MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958)

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Tuesday, February 11, 2020

ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958)

After going big with THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN/’57*, hack writer/director Bert I. Gordon goes small on a no-budget American-International release less shocker than shlocker. With that title and that poster, you expect something offbeat, even a little ‘out-there,’ but Gordon hasn’t the will, energy or imagination to do anything with his silly concept about puppet-master/doll-maker John Hoyt shrinking people he fears will leave him; packing them in vacuum tubes (for freshness?) so he’ll always have them around to ward off loneliness. With possibilities for sick kinky fun & violence largely ignored, there's only a little people hootenanny and a coffee-can bubble-bath for giggles. Poor John Agar must have questioned the sanity of his agent after this ‘small’ role.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Presumably inspired by Jack Arnold’s wickedly clever THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN/’57. OR: Surprisingly tasty horror from M-G-M and director Tod Browning (in a rare good sound film) as Lionel Barrymore takes his revenge on society in THE DEVIL-DOLL/’36. Actually, a whole bunch of Devil Dolls.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Gordon shamelessly cross-plugs, showing a clip from COLOSSAL MAN at a Drive-In.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE