Village of the Giants is a 1965 American teensploitation[2] comedy science fiction film produced, directed and written by Bert I. Gordon.
Based loosely on H. G. Wells's 1904 book The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, it contains elements of the beach party film genre.
The story concerns a gang of rebellious teens who gain access to a chemical substance called "Goo", which causes living things to grow to gigantic proportions.
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.
Genius accidentally creates a substance he names "Goo", that, when consumed, causes animals, including a dog and a pair of ducks, to grow to gigantic size.
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.
Mike asks Genius to forget the Goo for a while and make them a supply of ether – having noticed the giants only leave one guard on the hostages.
However, as Fred and the others reach their car, they meet a travelling band of little people who have (notwithstanding the torn-out telephone lines, overturned broadcasting antennas, and blocked roads) heard about the "goo" and its effects, and are heading into the town to investigate the substance.
Cannon enjoyed a string of hits during the 1960s, including "Palisades Park" and "Tallahassee Lassie", and performs "Little Bitty Corrine" in his signature style (wearing a cardigan sweater in the summertime), while Mike Clifford (veteran of The Ed Sullivan Show, and later an actor) croons the movie's obligatory slow song, "Marianne".
[8]Alan Caillou's original script called for the sheriff's deputy (played by Rance Howard) to be stepped on by the giants.
Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed on the Columbia Pictures backlot, where portions of I Dream of Jeannie and The Partridge Family were also made.
The scene where the giants convene outside the Hainesville theater was shot at the Courthouse Square lot at Universal Studios, where Back to the Future and Gremlins were later made.
The tiny yellow custom hot rod (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.
The low-budget film had limited commercial success at the time of its release, for it was distributed mainly to drive-in theaters as part of double features.
In 1965 it did draw media attraction and audiences with some of its special effects and lightly provocative sex appeal, including scenes with implied nudity.
The "best things" about the film, she writes, are the "special effects and photographic trickery", along with "those endless views of healthy young torsos gyrating to the rhythms of the Beau Brummells or Freddy Cannon".
[13] The MST3K version of Village of the Giants was included as part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume 27 DVD collection, released by Shout!