Attack of the Puppet People

When director Bert Gordon saw the unexpected profits from his AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and the earlier INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, he decided that there was room enough in Hollywood for yet another film on a man out of size. In THE ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE, Gordon reshot the much more artistic ISM minus any mystical or sociological subtext. Here, he cast veteran B actor John Hoyt as Mr. Franz, a demented doll maker who also invented a machine that could shrink human beings down to a mere six inches in height. Gordon did not concern himself with the fact that while it was theoretically possible to shrink matter, the mass would remain constant even while the actual size was reduced. Thus a six inch human being must weigh as much as before, much like a snowball compressed into a tightly packed core. Hoyt plays Franz in a manner that suggests he is your typical Insane Scientist, one who cannot fathom why his shrunken victims might not appreciate his solicitude for their well-being. As usua... Read more

As others have already noted, this is an early Sci Fi B Movie, with wooden acting and laughable dialogue, still for its time the special effects are surprisingly well done. Having said all that its still not so horrible or bad that its rendered un-watchable. I had to add it for my collection because I love this genre and in that category its excellent.

You could generally count on two things when going into a film from producer/director/writer Bert I. Gordon, the first being shoddy visual effects (usually done by Bert himself), and the second being based on the title of the film, you had a good idea what you were going to get, some examples being...The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) had a fifty-foot man going nutzo...Village of the Giants (1965) had a handful of super-sized wacky teenage types giving the establishment what for...and then this film, titled Attack of the Puppet People (1958) featured a group of, you guessed it, pint-sized people struggling to get by in an oversized world. Produced, co-written, and directed by Gordon the film stars John Agar (The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous), June Kenney (Teenage Doll, Earth vs the Spider), and John Hoyt (Blackboard Jungle, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes). Also appearing is Michael Mark (The Wasp Woman), Laurie Mitchell (Queen of Outer Space), Jack Kosslyn (The Magic Sword),... Read more

For all of you who have seen Attack Of The Puppet People. John Hoyt also appeared twice on Leave It To Beaver, first as a clothing store salesman and next as a man who sells accordions. He was also in the Twilight Zone story Lateness Of The Hour as Dr. Loren who has a robot daughter named Jayna. and he was also in The Man With The X-Ray Eyes as a doctor who doesnt approve of Ray Milland's medical procedures. He was also an alien creature in The Bellero Shield, a 1964 Outer Limits Story starring Martin Landau

Bert I. Gordon, the producer known for alternately making people and animals really big or small, was the brains behind this film, which is one of the best of the genre. It is a Black and White production from 1958 featuring John Hoyt as the mad doll maker, John Agar in his typical hero role, and a fairly bland performance by June Kenney as the love interest.The plot is fairly typical, Hoyt kidnaps people and shrinks them to doll size so he will never be lonely; after authorities get onto his trail he loses control of his life and the dolls. The movie is actually very well done, and the split screen shots are pretty decent, particularly of the cats and dogs. I was initially leaning toward a five star appraisal of the film, but the ending is somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic, so I give the film four stars for being an entertaining B-Movie genre period piece, and also for the performances of the two male leads. John Hoyt is genuinely creepy in his role of Mr. Franz the doll maker, and Jo... Read more