This RKO Pathe Screenliner film presents a parody of bodybuilder Charles Atlas. Atlas was an Italian American man best remembered as the developer of a specific bodybuilding method and associated exercise programs. Featuring comedy actor Arnold Stang, the film portrays a young man who joins a gym to gain muscles, defeat a bully, and get women. The film is produced and directed by Burton Benjamin, who worked for RKO Pathe from 1946-1955. In 1957 he joined CBS, where he worked for 29 years as a writer, producer, and executive. The film is photographed by William Deeke, edited by Isaac Kleinerman (who later worked on “Victory at Sea”), and recorded by Harold R. Vivian, with music by Nathaniel Shilkret.

“It’s Only Muscle” title banner (00:08). Credits (00:16). A woman lying on a beach (00:27). She takes a cigarette from a man’s hand (00:29) and smokes from it (00:31). The man’s hand plays with the sand in front of her (00:32). A man runs by the women lying on the beach and sand is kicked in her face (00:38). She speaks angrily (00:42). A man with a toned physique looks down at her and smiles (00:47). She scolds him (00:53). The man lying next to her stands up to confront the man (00:56). Out of fear he sits down again (01:06). He puts on his glasses (01:09) and stands again (01:12). The toned man is much larger, and the smaller man scolds him (01:15). The larger man pushes the smaller man, and he falls (01:21). The woman shakes her head (01:26). She looks at the larger man and smiles (01:30). The smaller man stands again and snaps his fingers in the air (01:33). The larger man grabs him by the shoulder (01:34), lifts him, and carries him away (01:37). The larger man throws him into the ocean (01:48). The larger man then runs back onto the beach (01:57). The smaller man walks back onto the beach (01:58). He finds the woman’s spot empty (02:13). The woman and the larger man are walking down the beach together (02:16). The smaller man stops and looks disappointed (02:20). The smaller man is seen sitting on the floor of his house (02:24). He is looking through magazines of bodybuilders (02:27). A poster of “Masked Meatball” bodybuilder (02:34). An imaginary scenario of him as a man strong enough to tear a book in half (02:43). He sits on the floor with a dreamy look (02:48). He wipes his forehead (02:52) and stands up (02:54). He fails to open the window (02:58). He walks into a gym (03:10). He is walking through the changing room in his work-out clothes (03:19). Other men working out in the gym (03:23). He joins them (03:29). He takes his shirt off (03:32). Two men are throwing a weighted ball and he asks them to throw to him (03:35), but they ignore him (03:39). One of the men throw the ball to small man very hard (03:47) and he falls (03:50). He attempts boxing on a punching bag (03:53). The muscular large man appears on the punching bag (04:32). The small man punches the bag hard and is tackled by the bag as it swings back (04:35). He gets sprayed by pressure washers (04:40). He takes clothes from a locker (05:16). He is wrestling another man (05:20). He is boxing the air (06:13). He imagines the large man on the beach in distress (06:26). He takes clothes from a locker (06:32). He continues his workouts throwing weighted balls, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting,

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