The incredible shrinking man / Universal-International presents ; screenplay by Richard Matheson ; produced by Albert Zugsmith ; directed by Jack Arnold.
Edition:
Blu-ray special edition.
Publisher:
Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2021
Description:
1 videodisc (81 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (12 unnumbered pages : black and white illustrations ; 72 x 17 cm, folded to 19 x 12)
Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton, Raymond Bailey, William Schallert, Frank Scannell, Helene Marshall, Diana Darrin, Billy Curtis. Title and credits from screen. Based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Originally released as a motion picture in 1957. Wide screen (1.85:1). New 4K digital restoration. Accompanied by folded sheet containing film information and an essay on the film. Special features:: New audio commentary with Tom Weaver and David Schecter; Auteur on campus: Jack Arnold at Universal (Director's cut) (2021); The infinitesmal: remembering "The shrinking man"; Terror at every turn (new program on the film's special effects by Craig Barron and Ben Burtt); Let's get small (new conversation between Joe Dante and Dana Gould); interview from 2016 with Richard Cristian Matheson; interview with Jack Arnold from 1983; 8mm home-cinema version from 1957; trailer and teaser narrated by Orson Welles; The lost music of the Incredible shrinking man; Suspense : return to dust (a radio play from 1958 which aired on the program Suspense) -- in booklet: essay by Geoffrey O'Brien.
Summary:
"Existentialism goes pop in this benchmark of atomic-age science fiction, a superlative adaptation of a novel by the legendary Richard Matheson that has awed and unnerved generations of viewers with the question, What is humanity's place amid the infinity of the universe? Six months after being exposed to a mysterious radiation cloud, suburban everyman Scott Carey (Grant Williams) finds himself becoming smaller... and smaller... and smaller--until he's left to fend for himself in a world in which ordinary cats, mousetraps, and spiders pose a mortal threat, all while grappling with a diminishing sense of himself. Directed by the prolific creature-feature impresario Jack Arnold with ingenious optical effects and a transcendent metaphysical ending, The Incredible Shrinking Man gazes with wonder and trepidation into the unknowable vastness of the cosmic void"--Container.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.