Attack of the Puppet People
       
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Year: 1958
Rating: 5.5
Some might call him a mad scientist, but I just think of him as a lonely guy in a big city. We have probably all wanted some company at times - someone to talk to but often friends are busy with their lives and have no time. His wife left him years ago breaking his heart and he comes upon a logical solution. Shrink people, put them into suspended animation in plastic tubes and when you feel like some small talk and a game of cards, you just take them out and they come to. You give them food, music, a place to dance and a little alcohol. For them life is just fine - no bills to pay, not having to go to a dreary job in the morning, no nagging neighbors and lots of sleep. Mr. Franz (John Hoyt) is not insane, he just is a people person. Yes, he has to kidnap them first, but then life is good.

 

Produced by AIP and directed by Bert I. Gordon, it was made to capitalize on The Incredible Shrinking Man that was released the year before and has the much better 1940 Dr. Cyclops in the rear-view mirror.  It has six miniature people - three of each gender - but they don't do much really. In Dr. Cyclops they mounted a brilliant attack on the mad scientist. Even with some decent special effects - mainly creating giant props and some rear screen projection - it is quite dull till the final 20-minutes. It is always hard to put yourself in the mind of an audience from 66 years ago - though I was around then - but the special effects are hard to get excited about now.

 

Mr. Franz is a doll maker, once a professional puppeteer whose wife left him for another man. Hard to understand as he has the personality of a stone. His secretary goes missing and he hires Sally (June Kenney) to replace her. Kenney was in a few Roger Corman films and then jumped to AIP. Her filmography is littered with films like Hot Car Girl, Spider, Sorority Girl, Teenage Doll and Bloodlust. Probably terrible films but with titles that are hard to resist.  Bob (good old John Agar) is the salesman for the company and makes a beeline for Sally like a guided missile - kind of creepy but she falls for it and they plan of getting married. He romantically proposes to her while they are at a drive-in theater watching another AIP film, The Amazing Colossal Man.  But Mr. Franz realizes how much he will miss them - please don't go to St. Louis - and when they decline him, it is time to add them to his Living Doll Collection. To introduce them to their new friends, he brings them out for a soiree of sorts - two teenagers who like dancing, a soldier and a party girl.  Life is good.