Attack of the Monster Reviews
Land of the Giants - Manhunt

Story Synopsis: Fleeing from the law, a giant criminal absconds with the Spindrift and 4 tiny hostages inside. He sinks into a pit of quicksand and it's up to Steve and Dan to rescue the ship and the giant from certain doom.

As the giant escapee falls to the ground he spots the Spindrift model, used extensively in this episode and few others. With his face next to it (possibly a split-screen effect) the ship looks much smaller than in the next scene when he picks it up.

Dan, Barry and the girls strap in when the ship is picked up to insure their safety but aren't these the same seats that tipped over with Fitzhugh in the pilot? This scene makes use of the passenger cabin and there is now a hammock strung up for sleeping accomodations.

The matte shots combining the Earth people and the giants in the forest are done well, seamlessly combining the two.

Back where the Spindrift used to be Mark is attempting to transform the ship's astrogator into a radio range finder in an attempt to find the others. Irwin made his vehicles' astrogators removeable -the Jupiter 2 astrogator was always disappearing then reappearing many episodes later. The ship is located some 6700 yards away-about 3.8 miles, a nice long walk for our space travelers.

Instead of telling the terrified passengers still trapped on the Spindrift to run for their lives when the giant deposits the ship on the ground Steve advises them to "stay put" which results in their capture-again!

The giant finds the standard Irwin Allen quicksand pit in record time and sinks, dragging the spaceship with him.The shirt he removes and throws to the little people looks a lot smaller when Burton gets his hands on it and tries to make a rope to rescue the man, which fails when the shirt rips and he sinks even deeper.

After two of Steve's bad ideas in a row Dan decides to take over and try to "fly" the Spindrift out of the quicksand-dangerous but effective-and they escape. The giant is running out of luck and to save him Steve wants to use the spaceship's "Beta Drive" , which sounds a lot like the Jupiter 2's 'great atomic motors' and is loud enough to alert the giant policemen! This time his idea works, and the giant criminal is freed. Grabbing the ship again, he returns it to its original site as a way of saying thanks. The Earth people try to repay him by giving him a gun, another scene done effectively employing the giant hand and giant gun prop, aided in no small part by the talented actors.

John Napier, who plays the criminal was also in an episode of Time Tunnel and featured in Irwin Allen's unsold pilot "Man From the 25th Century". Being a giant in an early episode of the series he doesn't have many lines-or a lot to do-but he does a good job with what he's handed, a running and sinking role.

Not a bad episode of Land of the Giants at all. The audience gets to see a great deal of Spindrift miniature footage, wonderful matte shots and a huge prop or two.

END