ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958)
Article #436 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing day: 5-25-2002
Posting day: 10-18-2002

A lonely old doll maker shrinks various people to keep him company.

After several movies about giant people, Bert I. Gordon does a reverse take and makes one about shrinking people, which makes a certain sort of sense. The special effects are pretty standard Bert I. Gordon fare. I just wish the script was better, because it had possibilities; as it is, it falls short of what it could have accomplished. The strong part of this movie is very strong indeed; John Hoyt as the lonely puppeteer-turned-doll-maker gives a great performance, and he is the character you will remember. When I emerged from the movie, it was his history and his life that I really wanted to know more about; as it is, we only get a few hints, and we are given no explanation as to where this guy got the scientific savvy to pull off his shrinking trick. As it is, he is the only full-blooded character in the movie: if they had given June Kenney’s character a more complex relationship with him, they could have come up with a really interesting movie. Plus it wouldn’t have hurt if they had fleshed out the character of Emil (Michael Mark); as it is, he’s just a plot device. Unfortunately, the action sequences not only come far too late in the movie, but are substandard and unnecessary.