Attack of the Puppet People

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'.