Attack of the Puppet People

This was your typical low (I mean low!) budget sci-fi film and the film really doesn't build to an exciting climax. The story starts with a pretty young woman named Sally (June Kenney) who applies for an office job at a small company that makes dolls. She is hired by the kindly owner Mr. Franz (John Hoyt) who keeps losing his office workers. While working for Franz she meets a business associate named Bob Westley (John Agar) and of course he is smitten by her immediately and it doesn't take long for them to start dating and eventually he proposes and wants her to move to St. Louis with him. Franz discovers this and Bob disappears. Sally thinks he is making people into dolls and she goes to the cops and talks to Sgt. Paterson (Jack Kosslyn) who is interested because others have disappeared who been in contact with Franz. Finally Franz gets Sally alone and "Poof"! She wakes up and she's shrunken! Franz brings out Bob and a bunch of others that he has shrunk. Franz is able to shrink people with a machine that uses audio waves to break things down into energy matter. Franz is a lonely old man and he wants company! This film was directed by veteran Bert I. Gordon who would end up directing one of my favorite films of all time "Village of the Giants". Gordon usually made his films about people either growing or shrinking. Hoyt gives a convincing performance as Franz and if he's not just irritating then he's aggravating but thats what you would come to expect from an old kook. Kenney is very attractive and its easy to see why she was used in several of these types of films. Agar had already begun his slump into "Z" movie stardom and its very amusing to watch him get angry and tear apart the marionette. The film has an ending that is somewhat inconclusive but maybe Gordon wanted it that way just in case! Very silly film has lousy special effects but thats the charm to these movies. Several of the actors from "Earth vs. The Spider" appear in this film as Gordon liked using actors that he was comfortable with. Gordon's daughter Susan appears as the little blond girl. If you love these cheap sci-fi films of the 50's like I do, then you want to check this out!

A lonely, deranged puppet-master (John Hoyt) designs a machine that shrinks people.

Although this film has had rather negative reviews over the years and holds a poor ranking on IMDb, there is a special kind of enjoyment in this film, and any with John Agar and / or directed by Bert Gordon. Are the special effects terrible? Yes. Is the plot weak? Surely. But we expect that from 1950s science fiction films, which I think works in the movie's favor (although decades too late).

I also appreciate the historical value of this film and its role in the Watergate scandal. I am not familiar with the story, so I cannot say if it is true, but the idea is that instead of warning his co-conspirators of detectives, a Watergate burglar was busy watching this film. Hence, this movie can be credited with bringing down Richard Nixon. That is quite a feat!

As an added bonus, this film marks the acting debut of Susan Gordon, the director's daughter, who would go on to appear in many of his pictures and in other productions. She was "cast" completely by accident when the real actress was not available, and this decision may have altered the history of the role the Gordon family took in film.

This film essentially begins with a young woman by the name of "Sally Reynolds" (June Kenney) inquiring about an ad in the paper advertising a job for a receptionist at a small doll manufacturing company in Los Angeles. From what she is told by the dollmaker, "Mr. Franz" (John Hoyt) the previous secretary had left rather abruptly and even though her instincts warn her against accepting the job, she becomes convinced by his entreaties and does so anyway. Not long after that she meets a traveling salesman by the name of "Bob Westley" (John Agar) and they soon become romantically involved. However, upon accepting his proposal of marriage and agreeing to quit her job and move to St. Louis with him in a few days, they discover that Mr. Franz does not like the idea at all and things begin to happen that neither her nor Bob could ever quite imagine. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a movie which turned out to be quite different than what I was expecting. To that effect, while it might qualify as either a Sci-Fi or Horror film in the technical sense, there really wasn't much horror to be found here at all. Likewise, there wasn't very much suspense either. Even so, this was still an entertaining film in a grade-B sort of way and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

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 doll maker who has devised a machine that can shrink animals and humans to about one-sixth their size. When his current secretary/receptionist June Kenney 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). Kenney is a lovely, blue-eyed, shapely blonde, who was "Teen-Age Doll" (1957), while Agar has his best moments in an unnerving 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.

Reasonably entertaining entry into the 50s sci fi/horror genre.

Star John Hoyt was always interesting to watch (check out his brief but commanding performance as antique shop proprietor Nils Dryer in "The Big Combo").

The basic theme of this film had, in fact, already been tried out the year before in the vastly superior "Incredible Shrinking Man". However, the 'puppet twist' (good name for a song!) was certainly an original touch.

Co-star John Agar is smoothly competent and does his best against the odds.

Strictly for those whose tastes lean towards the ultra-cheesy variety of midnight movie fare.