viewers have gradually learned the background of the melting man. All the scenes showing the astronauts in space and the lead character in the hospital were re-shot during post-production without influence by the director, and Sachs criticized both the acting in those scenes and how they restructure the film. There are logical problems in the final film due to the re-shot scenes; it is never fully explained how West's spacecraft returned to Earth from Saturn when West himself was so seriously injured and the other two members of his crew were both killed. Welch D. Everman, author of Cult Science Fiction Films, pointed to several homages in the movie to science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. The title itself is a reference to the Jack Arnold film The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), and the final scene when a radio report advertises another trip to Saturn, thus hinting that another accident could occur, was a common device in 1950s horror films. One difference, noted by Everman, is that in the 1950s films, government cover-ups and secret agendas were often ascribed to the good of the general public, whereas The Incredible Melting Man, like many late 1970s films of its genre, suggested otherwise. Variety described the script, in addition to its horror elements, as "a human story attempting to leave a moral message as to whether society or the horrible creature it is chasing is really the most destructive". Casting Alex Rebar, in one of only a handful of film appearances throughout his acting career, starred as Steve West. Burr DeBenning played Dr. Ted Nelson, and General Michael Perry was portrayed by Myron Healey, who was, Everman notes, often cast as a villain in 1950s science fiction films. Film director Jonathan Demme played the small role of Matt Winters, one of West's victims. Rainbeaux Smith, best known for her appearances in B movies and exploitation films, appeared in The Incredible Melting Man as a model who finds one of West's victims while trying to avoid a photographer seeking to take explicit photos of her. Filming Producer Max Rosenberg, best known for his horror and supernatural films, provided the financing for The Incredible Melting Man. Samuel W. Gelfman was the film's producer, and American International Pictures served as both the production company and the distributor. According to Sachs, Gelfman and Rosenberg decided during shooting that a straight horror film would be