THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER (1957)
Article #431 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-20-2002
Posting date: 10-13-2002

A radioactive alien lands on earth and frightens a geologist and some kidnappers in a mountain cabin.

The title is quite catchy, and the poster is very memorable; between the two of them they probably constitute seventy-five percent of the budget. Certainly, they show more creativity than anything actually in the movie; when I say that the most impressive thing in the movie is the blurry camerawork they use when photographing the alien to show its radioactivity, I’m grasping at straws. There are also rumors that Ed Wood was somehow involved with this, mostly I suspect because of the presence of Kenne Duncan and the general incompetence on display, but if he did have a hand in it, I suspect it would only be with some bits of the script that have a slight Woodian edge to them. The direction is far more lethargic than anything I’ve seen from Wood, and my overall impression of the movie is that everyone involved is bored as hell; the only moment I sense any fun being had is during a sequence where the alcoholic girlfriend of the gangster runs out of booze, and finds herself tempted by her two captives into going for a bottle in the next room, thereby giving them a chance to escape. Of course they never make it to the other room; that would have required building a whole new set, skyrocketing the whole movie over budget. This may well be the cheapest movie of all time.