hyped garbage

Better Late Then Never

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

People are disappearing and it seems to center around a doll-maker's office-repair shop. Sweet young Sally applies as receptionist at the office and marvels at the life-like detail of the owner's array of dolls. Maybe this is a job she shouldn't have taken.Oddball slice of 50's sci-fi. Franz (Hoyt) may be a mad scientist, but he's hardly the standard cruel stereotype. Nonetheless, with an infernal machine, he does shrink people down to doll size and keep them in little glass cylinders. But, he's not power- mad like the usual nutcase. Instead, he's a lonely old man who must have company when he needs it. Thus his human dolls can be resuscitated at will so he can watch them party and have a good time. His situation is rather poignant instead of infernal. He really means them no harm, though he's clearly lost perspective.Rather surprisingly, Hoyt is excellent as the benighted Franz. The actor usually plays cruel types, but here he's almost genial and without a single snarl. Special effects are simple—an unobtrusive split screen separating the normal from the miniature. Thus, we get the two worlds coming together on the same screen. However somebody should have caught the fleeting shadow cast against a process screen near movie's end. I confess to liking this cheap indie, maybe because it breaks so many of the mad scientist rules. Nonetheless, the title is misleading and I can see 50's drive-in hot- rodders and their dates feeling cheated from a lack of scary scenes to cuddle up over.

While not a classic, this is one of the better AIP sci-fi films of the 50s. John Hoyt does a great job playing the lonely doll maker shrinking real people that he likes to provide him company in an apparently lonely life. The sets and props(for AIP standards)were quite good. On the "fun facts" mentioned on the DVD case, they refer to the "War of the Colossal Beast" as the film Bob and Sally watched at the drive-in. While that film was co-billed with this one, the film that they were actually watching was "The Amazing Colossal Man" of which the co-bill to "Puppet People" was the sequel. The"Midnite Movies" DVD edition of this film is excellent with a sharp image and great contrast. The film is presented in it's original aspect ratio (1:33).

***SPOILERS*** Director Bert I. Gordon went from making movies about 60 foot giants like "The Amazing Colossal Man" to 6 inch human puppets in "The Attack of the Puppet People" within the space for a year in order to show his versatility as a film maker. Unlike in Gordon's "Colossal Man" where Glenn Manning went nuts when he found out that he'll never return to his original size in the "Puppet People" the diminutive human beings came to their senses and revolted against the person who made them small doll manufacture Dr. Franz, John Hoyt, by making him pay for what he did to them.Lead by super salesman Bob Weshey,John Agar, and his fiancée Sally Reynolds, June Kennedy, Franz's secretary the puppets revolted against their master Mr.Franz when they found out that the crazy and mixed up guy was planning to do them in together with himself after an encore performance of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" that they were to star, as puppeteers, in! Franz who thought that he was in fact loved by his puppets got the surprise of his life when he found out that they in fact hated his guts!It was with this cockamamie device that he invented, a hopped up photo enlarger, that changes and rearranges a persons molecular structure that Franz was able to turn full size human beings into six inch puppets. Fraz came up with this idea after his old lady checked out on him back in Luxembourg with an acrobat at the circus that he, with his puppet show, was preforming in! Feeling alone and unwanted Franz felt that turning people into puppets or dolls would fill the gap or void of loneliness that he got when his old lady left him. Instead it turned him into a crazed and power driven maniac who not only threatened the lives of those whom he was in control of, his puppets, but both his own life, and sanity, as well! That he was more then ready to throw away together with his live puppets before the cops and men with the white suites and butterfly nets broke into his secret laboratory! And thus took his away in a straight jacket to the nearest mental institution for both treatment and mental observation!

As many times as i watch attack of the puppet people,i enjoy it every time.its one of those fun American international pictures from the fabulous fifties.although not as good or as expensive as incredible shrinking man its brilliance on a shoestring budget,great b-movie actors;John Agar(tarantula,revenge of the creature)John Hoyt(x the man with x-ray eyes)June Kenney(earth vs the spider)and yes Hank Patterson(Zeb on green acres)i enjoyed the 50's music and soundtrack from the late great;Albert Glasser.who scored many great 50's movies. OK the plot really simple a meek mad doll maker(Hoyt)hires secretaries and shrinks them to doll size,not to mention others like a teen queen,a marine,and even a cat.he shrinks the mailman but you never see him after he is shrunk.the mad doll maker keeps him in his jar i guess. well there are some good props and good special effects from b-movie maker;Bert I Gordon like a giant rat,cat and dog.this movie was originally shown on a double bill with the amazing colossal man. from the b-movie kings at A.I.P.(James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff) too bad its a short movie.Micheal Mark is also in this movie as the mad doll makers friend from Germany,a puppeteer.Micheal Mark was in the original Frankenstein,and later in the wasp woman.a great character actor.i know most critics would think I'm crazy for giving this 8 out of 10,but ill say this,to each his(or her)own.puppet people is a fun movie.