Director Bert I. Gordon, one of the more prolific and successful B-movie directors and producers of the 1950s-1970s, passed away this week in Los Angeles at the impressive age of 100. Known both to lovers of B-movies and Mystery Science Theater 3000, and those with an appreciation for the history of big screen special effects, Gordon was an innovator whose techniques would go on to be widely imitated throughout Hollywood for decades.
Famously dubbed “Mr. B.I.G.” by Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J. Ackerman, the nickname wasn’t just a reference to Gordon’s initials. Rather, it reflected his career-long fascination with giant monster movies and the techniques used to create those effects on film, often via forced perspective, rear projection and the creative use of miniatures. From his first film, 1955’s King Dinosaur, Gordon began refining these techniques, which he would go on to use repeatedly in drive-in classics such as The Amazing Colossal Man, Earth vs. The Spider or Village of the Giants. A consummate promoter, Gordon could find a way to bolt on his “giant people” or “giant monsters” ethos onto seemingly any other genre of film–even the teen hoodlum comedy, such as Village of the Giants, which starred a young Ron Howard. Most of the giant monster films, on the other hand, can be seen as reflecting the same nuclear-age anxieties that gave us films such as The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms or Them!
Gordon is a particularly legendary figure to fans of cult movie riffing show MST3K, as no fewer than 8 of his films were ultimately featured in the show’s original run, the most of any individual filmmaker. Those titles included King Dinosaur, The Amazing Colossal Man and its sequel War of the Colossal Beast, Earth vs. The Spider, The Magic Sword, Tormented, Beginning of the End and Village of the Giants. Fans of MST3K typically recognize Gordon’s films as among the best actual movies to be featured on the series, particularly capable fantasies such as The Magic Sword.
Gordon will always be remembered as a major figure of the B-movie boom of the 1950s-1970s, with films that have gone on to inspire countless genre filmmakers in the decades that followed.