basket. Louise sees the cat and immediately runs to find Scott. She finds the doll house askew from the wall and Scott missing. She finds the toppled lamp and a scrap of Scott's clothing smeared with blood. She concludes the cat ate her husband.A KIRL news report is broadcast, "From Los Angeles today, a tragic story. The passing of Robert Scott Carey. The report of the death of the so called Shrinking Man comes from his brother. Carey's death was the result of an attack by a common house cat--a former pet in the Carey home." Charlie is with Louise and a nurse (Helene Marshall). The nurse tells Charlie that Louise is barely resting despite a sedative.Down in the basement, Scott regains consciousness in the sewing box. He employs a champagne cork to climb up to an opening in the box. He makes it to the basement floor. He's now about three inches tall. He realizes he can't scale the stairs. He calls to his wife, but she can't hear him. A dripping hot water heater provides a source of water, and a match box a shelter. Next on the agenda is a source of food. He uses a nail to cut up his clothes. Charlie talks to Louise about her future. Louise thinks Scott could be alive, but Charlie is sure he is dead. Louise dwells on the circumstances. Charlie makes real estate arrangements for the house. Without food Scott realizes the shrinking process is accelerating. He sees a piece of cheese in a mouse trap. He employs a nail to spring the trap, unfortunately the action causes the cheese to roll into a floor drain. He sees a chunk of cake high on the basement wall. He tries to figure a way up to it. A spider is on the prowl on the basement floor. Scotts sees it and runs. He finds a pin cushion in Louise's sewing kit and grabs a pin as a weapon. He takes another pin and bends it into an "L" shape. He ties thread around it. He uses a match to burn the thread to length. He uses his new tool as a grappling hook and scales the thread progressively upwards to the top of a box. Using a paint stick he gets to the other side of the box. He scales a loose piece of string from a ball of string to get to the top of the basement wall. A spider web is partially anchored to the piece of cake. He uses the pin to break off chunks of the stale cake. He sees a basement vent screen and approaches it. The grid is too small to slip through. He weeps in frustration. "My prison, almost as far as I could see. A gray friendless area of space and time," he laments. Scott returns to the cake. He throws a couple of chunks over the wall to the basement floor below. The largest piece is entwined a spider web. He repels down the string. He takes his prize in hand and is chased by the tarantula. He escapes into the relative safety of his match box home. The spider can't get in and leaves. "In my hunt for food, I had become the hunted," he wryly observes.Charlie descends the stairs carrying Louise's suitcases. She tells Charlie she wants a small trunk located in the basement. The hot water heater leak grows larger, now dripping on Scott's match box home. The dripping wakes Scott. He goes out to investigate as the hot water heater leaks becomes a torrent. He is washed off the platform and is washed down towards the floor drain. Charlie and Louise enter the basement and see the flooding. Scott calls out but they can't hear him. Charlie removes some rags that clogged the drain. He picks up the trunk and tells Louise, "I want you packed and out of this house tonight." Scott uses a pencil as a life preserver. Charlie and Louise drive away from the house.Scott regains consciousness over the drain. He is cold and wet and faces his old enemy, the tarantula, again. He sizes up his situation. He still has his weapons he retrieved from his matchbox. Scott becomes more philosophical and determined to get that last piece of cake. He makes it back to the top of the basement wall and his food. He plans to use scissors as a weight and his pin and thread to skewer the spider. He picks up a couple of rocks and throws them at the spider. He pulls on anchor threads starting a vibration of the web. The spider descends to the source of the disturbance. It chases Scott who prepares his weapons. He spears the spider, and then pushes the scissors over the ledge. But the string snags on a piece of jagged concrete. The string snaps and the spider continues to chase Scott. Using his other pin he fends off the spider's advance. He runs, but trips and is held down with his pin just out of reach. He manages to work himself free, retrieves his pin, and plunges it into the spider's thorax. It impales itself on the pin. Scott is victorious. Scott walks slowly over to the cake. He breaks off a chunk, and then drops it. He realizes he no longer feels hunger or fear of shrinking. He walks back up to the vent screen, drawn by the light coming in. Scott is now less than an inch tall. He gets through the screen and walks outside looking up at the darkening sky and the full moon. He walks through the yard looking up at the stars. We close with pictures of various types of galaxies and Scott tells us, "To God there is no zero. I still exist."

Review: Along with "invasion of the body snatchers"(1956) "forbidden planet"(1956) and "the fly" (1958),the best movie sci-fi offered in the fifties.Richard Matheson's remarkable novel was adapted by himself,thus the movie is an accurate rendition.Differences are kept to the minimum,and are probably due to censorship:one character,the pedophile,who wants to take the hero to his home has been removed and the relationship with Clarice remains platonic.Besides,Matheson focuses here on the second part of his novel,which takes place in the basement.The special effects are absolutely stunning for the time ,but what's the most extraordinary is that they take a back seat to the hero's frames of mind:the voice-over is never redundant and Matheson's brilliant lines,a thousand miles above the B-movie level,perfectly convey his hero's plight."Arachnophobia"(1990),with a much more comfortable budget pales into insignificance when you've seen Grant Williams'fight with the spider.The doll house,the scenes with the midgets,the metaphysical final are as awesome today as they were half a century ago.Do not miss the cast and credits at the beginning either.
As he shrinks, he reaches a kind of spiritual enlightenment.The only sour note (besides the special effects, which may seem primitive by today's digital standards, but which I, as an 8-year-old in 1957, seeing this for the first time, thought were astounding) is the scene with the Little People.
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (4 outta 5 stars) Not many of those hokey-looking old sci-fi movies from the '50s are still as effective 50 years later...
Grant Williams' character isn't fighting aliens or demons, but rather the extraordinary circumstance of his mysterious shrinking, and the unforeseen consequences of his ever-dwindling size.I love the fight with the spider, but my favorite part of the movie is the final monologue.
The Incredible Shrinking Man. When a businessman Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is infected by a mysterious cloud of mist on a boating vacation, little does he know how his life and whole way of existing are about to change.
Soon everyday things become grave dangers to him and he has to completely let go of his old way of comprehending his place in life.The over-sized props and the creative trick photography that is used to create the illusion of shrinking must have looked absolutely stunning in the 1950s when the film first came out, because they still look impressive when I'm typing this in 2010.
The Incredible Shrinking Man is a delight to watch, not the least bit goofy or dated like some other old sci-fi films.
Special mention must go too to Grant Williams for his fine performance; Jack Arnold seemed to think it was worthy of an Oscar and I can't say I disagree!It was interesting to see that the title character's peculiar affliction effected him gradually and not all at once; the fact that this was caused by exposure to radiation must have struck a note of panic amid contemporary anxiety-ridden audiences (this was the Cold War era, after all) and, in any case, it was inevitable that such 'monstrous' radiation effects (as seen mutating various forms of animal life on the screens of 1950s America) would not spare man himself in the long run.
An episode featuring sideshow midgets, with whom The Shrinking Man seems to identify for a little while, is quite moving - as is his jealous possessiveness of his wife who he suspects wants to abandon him.Despite the low budget, the film's special effects are terrific and the second half of the story basically resolves itself into a struggle for survival for our unfortunate hero as he has to battle various elements (the family cat, a spider, water, the re-dimension of objects around him, his own weakness due to hunger) which a normal person would more or less take for granted.I thoroughly enjoyed THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN - though I must say that Matheson's bleak yet strangely affecting ending blew me away, giving the film an intellectual resonance lacking in most films of its type and period..
(Some Spoilers) One of the best and most thought-provoking Sci-Fi movies of the 1950's "The Incredible Shrinking Man" is about L.A businessman Scott Carey, Grant Williams, who by some quark of fate is infected by this strange radioactive cloud while out with his wife Louise, Randy Stuart, on his brother's Charlie, Paul Langton, yacht one sunny summer afternoon.Some six months later Scott starts to feel that something is wrong when his clothes don't fit him and his both weight and hight starts to diminish.
As Scott shrinks things that he took for granted start to terrorizer him like his and Louise pet cat who looks at Scott, now living in a doll-house provided to him by Louise, as his next meal.After surviving a vicious attack by the kiddie Scott ends up in the basement of his house where he faces even worse dangers as he still keeps shrinking to the point when he becomes almost invisible to his wife and bother who assume that the family cat killed and devoured him!
Scott also learns to both fear and respect those, like a house spider, whom he has to compete with for food by being forced, in order to survive, to fight to the death with them!Terrifying mind blowing and at the same time extremely touching movie that shows that there's nothing in God's Universe that doesn't have a place in it.
I taped this some years ago when BBC2 screened it in the early hours of the morning and was part of a 1950's sci-fi season they were having at the time.After passing through a strange radioactive mist while out boating with his wife, Scott Carey starts slowly shrinking.
The best part of the movie is where he fights a "giant" spider in the cellar.Scott Carey is played well by Grant Williams and the rest of the cast includes Randy Stuart as his wife and Paul Langton.I'm surprised that this movie hasn't been released on DVD and it is deleted on VHS in the States.
Once he falls through the floor, he escapes the attentions of the pruriently curious and the need to pay his way by performing for them; and although at first the grille in the cellar is like the barred window of a prison, shrinking further means he can squeeze through and leave the fearsome cat trapped behind.All this is very American in its qualified optimism, and very characteristic of Richard Matheson's imagination as one of the great popular mythmakers of mid-century.
This movie will bring you on a journey of emotions: it is heartwarming to see a wife love her husband so much, it's terrifying the trials and tribulations of "the incredible shrinking man" from the shrinking process to the cat to the spider to flooding - all of it terrifying, the emotions of the characters though all of this and a heartbreaking ending.
"The Incredible Shrinking Man" is a fantastic classic sci-fi with impressive special effects for a 1957 film.
At the end you unexpectedly pink a tear when The Incredible Shrinking Man becomes one with the Universe, he reaches the out world but nobody can see or hear him, size doesn't mather.That is what i'm looking for,movies with special effects and a deep story,hard to find these days.
One of the best of the '50s sci-fi craze, The Incredible Shrinking Man benefits from ambitious special effects, a thought provoking script by Richard Matheson, superb direction from Jack Arnold and a fine central performance by Grant Williams as Scott Carey, whose bizarre predicament begins as the result of exposure to a combination of radioactive mist and insecticide.
And when Scott is presumed eaten by the family cat, where, in reality, he is trapped in the basement, it seems as though all hope is lost for the tiny chap.It's not often you get existentialism and metaphysics combined with edge of the seat action set-pieces, but that is precisely what this movie delivers, with philosophical conjecture about man's importance in the universe rubbing shoulders with nerve-shredding adventure, including perilous physical challenges and life-threatening encounters with giant animals, a battle against a spider guaranteed to give arachnophobes nightmares.
The limitations of matte photography are occasionally all too obvious, the composited miniature Scott failing to cast a shadow onto his surroundings, but with such wonderful storytelling, it's easy to overlook this minor technical flaw.The Incredible Shrinking Man also benefits from an atypical, ambiguous and somewhat downbeat ending that lingers in the mind: whereas many filmmakers might have been tempted to bolt on a happy ending, Scott returning to his normal size, Arnold's film has the poor fellow continuing to shrink until he is a mere insignificant speck—which is what we all are in relation to the vastness of the universe..
One does not approach movie like "The Incredible Shrinking Man" in search for depth or a life philosophy (although there IS quite philosophical finale, which completely went over my head as a kid since I must have been too excited about the cat and spider), this is a pure, good-natured classic entertainment and I guarantee that once the story gets going, any kid would be glued to the screen.
The Incredible Shrinking Man is a film that is truly unique unto itself in both concept and execution.I imagine with computer graphics we could do so much better with the special effects showing Williams gradually shrinking and how he relates to all around him.
It is then a downhill battle for Carey, where he eventually discovers what it's like to battle small creatures of prey such as a tarantula and the house cat (played by Orangey).The script of the Incredible Shrinking Man is well acclaimed in that it is very philosophical and Mattheson brings out spiritual aspects (mostly Christianity) in how this tiny man increases to a transcendental and spiritual state of being and all of the emotional battles he had to overcome in his shrinking life.Cast of the Incredible Shrinking Man includes Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton, and Raymond Bailey.
That's the unique problem of Scott Carey (Grant Williams), hero of Richard Matheson's 1956 novel and the 1957 film The Incredible Shrinking Man.The special effects are excellent, giving the illusion of a dwindling man whose life gets more bizarre, embarrasing, and dangerous as he gets smaller.
Then he may be opened up to some sort of revelation, where metaphysical existentialism can come crawling through the gloom to reveal itself.Scott Carey's world is brilliantly realised by Arnold and his team, with over sized props, nifty effects and a miniature POV filming style that lets us in on the terror and angst of a man forced to evaluate his place in the universe.
Jack Arnold is one of the best Directors in Hollywood who are the masters in Science Fiction Horror movies.Scott Carey is enjoying his holiday with his lovely wife.
I've seen this many times since I was a kid and it's still a smart and powerful film with Grant Williams in the role of Scott Carey, the shrinking man.
From a movie like this you would expect that it heavily leans on the special effects alone but the creators actually spend lots of effort on the story and manages to put some extra layers, emotions and deeper meanings in it.There are some truly classical scene's which involves the main character Scott Carey (played by Grant Williams) fighting against a cat and the final fight against a spider.
Philosophical sci-fi classic about a man named Scott Carey who, through a chance encounter with radiation and then insecticide, begins shrinking at an alarming rate and there's nothing he can do to stop it.
The only thing that mars this movie is it's ending, which just feels like a cop out to me, but the rest of the film is really top notch for a 50s sci fi film.Scott Carey (Grant Williams) and his wife are on vacation on their yacht when some strange dust blows over and hits Scott.
Despite I was born in the 70's, every time I watch this movie I feel like I'm a comtemporary living person of those speculative, deep-thinking 50's.You realize you've got involved into this Sci-Fi masterpiece when you find yourself sharing Scott Carey's worries about our everyday  uncertain future!A transcendental Sci-Fi!.
The last soliloquy of Scott Carey that ends the film was for me every bit as memorable as the little protagonist fighting a spider, hunting for food, grappling a box with needle and thread, and living in a doll's house only to be scared by a giant cat.
There's a "Twilight Zone" feeling about this kind of story and it's done very effectively.Handsome, sensitive GRANT WILLIAMS had only a brief fling at a few more big screen films before he went back to TV, where he started, and spent the rest of his career in a variety of classic old-time television shows and a string of other detective or western yarns.
Easily one of the best 1950s science fiction movies, the special effects are superb for the time, and still, for the most part, very effective, and the script (by Richard Matheson - 'The Pit And The Pendulum', 'The Last Man On Earth', 'The Devil Rides Out', 'The Legend Of Hell House',etc.etc.) is very intelligent and imaginative.
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) **** One of the all time best science fiction films ever.
Considering the times, I suppose it's really good, but keep in mind that our modern era of special effects existing in even the most minute of situations will probably still view this movie as hugely lacking, despite how much you want to forgive them.In general, this film is great for science fiction enthusiasts and b-movie classics geeks.
This film star's Scott Carey as Grant Williams who's life is forever changed when a strange white cloud of Radioactive particles envelopes his small boat and his entire body.
A classic of sci-fi horror, "The Incredible Shrinking Man" is one of the most remarkable films of the genre.
A Film That Keeps Getting Better with Age. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Scott Carey (Grant Williams) has his world fall apart when he suddenly realizes that he seems to be losing too much weight.
Scott Carey and his wife Louise are spending a day at the ocean when he is passed by a strange mist.Later he also gets sprayed with an insecticide.One day he suddenly notices he begins to shrink being finally only six inches tall.Surviving in the house becomes a challenge to him.The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) is directed by Jack Arnold.It's based on the novel The Shrinking Man (1956) by Richard Matheson, the author who turned 85 on February.He also wrote the screenplay.Grant Williams does excellent work as Scott.Randy Stuart is fantastic as Louise.April Kent is wonderful as Clarice, the short woman with whom Scott befriends with.Paul Langton is great as the brother Charlie Carey.William Schallert is terrific as Doctor Arthur Bramson.Orangey, the famous cat actor, plays Butch the cat.For a 50's film the special effects look pretty amazing.Just look at that cat trying to reach for the little man in the doll's house.Or the battle against the big bad spider.And him trying to survive in the flood of the basement.The Incredible Shrinking Man is some high class Sci-Fi..
This is a B-movie, but maybe one of the best ever made.What makes it special are three things: the visual effects produced by director Jack Arnold; the acting from Grant Williams; and the great story from one of the masters of science-fiction, Richard Matheson.I read the book too long ago, and I saw the movie in 1958 or so, when still a teenager.
Jack Arnold then directed a work that still stands the test of time, despite the wizardry of today's CGI and other special effects.The standout, however, is the acting from Grant Williams (as Scott Carey) who carries the film for almost two-thirds, with voice-over narration, as he battles to stay alive while he continues to shrink.
About the actors, the cast is not exactly an all-star line-up, but they're certainly up to the task and deliver, especially the lead character (Scott Carey, aka The Incredible Shrinking Man), played by the little-known Grant Williams.
Considered one of the classic sci-fi film's of the 1950's, 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' has an intelligent narrative ( scripted by Richard Matheson from his novel ) and good special effects.
When Scott Carey (Grant Williams) begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.The film starts out interesting enough, with the mist and the shrinkage...
I liked the special effects used in the movie, which were very good at the time it was filmed in.
Indeed a very credible Sci-Fi film directed by Jack Arnold whereby a man; Scott Carey (played by Grant Williams) is subjected to a toxic gas.
Directed by Jack Arnold, the film is based off, Richard Matheson's novel, 'The Shrinking Man'.
Adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his own novel, this charts the story of Robert Scott Carey, Grant Williams, a married man who whilst on holiday with his wife, encountered a mysterious radiation cloud which begins the shrinking process.The interesting thing about this film is right from the get go it takes itself seriously at a time when Science Fiction was struggling to be taken seriously.
But when all is said and done, this is a film with the title The Incredible Shrinking Man which actually takes a mature, philosophical and metaphysical route rather than just cheap thrills and spills.But as for the action, you couldn't really ask for more, as once he ends up a few inches tall and trapped in his own basement, he must battle mouse traps, flowing water, great chasms and the infamous spider, all in a struggle to claim a small piece of stale cake left there by his wife But considering its age and special effect limitations of the day, this looks spectacular, thrilling, exciting, gripping and scary and with real motivations and a believable ethos, Carey is striving for dominance in his new macro world.