To mark the release of the new Criterion Collection edition of the existentialist sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), producer Susan Arosteguy shared ten interesting things she learned about the film.
Here are a couple:
With The Incredible Shrinking Man, the special-effects department at Universal had its work cut out for it. As discussed in an interview with visual-effects experts Ben Burtt and Craig Barron featured on our new edition, this included crafting oversize furniture and household items as giant props, to be combined with split-screen and rear-projection techniques to create the illusion of a diminishing Scott Carey.
The original Incredible Shrinking Man trailer (included on our release) was narrated by Orson Welles, then soon to make Touch of Evil for Universal. The trailer was put together while Arnold was directing Welles in Man in the Shadow (1957); the two had a contentious relationship at the start of filming but eventually became friends.
The Criterion Collection 2-disc edition has some great stuff in it:
- New 4K digital restoration
- New audio commentary featuring genre-film historian Tom Weaver and horror-music expert David Schecter
- New program on the film's special effects by effects experts Craig Barron and Ben Burtt
- New conversation between filmmaker Joe Dante and comedian and writer Dana Gould
- Auteur on the Campus: Jack Arnold at Universal (Director's Cut) (2021)
- Interview from 2016 with Richard Christian Matheson, novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson's son
- Interview from 1983 with director Jack Arnold
- 8 mm home-cinema version from 1969
- The Lost Music of "The Incredible Shrinking Man"
- Trailer and teaser narrated by filmmaker Orson Welles
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien
