Giant Woman: An Original Story Idea by George Beck & Russell Birdwell

Hollywood, May 28, 1957. Original 12 page carbon typescript on yellow paper, bradbound in blue studio wrappers dated May 28, 1957, a year before the final finished film, Attack of the the 50 Foot Woman was released on My 18, 1958. Taken from her home high in the Himalayas, ala King Kong from Skull Island, a 100-ft tall woman is brought to NY city.   The opening paragraph synopsis: “Think of Esther Williams; now think of Anita Ekberg. Think of them both -- physically. Then after turning them both slowly over [in your mind, of course] dwell on the most luscious attributes lavished on each by a bountiful Nature.  … Take that result and multiply IT by about twenty. Now you have Gigante. She’s something over a hundred feet tall, and most ALL of that vast loveliness is quoted practically verbatim under the skimpy animal skins she, being feminine to the ultimate, has managed to piece together into a garment of sorts.  …. she is found in the limitless unknown of the brooding Himalayan mountains of Mongolia by our intrepid adventurer…later, in New York, jealous of the attention he pays to another woman she runs amok… Up Broadway and down Fifth Avenue she strides, casually kicking taxis, trucks and busses out of her way…a squadron of fighter planes are warming up.” Ultimately, the final screenplay was written by Mark Hanna, who wrote such B films as The Undead, Not of This Earth, and The Amazing Colossal Man a sort of male precursor to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Hanna turned the story into a dramatically changed sci-fi picture with film noir crime film aspects using certain elements from this story idea like the giant woman Gigante, her smashing of automobiles, her obsession with a man and a rival woman, Gigante hunting down her female rival because she knows that her man will be near her rival and Gigante reaches into the building with her giant hand to find them. As envisioned by Beck and Birdwell, the film was way too expensive with its elaborate New York location and set scenes with the New York City sequence too close to King Kong, Hanna transferred the location to a small American town with inexpensive science fiction alien effects which were suited to the budget of the B movie that was desired to be made cheaply. George Beck wrote the screenplays for several B-movies during the 30’s and 40’s before moving into television where he wrote scripts for GE Theater, Make Room for Daddy, The Thin Man, Lassie, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and others.  Russell Birdwell spent 25 years as a studio publicist doing the publicity for such films as Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, Nothing Sacred, The Outlaw, The Alamo, etc., before writing the screenplay for Jim Thorpe - All American and several other B-films. (Inventory #: 16096J)