Attack of the Puppet People (1958)

Director:

Bert I. Gordon

Writers:

George Worthing Yates (screenplay)
Bert I. Gordon (story)

Release Date:

April 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror

Tagline:

Terror Comes In Small Packages!

Plot:

Lonely, deranged puppet-master designs a machine that shrinks people.

Plot Keywords:

Miniature People | Puppet | Mad Scientist | Shrinking | Miniaturization

Cast

John Agar	...	Bob Westley
John Hoyt	...	Mr. Franz
June Kenney	...	Sally Reynolds
Michael Mark	...	Emil
Jack Kosslyn	...	Sgt. Paterson
Marlene Willis	...	Laurie / Themesong Vocalist
Ken Miller	...	Stan
Laurie Mitchell	...	Georgia Lane
Scott Peters	...	Mac
Susan Gordon	...	Agnes
June Jocelyn	...	Brownie Leader
Jean Moorhead	...	Janet Hall
Hank Patterson	...	Janitor
Hal Bogart	...	Special Delivery Man
Troy Patterson	...	Elevator Operator

Also Known As:

I Was a Teenage Doll (USA) (working title)
Six Inches Tall (UK)
The Fantastic Puppet People

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Ryder Sound Services)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | USA:Approved (PCA #18865)

Company:

Alta Vista Productions

Trivia:

In the scene at the drive-in, Bob and Sally see an earlier Bert I. Gordon film, The Amazing Colossal Man (1957).

Goofs:

Continuity: The saucer of milk used to lure the cat into the lab changes position on the window sill between shots.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Morgan Stewart's Coming Home (1987)

Soundtrack:

You're My Living Doll

1950s Horror Rules!

Yet another minor classic from the 1950s has been released in a pristine B & W print to DVD for posterity and fans' delight. I recall the television print being yellowed and water-marked, but not here, in its crystal clarity, and sharp sound. John Hoyt is excellent as a once-jilted European dollmaker who has devised a machine that can shrink animals and humans to about one-sixth their size. When his current secretary/receptionist June Kenny decides to quit to marry John Agar, his loneliness gets the better of him, and they are victimized, along with previous unfortunates. Great rock music is worked into the plot, and they are terrified by a giant rat, cat and dog. Adolph Glasser's music is robust and amplified, the technical effects by the director Bert Gordon well-done for the time (his daughter Susan Gordon plays the little blonde girl). Kenny is a lovely, blue-eyed, shapely blonde, who was "Teen-Age Doll" (1957), while Agar has his best moments in an un-nerving puppet show scene with a Dr. Jekyll character. Included in the cast is Laurie Mitchell, the "Queen of Outer Space" (1958), giving a good performance as do the others. Toward the latter part of the decade, nothing was too wild to hit this lucrative market, and this engaging picture stands up to the test of time.