Village of the Giants
Encyclopedia
Village of the Giants is a 1965 science-fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

/comedy movie with many elements of the beach party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...

 genre. It was produced, directed and written by Bert I. Gordon, and based loosely on H.G. Wells's book The Food of the Gods
The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth is a novel written by H. G. Wells. Published in 1904, it is one of his lesser known scientific romances, aside from the various B-movie adaptations .-Plot summary:...

. The story revolves mostly around a chemical substance called "Goo", which causes giant growth in living things, and what happens after a gang of rebellious youngsters get their hands on it. The cast was mostly teens, or young actors playing teens, and The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino , Ron Elliott , Ron Meagher , Declan Mulligan , and John Petersen...

 and Freddy Cannon
Freddy Cannon
Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. , known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".-Biography:...

 make musical guest appearances.

The movie was a low-budget exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...

 and not a huge hit (released mostly to drive-in
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...

s as part of a double bill), but had some notable use of special effects and undoubted sex appeal, and went on to become a cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...

. The movie proved far more successful years later, when released on home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...

.

Plot

Village of the Giants takes place in fictional Hainesville, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. After crashing their car into a roadblock during a rainstorm, a group of partying, big-city teenagers (Fred, Pete, Rick, Harry, and their girlfriends Merrie, Elsa, Georgette and Jean) first indulge in a vigorous, playful mud-wrestling fight, then hike their way into town. Fred remembers meeting a girl from Hainesville named Nancy, and they decide to look her up.

Nancy, meanwhile, is with her boyfriend Mike, while her younger brother "Genius" plays with his chemistry set in the basement. Genius accidentally creates a substance he names "Goo", that causes animals, including a pair of ducks, to grow to gigantic size.

The out-of-town teens break into the local theater and clean up from the rain, then go to a nearby club where The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino , Ron Elliott , Ron Meagher , Declan Mulligan , and John Petersen...

 are performing. Shortly, the giant ducks turn up, followed by Mike and Nancy. Everyone is astounded by the size of the ducks, wondering how they got so big. Mike explains that it's a secret, but following a suggestion made by their friends Horsey and Red, they host a picnic in the town square the next day, roasting the ducks and feeding everybody. Freddy Cannon
Freddy Cannon
Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. , known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".-Biography:...

 is featured singing a song in this scene.

Fred and his friends also see potential in whatever made the ducks grow, but their minds are purely on profit. They scheme to learn the secret, and are ultimately successful, escaping with a sample. Back at the theater, the gang argues over what to do with the Goo, now that they have it. Feeling peer pressure
Peer pressure
Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member , or a social clique...

, Fred slices up the Goo, giving everyone a piece each, which they consume a moment later. As the Goo takes effect, they each grow to over thirty feet tall, ripping right out of their clothes. At first everyone is shocked and regretful, but realizing their newfound power at their new size, the gang decide to take over the town.

Overnight, the giants decide to isolate Hainesville from the rest of the world. They rip out the telephone lines, overturn broadcasting antennas, and block the remaining roads out of town. When the sheriff and Mike arrive to deal with them, they discover that the giants have no plans to leave – and are literally holding the sheriff's daughter, as "insurance" that they won't have any trouble. While the town's adults seem paralyzed, the teens decide to fight back. An attempt to capture Fred results in Nancy being taken hostage.

Meanwhile, Genius continues to work, trying to produce more Goo. Mike asks Genius to forget the Goo for awhile, and make them a supply of ether
Diethyl ether
Diethyl ether, also known as ethyl ether, simply ether, or ethoxyethane, is an organic compound in the ether class with the formula . It is a colorless, highly volatile flammable liquid with a characteristic odor...

 – having noticed the giants only leave one guard on the hostages, Mike and Horsey plot to subdue that guard, recover the guns, and free Nancy and the sheriff's daughter.

Having led the giants outside the theater, Mike plays David to Fred's Goliath, to distract them while Horsey and the others effect the rescue. Genius' newest attempt at Goo results in an antidote. He rides over to the square on a bicycle with a pail full of the fuming antidote. As the giants breathe in the fumes, they all return to normal. Mike cold-cocks the surprised Fred, and promptly runs him and his friends, looking silly in their now-oversized clothes, out of town.

Cast

Role Actor
Mike Tommy Kirk
Tommy Kirk
Thomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:Kirk was discovered by talent agents at the age of thirteen in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California...

Fred Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...

Genius Ron Howard
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...

 (billed as "Ronny Howard")
Horsey Johnny Crawford
Johnny Crawford
John Ernest "Johnny" Crawford is a prolific American character actor, singer and musician. At 12, Crawford rose to fame for playing Mark McCain, the son of the Lucas McCain character , in the popular 1960s ABC western series, The Rifleman, which aired from 1958 to 1963...

Merrie Joy Harmon
Joy Harmon
Joy Patricia Harmon is a baker and former American actress.-Career:Harmon was born Patricia Joy Harmon in Flushing, New York...

Rick Robert Random
Robert Random
Robert Random , usually billed as Bob Random, is a Canadian-born character actor, who appeared in both movies and television from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s.-Television and film roles:...

 (billed as "Bob Random")
Jean Tisha Sterling
Tisha Sterling
Tisha Sterling is an American television and film actress. She is the daughter of actor Robert Sterling and actress/singer Ann Sothern.-Life and career:...

Nancy Charla Doherty
Charla Doherty
Charla Doherty was an American actress who had short roles on Wagon Train and Dr. Kildare before originating the role of Julie Olson on the soap opera Days of our Lives....

Pete Tim Rooney
Tim Rooney
Timothy Hayes Yule was an American actor and voice actor. He was the second son of actor Mickey Rooney and suffered from a muscle disease known as dermatomyositis....

Harry Kevin O'Neil
Elsa Gail Gilmore
Gail Gilmore
Gail Gilmore was an American television actress, ballet dancer from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.-Dancing career:In 1952, at the age of fifteen, Gail became a member of the Les Grandes Ballets Canadiennes. At the age of 26, she later posed in a tight-fitting sweater for Playboy Magazine, as one of...

Red Toni Basil
Toni Basil
Antonia Christina Basilotta , better known by her stage name Toni Basil, is an American singer-songwriter, actress, filmmaker, film director, choreographer, and dancer, best known for her multi-million-selling worldwide #1 hit "Mickey" from 1982.-Early life:Basil was born Antonia Christina...

Chuck Hank Jones
Hank Jones
Henry "Hank" Jones was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award...

Fatso Jim Begg
Georgette Vicki London
The Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

Joe Turkel
Joe Turkel
Joe Turkel is an American character actor. He is credited in several films as Joseph Turkel.-Background:Turkel was born in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the U.S. Military during World War II. He currently lives in southern California, and has been involved in writing screenplays.-Career:His...

 (billed as "Joseph Turkell")
The Sheriff's Daughter, Cora Debi Storm
As himself Freddy Cannon
Freddy Cannon
Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. , known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".-Biography:...

As himself Mike Clifford
Mike Clifford
Mike Clifford, , is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his 1962 pop hit, "Close To Cathy", which reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100....

The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino , Ron Elliott , Ron Meagher , Declan Mulligan , and John Petersen...

Ron Elliott
Ron Elliott (musician)
Ron Elliott on October 21, 1943) is an American musician, composer and producer, best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of rock band The Beau Brummels. Elliott wrote or co-wrote the band's 1965 U.S...

Ron Meagher
Ron Meagher
Ron Meagher is best known as bassist of American rock band The Beau Brummels. When guitarist-songwriter Ron Elliott was putting the band together in 1964, he asked a friend, Kay Dane, if she knew any good bass players....

Declan Mulligan
Declan Mulligan
Declan Mulligan is an Irish rock musician, singer and songwriter, best known as a guitarist of American rock band The Beau Brummels...

John Petersen
John Petersen (musician)
John Petersen was an American drummer, most notably for rock bands The Beau Brummels and Harpers Bizarre. In 1964 he joined the Beau Brummels, whose first two singles, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little", reached the U.S. top 20...

Sal Valentino
Sal Valentino
Sal Valentino is an American rock musician, singer and songwriter, best known as lead singer of The Beau Brummels, subsequently becoming a songwriter as well. The band released a pair of top 20 U.S...


Music

The movie's instrumental theme song, by composer and arranger Jack Nitzsche, was originally released as "The Last Race" on Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

, months before the movie appeared.

The Beau Brummels, singers Freddy Cannon and Mike Clifford all make appearances. Cannon enjoyed a string of hits during the Sixties (including "Palisades Park
Palisades Park
Palisades Park may refer to:*Palisades Park borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.*Koreatown, Palisades Park, an ethnic Korean enclave in Palisades Park, New Jersey....

" and "Tallahassee Lassie"), and performs "Little Bitty Corrine" in his signature style (wearing a cardigan
Cardigan (sweater)
A cardigan is a type of machine- or hand-knitted sweater that ties, buttons or zips down the front; by contrast, a pullover does not open in front but must be "pulled over" the head to be worn. The cardigan was named after James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, a British military commander,...

 sweater in the summertime!), while Mike Clifford (veteran of The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

, and later an actor) croons the movie's obligatory slow song, "Marianne". (Clifford is also credited with another song, "Nothing can Stand in my Way", but this does not appear in the film). There was no official soundtrack release for this movie.

Director

The film's director, Bert I. Gordon, was involved with many size-themed movies in his career. (Perhaps ironically, his initials are "BIG".) Besides Village, these include: King Dinosaur
King Dinosaur
King Dinosaur is a 1955 science fiction film starring William Bryant and Wanda Curtis with narration by Marvin Miller. In this film, four astronauts in 1960 travel to a planet called Nova that has just entered Earth's solar system. The crew begins to study the planet to see if it's able to...

 (1955), Beginning of the End
Beginning of the End
Beginning of the End is a 1957 American science fiction film directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Peter Graves and Peggie Castle. The film is about an agricultural scientist who has successfully grown gigantic vegetables using radiation...

 (1957), The Cyclops
The Cyclops
The Cyclops is a science fiction film starring James Craig and Gloria Talbott.-Synopsis:A test pilot is missing and a search party is sent out in the jungles of Mexico...

 (1957), The Amazing Colossal Man
The Amazing Colossal Man
The Amazing Colossal Man is a 1957 black-and-white science fiction film, directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Glenn Langan. The film revolves around a 60 foot mutant man produced as the result of an atomic accident....

 (1957), Attack of the Puppet People
Attack of the Puppet People
Attack of the Puppet People is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction Horror film directed, produced and written by Bert I. Gordon. It stars John Hoyt as an eccentric doll maker...

 (1958), War of the Colossal Beast
War of the Colossal Beast
War of the Colossal Beast is a 1958 black-and-white science fiction film, directed by Bert I. Gordon and produced by Carmel Productions and distributed by American International Pictures. It continued the storyline of the 1957 movie The Amazing Colossal Man, although it was not marketed as a direct...

 (1958), Earth vs. the Spider
Earth vs. the Spider
Earth vs. the Spider is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction horror film produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, who also wrote the story, upon which the screenplay by George Worthing Yates and Laszlo Gorog is based...

 (1958), and The Food of the Gods (1976).

Casting

Debi Storm completed her role as the Sheriff's daughter in just three days. Vicki London, who played Georgette, is absent from the screen for most of the giant scenes in the movie. Robert Random and Joy Harmon each also appeared in episodes of Gidget
Gidget (TV series)
Gidget is an American sitcom about a surfing, boy-crazy teenager called "Gidget" and her widowed father Russ Lawrence, a UCLA professor. Sally Field stars as Gidget with Don Porter as her father. The series was first broadcast on ABC from September 15, 1965 through April 21, 1966...

, which debuted in the fall of 1965.

The cat appearing in this film was named Orangey (later renamed Minerva), and Village of the Giants was the second time he played the role of a cat larger than a human, the first being Scott Carey's (actor Grant Williams
Grant Williams
Grant Williams was an American film actor and operatic tenor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Scott Carey in the seminal science fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man , which has since become a cult classic.-Early life:Born John Joseph Williams in New York City to a Scottish father...

) pet in The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his novel The Shrinking Man ....

 (1957). His most famous roles were as "Rhubarb" in the film Rhubarb
Rhubarb (1951 film)
Rhubarb is a 1951 film adapted from the 1946 novel Rhubarb by humorist, H. Allen Smith. Directed by Arthur Lubin, the screwball noir comedy stars the cat Orangey, Jan Sterling and Ray Milland.-Characters and story:...

 (1951) and the cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

Original script

Alan Caillou's original script called for the Sheriff's deputy (played by Rance Howard) to be stepped on by the giants. If the scene was ever filmed, it did not make the final edit, and no known footage of it exists.

Locations and props

Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed on the Columbia Pictures backlot, where portions of I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...

 and The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...

 were also made. The lot is now owned by Warner Brothers. The scene where the giants convene outside the Hainesville theater was shot at the Courthouse Square
Courthouse Square
Courthouse Square is a backlot located at Universal Studios. The set is composed of several facades that form an archetypal American town square with a courthouse as its centerpiece...

 lot at Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

, where Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...

 and Gremlins
Gremlins
Gremlins is a 1984 American horror comedy film directed by Joe Dante, released by Warner Bros. The film is about a young man who receives a strange creature—called a Mogwai—as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters. It was followed by a sequel,...

 were later made.
The film's goo was a simple mixture of angel food cake with pink-colored dye. The beer the "teenagers" are drinking at the beginning of the film is Blatz, and the Teen magazine Joy Harmon reads during one part of the film is an actual issue, from the summer of 1965. The tiny yellow custom hotrod (with the surfboard) that is used in the street scene to tie up Beau Bridges' feet, is The Surfite, designed by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

Legacy

In January 1994, Village of the Giants was featured as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

 (episode 523). The episode was dedicated in memoriam to the recently deceased Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

.

External links

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