What you might call an existential science-fiction film, if you were some
kinda egghead. It all begins when Grant Williams is out on a boat that
passes through a mysterious mist, and soon enough his clothes are fitting a
little bit ... morelooser. In a little while, there's no doubt about it: He's growing
steadily smaller, and the array of special effects used to convey his condition,
from oversized furniture to forced perspective to rear-projection, is kind of a
compendium of the methods of the day, the day being around 1957 or so. Some of
the illusions work better than others, but Richard Matheson's script is
unfailingly smart, and Williams is constantly sympathetic; his character's
flirtation with a sideshow "small" woman is not played for laughs as it might
have been in a less sincere film. And as the poor fellow's forced to battle his
damn housecat, and then a tarantula, he continues to ponder the peculiarities of
his being, and of being itself, leading to one of the more philosophical
conclusions a B sci-fi picture has ever reached. Director Jack Arnold would go
on to helm the classic satire "The Mouse That Roared," as well as the "Ooh, my
nose!" episode of "The Brady Bunch."
Weird.
