Costello plays Artie Pinsetter, a junkman and part-time inventor whose latest contraption expands his lovely young girlfriend to the incredible size of the title. Reporting the mishap, Artie's flustered news that she's "gotten big" is taken by her despotic businessman father to mean "pregnant," and he arranges a shotgun wedding for the two. The rest of the picture follows the couple's efforts to achieve some sort of domestic normality while Artie seeks a way to return her to normal size.
While the reviews were as unenthusiastic as the public's response, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock did exude a certain juvenile appeal, thanks in some measure to director Sidney Miller. His early stint as a child star included appearances with old pal Mickey Rooney in Boys Town (1938), Babes on Broadway (1941) and five other pictures between 1939 and 1941. He gave up performing in the mid-50s to try his hand at directing, immediately landing work as the director of The Mickey Mouse Club TV series. Thanks to his own experiences as an underage actor, Miller saw to it that the kid stars of the show were treated with no-nonsense professionalism and dignity, and he eliminated interference from overbearing stage parents by having them banned from the set. Miller later took the helm of several other popular shows, including Get Smart, My Favorite Martian and The Monkees. He returned to performing in the 1960s with small roles in dozens of movies and TV shows.
After landing the title role in her film debut, The Bonnie Parker Story (1958), co-star Dorothy Provine enjoyed success into the 1960s on many TV shows and a handful of movies, including It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), as the put-upon wife of Milton Berle, and Good Neighbor Sam (1964), as the put-upon wife of Jack Lemmon. After marrying director Robert Day in 1969, she retired from the business, except for the occasional appearance. Gale Gordon, who plays her mean-spirited father in this picture, had a long and busy stage, radio and film career but is probably best-known as the flustered nemesis/victim of wacky Lucy in several of Lucille Ball's TV incarnations.
A mixture of slapstick farce, domestic comedy and sci-fi parody (obviously influenced by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), which was released the previous year), The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock featured scenes in which the oversized bride wears a tunic based on a parachute and her hapless husband's invention transforms from time machine to rocket ship. Only one thing could have made this movie more bizarre; according to Costello's friend and stunt double, Vic Parks, Liberace was to have played a role in the movie but for whatever reason, it never happened.
Director: Sidney Miller
Producer: Edward Sherman, Lewis J. Rachmil
Screenplay: Rowland Barber, Arthur A. Ross
Cinematography: Frank G. Carson
Editing: Al Clark
Art Direction: William Flannery
Original Music: Raoul Kraushaar, Rudy Schrager
Special Visual Effects: Irving Block, Louis DeWitt, Jack Rabin
Cast: Lou Costello (Artie Pinsetter), Dorothy Provine (Emmy Lou Raven), Gale Gordon (Raven), Jimmy Conlin (Magruder), Charles Lane (Standard Bates).
BW-75m.
by Rob Nixon
