"PULP MASTERPIECE"   A new print of '50s sci-fi classic THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN screens this week at the Charles Theatre. 1957 Dir. Jack Arnold. Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton, Raymond Bailey, William Schallert. 81m. bw. SHOWTIMES: Saturday, April 10 - Noon; Monday, April 12 - 7 PM; Thursday, April 15 - 9 PM. "A masterpiece of the science fiction genre...a total classic" (Film 4) "Not merely the best of Arnold's classic sci-fi movies of the '50s, but one of the finest films ever made in that genre. It's a simple enough story: after being contaminated by what may or may not be nuclear waste, Williams finds himself slowly but steadily shedding the pounds and inches until he reaches truly minuscule proportions. But it is what Richard Matheson's script (adapted from his own novel) does with this basic material that makes the film so gripping and intelligent. At first, Williams is merely worried about his mysterious illness, but soon, towered over by his wife, he begins to feel humiliated, expressing his shame and impotence through cruel anger. And then his entire relationship with the universe changes, with cats, spiders and drops of water representing lethal threats in the surreal and endless landscape that is, in fact, his house's cellar. And finally, to the strains of Joseph Gershenson's impressive score, we arrive at the film's philosophical core: a moving, strangely pantheist assertion of what it really means to be alive. A pulp masterpiece." (Time Out Film Guide) Next Week: Douglas Sirk's MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION