Telling the story of Colonel Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan), a man caught in the blast of a nuclear bomb, the film is entertaining. It lacks the thrills of contemporary giant monster movies, like Them (1954) and Godzilla (1954, released in the US in 1956) and suffers from a low-budget, short production time (reportedly, it was made in 10 days) and inept special effects. In particular, instead of following the Godzilla route and building large model cities, much of the Colossal Man's colossal action is accomplished by mattes, with Manning superimposed over static shots of buildings. The cheapness and lack of care in this process causes him to often appear transparent. However, having a talking menace, one that has a story arc and can communicate the fear and despair he is feeling as his body grows and his sanity slips, is effective. The film also benefits from decent acting on the part of Langan, Cathy Downs as his fiance Carol Forrest and William Hudson as Dr. Paul Linstrom.
Obviously, the poster was not trying to sell My Dinner with Andre the Giant. The film doesn't deliver anything as exciting as the image here; but, that was something common to Bert I. Gordon's films, where the posters depicted thrills that his low-budget productions could not deliver. It is playing up the action aspects of the movie and does so well. It is a dynamic poster, one that does the best job possible of making a man wearing a diaper look like a real threat. His look is one of concern at the assembled firepower, something that captures a salient point of the film; that Manning is a person, not a mindless beast. Although he is acting like movie monsters for decades - menacing fleeing mobs, carrying a helpless blonde - he is also a person and reacting as a person would if people were pointing guns at him. Manning's pose is awkward; it looks like he is about to fall over (maybe because of his lack of feet?); or, is he just shying away from the tanks and soldiers? If so, this reflects a theme that runs through the film; Manning is a sympathetic figure. A close look at the poster shows a man who is terrified that he is becoming "A Monster!"
Check out the trailer.
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