Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
Director: Bert I Gordon
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Having already cashed in on the success of The Incredible Shrinking Man by rushing out (on the principle of opposites) The Amazing Colossal Man, producer/director Gordon went the whole hog with this tale of a lonely doll-maker (Hoyt) given to miniaturising human beings. Unsurprisingly, it's a poor second cousin to the Richard Matheson/Jack Arnold mini-classic, with poor characterisation beaten only by penny-pinching special effects, reaching a nadir with some truly laughable back projection when a couple of the unwilling little people take to the pre-dawn LA streets. Nevertheless, this is still plenty of fun, from its pseudo-science ('You know how a projector works, enlarging an image...' begins Zer Nutsy Puppeteer) to one of the shrunken gals launching reluctantly into the pop pastiche 'I'm Your Living Doll'.Author: GD
Cast & crew
Director: Bert I Gordon
Cast: John Agar, June Kenny, John Hoyt, Michael Mark, Marlene Willis full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 79 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.



What do you think?
Post your review now