Classic Horrors Club

We have a new producer of World of Giants (WOG) with the fifth episode, ‘Gambling Story,’ William Alland. The name should be familiar. He produced many of our favorites from the 1950s: It Came from Outer Space (1953), all three Creature from the Black Lagoon films, This Island Earth (1955), Tarantula (1955), The Mole People (1956), and The Deadly Mantis (1957), to name only some of them! Whether he’s responsible for it or not, the series takes several breaks from its formula in this episode.

We still open at the “bureau,” but it’s outside the main office with secretary Dorothy Brown (Marcia Henderson.) It’s from Mel’s (Marshall Thompson) mouth instead of one of the bureau chiefs that we learn this week’s bit of backstory. Mel’s condition was not instantaneous. He shrunk to 6” tall while in the hospital. When released, his “doctors” built him a “place of his own.” Not quite a Barbie Dream House, it looks suitable for a pint-sized spy who wants to keep things simple.

In the script for ‘Gambling Story,” writer Richard Carr makes Mel even more cranky. He’s angry with Dorothy and she’s about to quit her job because of it. By the end of the episode, it’s Mel’s lesson to learn, not just ours: “As I learn to survive and function in a world of giants, there may be important lessons to learn by all of us.” After a little human relations coaching by his partner, Bill (Arthur Franz), Mel ultimately apologizes to Dorothy for his behavior by dictating it to her.

Although Bill is again incapacitated during their adventure, it feels a little different because he and Mel are working together for most of it. They infiltrate a hidden gambling operation in order to flush out a criminal posing as a West Berlin businessman. While Bill places bets at the Roulette table, Mel is under it, causing the wire that’s manipulating the results of the wheel spins to spark so that the game is no longer fixed. Coincidentally, the croupier is played by Frank J. Scannell, who played Barker in the movie that must have influenced this series, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957.)

The episode is directed by someone else who should have a familiar name, Nathan Juran. Since he directed three other episodes, we’ll look at his career in a future installment. For now, back to its producer. Alland began his professional career when he met Orson Welles and participated with him during the early days of the Mercury Theatre Group. He appeared on stage, on the radio, and played Thompson in Citizen Kane (1941.)  

After serving as a combat pilot during World War II, Alland returned home and became a producer, winning a Peabody Award for the radio show, Doorway to Life. Then he turned to movies, where he produced films for Universal-International throughout the 1950s. Besides the ones listed above, he produced several Westerns, as well as The Land Unknown (1957), The Space Children (1958), and The Colossus of New York (1958.) World of Giants was near the end of his career. He produced only three more films, retired in 1966, then died in 1997 at the age of 81.