The Cyclops

The Cyclops is a 1957 science fiction horror film written, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, starring James Craig, Lon Chaney Jr. and Gloria Talbott.

The theme of a monster created as a result of radioactivity was a common one in the 1950s.[1]

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 unknown territory.

While searching the area, however, they uncover giant mutated Earth animals such as a mouse, an eagle, a mygale, a green iguana, a tegu and a boa.

More importantly, they encounter a mutated 25-ft tall, one-eyed human monster who became disfigured due to an exposure to radioactivity from massive radium deposits in the area, responsible for the unusual size of all the other giant inhabitants of the region. 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 wounded and presumably dies.

As appearing in The Cyclops (main roles and screen credits identified):[2]

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.[3] Duncan Parkin also played Col. Manning in the War of the Colossal Beast (1958), the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), basically playing the same disfigured giant in both films.[4]

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.[5]

The Cyclops was released as a double feature with Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, which also starred Gloria Talbott. Film critic Leonard Maltin in Leonard Maltin's 2012 Movie Guide (2011) dismissed the film as "Nothing much in this cheapie."[6] [N 1]