Plot
Gangster Eddie Candel is framed for a crime he didn't commit. Escaping from the police he flees to the desert, stumbling by accident into an atomic bomb testing site.
Eddie is exposed to high levels of radiation, and his body begins to transform in remarkable ways. With his new mental and a near steel physical body, he sets out to take revenge against all those who betrayed him. His first target is rival gangster Andy Damon, who took over his gang and framed him for the murder. Andy fights back, but Candel's new near invulnerability makes his efforts useless. Damo does manage to kill Candel's gang girlfriend.
Candel's ex-girlfriend and a sympathetic scientist attempt to help him and dissuade him from this course of action but are unsuccessful. The scientist wants to study how Candel survived despite being exposed to so much radiation
The National Guard (United States) is called in and uses flame throwers to end Candel's life, turning him to dust.
Production
The genesis of the film is a bit vague. One source says the film began as a story by Leo Gordon called The Atomic Man. Gordon went to fellow actor Michael Pate to rewrite the story. Needing money, Gordon sold his rights to Pate who took the story to his brother-in-law, screenwriter Phillip Rock. [3]
The screenplay was written by James Leicester and Phillip Rock and is based on The Steel Monster by Phillip Rock, Michael Pate, and Leo Gordon. Michael Pate also co-wrote the script.
Producer Benedict Bogeaus had wanted to shoot the film as a television pilot (a common creative practice of the time), to be shown on TV as three episodes, should it be picked up for syndication. Traveling to Mexico to begin shooting in 1960, Mexican film syndicates ruled that it was actually a feature film and demanded Bogeaus make it using a full crew, which would now have to be paid at feature film labor rates. [4] With the budget now tripled, director Allen Dwan claimed he had to shoot the feature in one week, instead of five (some members of the cast disputed this statement). Dwan said:
What should have been shot in five weeks was done in one. And everything in interiors - nothing built. The actors didn’t want to stay. All they wanted to do was get home. And I was in the awkward position of trying to keep it together with all this schism going on around us. So I gritted my teeth and battled it. And that’s not fun. Nobody cared a damn. So it was just get it in the box and get home. A misfit from start to end. [5]
It was Randell's last leading role. [6]
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