La révolte des poupées

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.

You know we never do learn just how the machine that shrinks folks to doll like size came to the possession of puppetmaker John Hoyt. He had no science or electronic background we're told about.

This is one weird film about a man who for fun and pleasure shrinks people to miniature size and keeps them around. Among others he shrinks are his new secretary June Kenney and her salesman boyfriend John Agar. When he proposes marriage and she wants to leave, Hoyt can't bear to part with either.

Hoyt is the whole show here in this B film quickie. It's not enough for a film that can't quite decide how seriously it wants to be taken.

What should you do if your wife leaves you for another man? John Hoyt, playing a German puppeteer, decides that he will devise some incredibly complex scientific device that miniaturizes the people he likes so they will never again leave him. Director/producer Bert I. Gordon does it again; he creates a film with a pretty ridiculous script, interesting if not always impressive special effects, and an entertaining film notwithstanding. The film starts out with many puppets already "made" and then shows how Hoyt creates some, interacts with some, how some try to escape and so on... Much of the film is used to let Gordon showcase his effects as the little people are surrounded by large objects. One little person even gets to sing a hip rock song. Hmmm...okay. Ultimately I liked Attack of the Puppet People. It doesn't have the greatest story or acting or effects, but it has heart. It is an inferior film in every way to the impressive Dr. Cyclops made with Albert Dekker the previous decade. Hoyt gives a heartfelt and tired performance. John Agar plays the man who has fallen in love with Hoyt's newest blonde bombshell secretary. He literally has a short fuse! The other actors are competent if nothing else. For me the most fun scene is that with the little girl, played by Gordon's real life daughter Susan, comes into to get her doll fixed and finds a matchbox. Another Mr. BIG production that is fun.

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.