The Incredible Shrinking Man

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 American science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel, The Shrinking Man. The film stars Grant Williams as Scott and Randy Stuart as Scott's wife, Louise. While relaxing on a boat, Scott is enveloped by a strange fog. Months later, he discovers that he appears to be shrinking. By the time Scott has reached the height of a small boy, his condition becomes known to the public. When he learns there is no cure for his condition, he lashes out at his wife. As Scott shrinks to the point where he can fit into a dollhouse, he has a battle with his family cat, leaving him lost and alone in his basement, where he is now smaller than the average insect.

The film's storyline was expanded by Matheson after he had sold the story to Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc. He also completed the novel upon which the film is based while production was underway. Matheson's script was initially written in flashbacks, and Richard Alan Simmons rewrote it using a more conventional narrative structure. Director Jack Arnold initially wanted Dan O'Herlihy to play Scott, but O'Herlihy turned down the role, leading Universal to sign Williams as the lead. Filming began on May 31, 1956. Scenes involving special effects were shot throughout production, while others used the large sets of Universal's backlot. Production went over budget, and filming had to be extended; certain special effects shots required reshooting. Williams was constantly being injured on set.

Before the film's release in New York City on February 22, 1957, its ending first went to test audiences who felt the character's fate should be changed. The director's original ending remained in the film. The film grossed $1.43 million in the United States and Canada and was among the highest-grossing science fiction films of the 1950s. A sequel, The Fantastic Little Girl, originally penned by Matheson, never went into production. A remake was developed years later, eventually becoming the comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981). Other remakes were planned in the early 2000s, one of which was to star Eddie Murphy in a more comedic variation on the film. A new adaptation was announced in 2013, with Matheson writing the screenplay with his son Richard Christian Matheson. In 2009, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot

In the mid-1950's, Robert Scott Carey, known as "Scott," is on vacation with his wife, Louise, when a strange mist envelops him. Six months later, he observes that his clothes are too large, suspects he is shrinking, and seeks medical advice. Initially, his doctor denies that Carey is shrinking. Later, the doctor confirms the shrinking through X-rays and refers him to a medical research institute. The institute determines that Carey's exposure to the mist, combined with further exposure to a pesticide, rearranged his molecular structure, causing him to shrink. Carey informs Louise that, given his predicament, she is free to leave him. Louise promises to stay, and as she does, Carey's wedding ring slips off his finger.

Carey's condition turns him into a national curiosity. Media attention forces him into seclusion within his home. Advised to sell his story, Carey starts a journal detailing his experiences. An antidote is discovered, halting his shrinking, but doctors caution that he will remain three feet tall for the rest of his life unless a solution is found to reverse his condition. Emotionally shattered, Carey meets Clarice, a carnival worker and dwarf, who is exactly his height. Clarice encourages Carey, inspiring him to continue his journal. Later, he notices he is now shorter than Clarice and dejectedly runs home.

Carey shrinks small enough to live in a dollhouse and becomes more tyrannical. When Louise leaves home on an errand, he falls into his basement after Butch, the family cat, attacks him. Louise returns and assumes Butch ate Carey after finding a bloody scrap of Carey's clothing. Louise prepares to move out, with Carey's brother, Charlie, assisting.

Carey faces significant challenges navigating his basement and is unable to climb the stairs back up, deciding to wait for Louise to come down. The water heater bursts, but when Charlie and Louise come to investigate, Carey is too small for them to see and hear his screams for help. He battles a large spider while searching for food and shelter. He ultimately kills the spider with a straight pin and collapses in exhaustion. He awakens, small enough to escape the basement through one of the netting squares of a window screen. Carey accepts his fate of shrinking to microscopic size. He is no longer afraid, concluding that no matter how small he becomes, he will still matter in the universe because God will know he exists.

Cast

Cast adapted from the American Film Institute. Matheson sold the rights to Universal on the condition that he write the screenplay.

Some special effects shots were the earliest taken for the picture. For example, shots with Randy Stuart were taken against a black velvet backdrop and then composited with shots of Williams on an enlarged living room set. Their movements were synchronized using negatives from the first exposed scene in the camera gate, with the opposite done for the other scene. Sound production began on May 31. An oversized dollhouse was built for Williams on Stage 28. It had previously been used for The Phantom of the Opera and Dracula. Arnold said he filmed scenes with the cat in a normal studio with an animal trainer who had about 40 identical cats. To coax the cat to approach the dollhouse, Arnold hid food in it so the cat would find a way into the house. Later he timed the cat's reactions and directed Williams accordingly to react to the cat. Arnold first attempted to follow the novel and use a black widow spider. After preliminary tests, he found black widows were too small to use properly in the film. In an interview with Tom Weaver, Randy Stuart said the spiders presented problems. The overhead lamps on the set had to be turned up high, leading to the deaths of 24 tarantulas. They were directed with little puffs of air, a technique which had been used previously in Arnold's film Tarantula. Despite sources suggesting otherwise, the films did not use the same tarantulas.

Release

thumb|upright|Theatrical advertisement from 1957

The Incredible Shrinking Man premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York City on February 22, 1957. This was followed by a screening in Los Angeles on March 27, 1957, and a wider release in April. making it one of the highest grossing science fiction films of the decade (for comparison, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea grossed $8 million, Journey to the Center of the Earth grossed $4.8 million, The Thing from Another World grossed $1.95 million, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers grossed $1.2 million).

The film was reissued theatrically in 1964, but otherwise was rarely shown on television and screened only occasionally at science fiction conventions. It was released on laser disc in 1978 and 1991, on VHS in 1992, and on DVD in 2006 (as part of a box set containing a collection of Universal-International's science fiction films). Arrow Video released the film on Blu-ray in 2017. In July 2021, The Criterion Collection announced a blu-ray of the film with a new 4K digital restoration; its bonus material includes audio commentary from Tom Weaver and David Schecter.

Reception

Arnold's biographer Dana M. Reemes described The Incredible Shrinking Man as initially being received as a routine to above average film; its reception has steadily grown ever since. Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a fascinating exercise in imagination, as terrifying as it is funny [...] Science-fiction admirers who are accustomed to finding food for thought as well as vicarious thrills in such flights of fancy will not be disappointed, either."

The Monthly Film Bulletin praised the film, and declared it a "horrifying story that grips the imagination throughout", one that "straightforward, macabre, and as startlingly original as a vintage Ray Bradbury short story, for all its peaceful and resigned conclusion—opens new vistas of cosmic terror". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film, writing that "unless a viewer is addicted to freakish ironies, the unlikely spectacle of Mr. Williams losing an inch of height each week, while his wife, Randy Stuart, looks on helplessly, will become tiresome before Universal has emptied its lab of science-fiction clichés." William Brogdon of Variety commented that the film was not thoroughly satisfactory, but had enough good qualities, specifically declaring "unfoldment is inclined to slow down on occasion, resulting in flagging interest here and there". The review noted the special effects and cinematography were "visually effective", but that "portions of the background score are overworked", which distracted from the plot. The film was the winner of the first Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1958.

Martin Rubin discussed the film in a 1974 issue of Film Comment and compared it to its contemporaries in the genre. He found it did not have the "schoolboy cynicism and moralizing of a Roger Corman film, nor any of the hysteria common to the Red-scare science-fictioners of the Fifties". He felt the story was well-suited to Jack Arnold, noting a "WeIlesian director would have overinflated this film and compromised its sense of the ordinary with shadows and angles, while a more accomplished stylist of almost any other order would have softened it too much—such attitudes are better off in the horror film." Rubin also compared it the other science fiction films Arnold made in the 1950s—The Creature From the Black Lagoon, It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula, Revenge of the Creature, and The Space Children—finding them competitively "interesting in patches", but lacking in comparison to the "unity and clarity" of The Incredible Shrinking Man, which "totally fulfills its central metaphor without being unduly constricted by it". Tim Lucas declared that the film "remains one of the perfectly realized science fiction films", noting it was "less about science than a masterful example of the 'what if' branch of speculative human drama".

Aftermath

Arnold commented on science films made after The Incredible Shrinking Man, saying that since his films were financially successful, AIP and Japanese studios developed similar productions, which he felt lacked in atmosphere or morals and were just stories about monsters. These included The Amazing Colossal Man and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Proposed sequels and remakes

thumb|alt=Photographic head shot of Richard Matheson| [[Richard Matheson wrote a follow-up and was developing a new adaptation of his book in 2013.]]

Matheson scripted a sequel, titled The Fantastic Little Girl. The film has Louise Carey certain that Scott is still alive. She returns home and finds herself shrinking and is injected with a new cure. The script also featured Scott in his microscopic world where he encounters strange eel-like creatures. The script was 43 pages long and described as inferior compared to the original film by author Bill Warren. Matheson said that, since the original film made "a lot of money", he was unsure why the sequel was not developed past the script stage. The script in its entirety was published in the 2005 book Unrealized Dreams. The reluctance for a home media re-release was due to Universal's intention for a pseudo-sequel. This included John Landis developing, writing and directing The Incredible Shrinking Woman, which was cancelled after the budget was found to be too high. It was later revived by Jane Wagner. Arnold said he "hated" The Incredible Shrinking Woman, declaring the special effects weak and adding there was "no point of view...the major fault is that it's not a comedy even though they tried so hard to make it funny".

In 2003, Universal and Imagine Entertainment attempted a remake, with Eddie Murphy to star and Keenen Ivory Wayans to direct.

The source material rights lapsed by 2012 and were purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Mathesons commented that the new adaptation would modernise the story and reflect on advancements such as nanotechnology.

The Los Angeles-based producer Patrick Wachsberger of Picture Perfect Federation was in France developing a French remake in 2023 starring Jean Dujardin. This new adaptation, titled L'Homme qui rétrécit ( The Shrinking Man) was released in October 2025.

References

Sources

External links

The Incredible Shrinking Man essay by Barry Keith Grant on the National Film Registry website
The Incredible Shrinking Man essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy, 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide to the 50 Landmark Movies Added To The National Film Registry in 2009–10, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011, pages 92–95
ShrinkingMan.com, a website devoted to the film and macrophilia