War of the Colossal Beast Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Bert I. Gordon
USA 1958

She wanted only to find her brother alive...be careful what you wish for. After Colonel Glenn Manning survived an experimental plutonium blast that triggered his mutation into a seventy-foot giant, everyone believes he plunged to death from the top of Boulder Dam. Everyone, that is, except for his sister, Joyce. She is convinced that her brother is alive. Joyce sets out to find her brother in the mountains of Mexico...but she is unprepared for the full truth. Her brother is hideously disfigured now...and very angry. When he is captured by the authorities, the Colossal Beast escapes to wreak havoc on Los Angeles!

***

Colonel Manning, the amazing 60ft colossal man from the same film, falls into the Colorado River at the end of that film from not-so-friendly military firepower. It seems now though that he survives that only to be swept down river into Mexico where he resides in the mountains and yanks trucks off the road for food. OK, the story in this one in not anything grandiose to be sure, but Bert I. Gordon's follow-up is satisfying to a point. This time around Glenn's sister still believes her brother to be alive and flies down to Mexico - soon to be followed by a military officer who didn't believe her in the first place.

Excerpt from BaronB's comments on IMdb located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: June 1958

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Comparison:

Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover
		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC	Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:08:21	1:08:33.692
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.45 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.85:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 24,671,566,167 bytes Feature: 20,008,568,832 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1681 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1681 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	None	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Lions Gate Home Video Aspect Ratio: Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Earth vs. the Spider on the same disc DVD Release Date: January 10th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters: 12	Release Information: Studio: Shout! Factory 1.85:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 24,671,566,167 bytes Feature: 20,008,568,832 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • NEW Audio Commentary with Author/Film Historian C. Courtney Joyner, Filmmaker Donald F. Glut and Monster Historian Eric Hoffman • NEW Size Matters: Bert I. Gordon at AIP (15:53) • Alternate Black and White Ending (0:36) • Theatrical Trailer (1:47) Blu-ray Release Date: November 10th, 2020 Standard Blu-ray Case inside cardboard sleeve Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (November 2020): Shout! Factory have transferred Bert I. Gordon's War of the Colossal Beast to Blu-ray. It is advertised as being from a "NEW 2K Film Scan of a Fine Grain Print". It looks a little waxy at times to be, and I would have liked more grain textures. The hour-8-minute film is on a single-layered disc but still has a max'ed out bitrate and the 1.85:1 widescreen ratio towers above the full-frame, chroma drenched, DVD from 2006. It is brighter - but maybe be too bright at times. The Blu-ray did look a bit digitized at times but it's still an easy winner of the SD transfer.

NOTE: We have added 88 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. It has minor imperfections but clean, if occasionally scattered. The beast's moaning growls are disconcertingly inhuman. The score is by Albert Glasser (The Cyclops, Tormented, Attack of the Puppet People, Abilene Town, The Spider, I Shot Jesse James, Behind Locked Doors) and is largely keeping generic pace with the 'beast' sequences. Shout! Factory offer optional yellow English subtitles (see sample below) on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Shout! Factory Blu-ray has a new audio commentary with author/Film Historian C. Courtney Joyner, filmmaker Donald F. Glut and Monster Historian Eric Hoffman. It's full of love and enthusiasm for these American International Pictures titles, how they got addicted, Don's contributions and involvement with Famous Monsters magazine, one of the final black and white efforts from the studio for this genre, how about 1/4 of footage of 'the beast' is from Bert I. Gordon's 1957 The Amazing Colossal Man. I liked it because it wasn't a sarcasm-fest with endless joking about the film's weaknesses. These guys genuinely appreciate these cheapo-gems - as do we - see HERE. Shout! also add a new featurette Size Matters: Bert I. Gordon at AIP running 1/4 hour and discussing the director's style and the 'fantastic genre' of late 50's and 60's cinema. They include 36-seconds of the alternate black and white ending and a theatrical trailer.

War of the Colossal Beast is a sequel to Gordon's The Amazing Colossal Man (because in "The Amazing Colossal Man," he is believed dead after falling from the Hoover Dam, but reemerges in rural Mexico, brain damaged, disfigured, and very angry) while also evoking Bert I. Gordon's The Cyclops. It's short but the commentary nails the appeal which is strongly nostalgic. When you see this as a child - it stays with you. As far as 'B' films go - this has all the earmarks including low-budget, short running time and a lot of borrowed footage from the first film. It's smells of a real slap-dash effort... but we still love it. Shout!'s Blu-ray is a significant upgrade in a/v over the nonsense DVDS but the commentary and new documentary are impressive selling points for fans of this 50's/60's fantasy sci-fi genre.

Gary Tooze