Attack of the Puppet People | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bert I. Gordon |
Screenplay by | George Worthing Yates |
Story by | Bert I. Gordon |
Produced by | Bert I. Gordon |
Starring | John Agar John Hoyt June Kenney |
Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo |
Edited by | Ronald Sinclair |
Music by | Albert Glasser |
Production company | Alta Vista Productions |
Distributed by | American International Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Attack of the Puppet People (retitled Six Inches Tall for its U.K. release) is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction horror film produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon. It stars John Agar, John Hoyt and June Kenney. Gordon also supervised the film's special effects. American International Pictures released the film on June 30, 1958 as a double feature with War of the Colossal Beast . [1]
The film was rushed into production by AIP and Bert I. Gordon to capitalize on the popular success of Universal-International's The Incredible Shrinking Man , released the previous year in 1957. [2]
The doll manufacturing company Dolls Inc. is owned and operated by Mr. Franz, who has a personal collection of very lifelike dolls stored in glass canisters locked in a display case on a wall. Sally Reynolds answers a newspaper advertisement for a secretary position. Although unnerved by Franz’s extremely friendly and pushy manner, she is ultimately moved to take the job by his appeals over how short-handed the company is.
A traveling salesman, Bob Westley, comes to the office, and he and Sally develop a relationship. After working at the doll factory for several weeks, Bob makes a marriage proposal to Sally. He persuades her to quit her job, promising to break the news to Franz. [3]
The next day, however, Franz tells Sally that Bob has returned home to take care of extended business. She finds it completely implausible that Bob would abandon her in such a manner, and notices a new doll in Franz’s collection that looks just like Bob. She goes to the police, claiming that Franz has shrunken Bob and added him to his doll collection. Sergeant Paterson is skeptical until Sally names the secretary who preceded her and a postman she heard vanished after a visit to Dolls, Inc.; both are listed as missing persons. Confronted by Paterson, Franz says his dolls are all modeled on people he knows and shows him a complete run of Bob dolls to prove the resemblance to a shrunken Bob is meaningless.
Franz implores Sally to stay at Dolls, Inc. despite her reporting him to the police. When she refuses, he uses a machine to shrink her down to doll size. [4] He uses the shrinking machine on anyone who tries to leave him. All the "dolls" in his glass case are friends put in suspended animation. He revives Bob and four others as company for Sally.
During a welcoming party for the two newcomers, Franz is visited by his friend Emil, who wants Franz to repair his marionettes for an upcoming production. Franz mentions to Emil that he has been afraid of being abandoned ever since his wife left him, unconsciously explaining his “doll” abductions. The small prisoners have access to a phone, but their voices are too small to be heard over the phone lines, and loud music on a record player is drowning out their voices. Sergeant Paterson continues investigating Franz, with Sally and Bob now confirmed as missing. After Franz is questioned again by Paterson, he decides to kill his prisoners and himself before he is caught. He takes his "collection" to an old theater, supposedly to test his repairs made on Emil's marionette. There, he throws one final party, forcing his captives to act-out Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde .
The prisoners drug Franz’s coffee with one of the capsules used to keep them in suspended animation and escape while Franz is occupied with a theater worker. Separated from the others, Bob and Sally head to Franz's workshop, planning to go back for the others after using Franz’s device to restore themselves. Franz returns to his workshop, but not before they have returned to normal size. They go to the police, leaving a despondent Franz behind.
The film was shot under the title The Fantastic Puppet People. [5] Gordon said the title was changed to make the film more salable, since he targeted it primarily for teenagers. [3]
Director Bert I. Gordon's daughter, Susan Gordon, was a last-minute substitute for another child actress who was ill and unable to perform.[ citation needed ]
Because of the size-changing aspects of the plot, the film made extensive use of special effects and over-sized props. [6] These included a giant telephone borrowed from the phone company and a number of props made by Paul Blaisdell. [3] Split screen was also extensively used to make the "puppet people" appear miniature while in the same frame as normal-sized characters like Franz. [3]
According to actor Ken Miller, who played Stan, after doing the scene where Bob climbs down from the table, Bob (actor John Agar) was so sore that he could not move properly, and a masseur had to be brought in for him the following day. Miller likewise found climbing up to the doorknob arduous, since the rope he climbed was made of rubber that stretched as he climbed. [3]
A scene from The Amazing Colossal Man , another of Gordon's films, is shown playing on a drive-in theater screen.
The film's plot was reused for the French film Le Manteau de Glace. [7]
At the time of its release, the Los Angeles Times called the film "rather well-done minor-key science fiction", particularly praising the script. [3] Film critic Glenn Erickson wrote in Trailers From Hell that the "screenplay can’t do much with [the] shaky story premise," that the film "is a bizarre opportunity mostly missed, not because it’s silly but because it’s too tame — it doesn’t take any of its interesting ideas far enough," that "producer-director Gordon has bitten off such a large chunk of special effects that important pieces of his story go missing," and that the "effects are impressive for the cost outlay, but that makes them imaginative and resourceful, not necessarily Good or Effective." [8] Writing in AllMovie, critic Hal Erickson identified the film as "one of the few 'mad scientist' opuses of the 1950s to be motivated by loneliness rather than megalomania," but that "most of the acting is amateurish, with the exception of the always reliable John Hoyt; the special effects are somewhat better, but still nothing to write home about." [9] A review in TV Guide reported that "good miniature work and clever camera angles pull off the special effects, but the story is pretty silly and good only for laughs." [10]
Attack of the Puppet People was released on DVD by Warner Home Video as part of their Warner Archive collection. Shout Factory released the film November 14, 2017 on Region A Blu-ray. The transfer was made using a 2K scan of the film's interpositive, in its original widescreen 1:85:1 aspect ratio. Film historian Tom Weaver provides an audio commentary track. The film's theatrical release trailer is also included. Weaver and Dr. Robert J. Kiss talk about the making and distribution of the film on the audio commentary.
In the 1958 film Earth vs. the Spider , Gene Persson's character mentions the Attack of the Puppet People is playing at his father's theater during a phone call with June Kenney's character.
Donald Barthelme's 1961 short story "The Hiding Man" features two characters viewing the film.
The Watergate burglary lookout, Alfred C. Baldwin III, was watching Attack of the Puppet People on TV at the time of the break-in. Distracted by the film, he failed to notice a police car pulling up at the scene in time for his accomplices to make their escape. [11] This is portrayed in the HBO series The White House Plumbers . [12]
This same motif of shrinking people occurred in the British series The Avengers: Mission Highly Improbable. [13]
The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 American science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel, The Shrinking Man. The film stars Grant Williams as Scott and Randy Stuart as Scott's wife, Louise. While relaxing on a boat, Scott is enveloped by a strange fog. Months later, he discovers that he appears to be shrinking. By the time Scott has reached the height of a small boy, his condition becomes known to the public. When he learns there is no cure for his condition, he lashes out at his wife. As Scott shrinks to the point where he can fit into a dollhouse, he has a battle with his family cat, leaving him lost and alone in his basement, where he is now smaller than the average insect.
The Amazing Colossal Man is a 1957 American black-and-white science fiction film from American International Pictures. Produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, it stars Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, William Hudson, and Larry Thor. It is an uncredited adaptation of Homer Eon Flint's 1928 short science fiction novel The Nth Man. AIP theatrically released it as a double feature with Cat Girl.
The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a 1981 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Jane Wagner, and starring Lily Tomlin, Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty, John Glover, and Elizabeth Wilson. A parody of the 1957 science-fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man, it is credited as based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel, The Shrinking Man. The original music score was composed by Suzanne Ciani.
John George Agar Jr. was an American film and television actor. He is best known for starring alongside John Wayne in the films Sands of Iwo Jima, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. In his later career he was the star of B movies, such as Tarantula!, The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous, Revenge of the Creature, Flesh and the Spur and Hand of Death. He was the first husband of Shirley Temple.
Village of the Giants is a 1965 American teensploitation comedy science fiction film produced, directed and written by Bert I. Gordon. Based loosely on H. G. Wells's 1904 book The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, it contains elements of the beach party film genre. The story concerns a gang of rebellious teens who gain access to a chemical substance called "Goo", which causes living things to grow to gigantic proportions. The cast is composed almost entirely of teenaged actors and young adults portraying teenagers. Also making musical guest appearances are The Beau Brummels, Freddy Cannon, and Mike Clifford. Gordon would later direct another adaptation of Wells' story, titled The Food of the Gods.
Dr. Cyclops is a 1940 American science fiction horror film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Dale Van Every and Merian C. Cooper, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, and starring Thomas Coley, Victor Kilian, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Frank Yaconelli and Albert Dekker.
Bert Ira Gordon was an American filmmaker and visual effects artist. He is best known for screenwriting and producing and/or directing science fiction and horror B-movies such as King Dinosaur (1955), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Earth vs. the Spider (1958), Village of the Giants (1965), and Empire of the Ants (1977).
John Hoyt was an American actor. He began his acting career on Broadway, later appearing in numerous films and television series.
David W. Allen was an American film and television stop motion model (puppet) animator.
The Mole People is a 1956 American science fiction adventure horror film distributed by Universal International, which was produced by William Alland, directed by Virgil W. Vogel, and stars John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, and Cynthia Patrick. The story is written by László Görög. The film was released on December 1, 1956, on a double feature with their jungle adventure film Curucu, Beast of the Amazon. It has also been featured on episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Svengoolie.
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves is a 1997 American science fiction comedy film, and the third installment in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids film series. The film marks the directorial debut of cinematographer Dean Cundey, who previously served as director of photographer for a 4D ride known as Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! which debuted in 1994.
Tarantula is a 1955 American science-fiction monster film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars John Agar, Mara Corday, and Leo G. Carroll. The film is about a scientist developing a miracle nutrient to feed a rapidly growing human population. In its unperfected state, the nutrient causes extraordinarily rapid growth, creating a deadly problem when a tarantula test subject escapes and continues to grow larger and larger. The screenplay by Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley was based on a story by Arnold, which was in turn inspired by Fresco's teleplay for the 1955 Science Fiction Theatre episode "No Food for Thought", also directed by Arnold. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures as a Universal-International release, and reissued in 1962 through Sherman S. Krellberg's Ultra Pictures.
In science fiction, a shrink ray is any device which uses energy to reduce the physical size of matter. Many are also capable of enlarging items as well. A growth ray typically only has the ability to enlarge.
Dolls is a 1987 American horror film directed by Stuart Gordon, written by Ed Naha, and starring Stephen Lee, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Ian Patrick Williams, and Bunty Bailey. Its plot follows six people who seek shelter during a storm in the mansion of an elderly puppet maker and his wife, only to find that the various puppets and dolls in the home contain the imprisoned spirits of criminals. It was produced by Charles Band and Brian Yuzna through Band's Empire Pictures.
War of the Colossal Beast is a 1958 black-and-white science fiction film, written, produced, and directed by Bert I. Gordon for his Carmel Productions, and starring Dean Parkin, Sally Fraser, and Roger Pace. It is the sequel to Gordon's earlier The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and was distributed theatrically by American International Pictures as the bottom half of a double feature with Attack of the Puppet People. The film's storyline picks up where The Amazing Colossal Man left off, although it was not marketed as a sequel and features a different cast. The film's brief death-scene finale was filmed in color.
The Devil-Doll is a 1936 American horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan. The film was adapted from the novel Burn Witch Burn! (1932) by Abraham Merritt. It has become a cult film.
Earth vs. the Spider is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction horror film produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, who also provided the plot upon which the screenplay by George Worthing Yates and Laszlo Gorog was based. Though the title suggests a global crisis, the film focuses entirely on a small town being terrorized by a giant spider. The film stars Ed Kemmer, June Kenney and Eugene Persson. The special effects were by Bert I. Gordon and Paul Blaisdell. Earth vs. the Spider was released by American International Pictures as a double feature in different film markets with either The Brain Eaters or The Screaming Skull.
June Claire Sebastian was an American actress known for her work in B movies in the late 1950s.
Teenage Doll is a 1957 film noir directed by Roger Corman, starring June Kenney and John Brinkley. It was financed by Lawrence Woolner, who had previously made Swamp Women with Corman. One writer called it Corman's "most impressive teen flick".
Demonic Toys is a series of films that center on a collection of seemingly harmless playthings that are in reality the avatars of powerful demons from hell who seek to cause havoc in the mortal world.