Monday, October 15, 2012

ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE / Alta Vista Productions - 1958

It's another Monster Monday Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's little thriller features John Agar in a Mr. BIG production that I actually saw at the time it came out! Bert had produced THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN before this one and produced WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST next. This is a redo post from a few years ago...

Eegah!! sent over a swingin' soundclip from the flick by one of our favorite monster movie composers, the amazing Albert Glasser, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located across from the big stuffed bat that's next to the crosswalk, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE!

The story's about a deranged elderly doll-maker who doesn't like being alone, so, he creates a machine that can shrink humans down to a few inches tall! He has a small troupe of shrunken prisoners to entertain him when he's lonely, but, when he shrinks his new secretary and her fiance, they decide to try and find a way to escape and re-enlarge themselves. Here's John (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD) Hoyt as crazy old Mr. Franz, he has just hired Sally Reynolds, played by June (EARTH vs THE SPIDER) Kenney, to replace the secretary he just recently shrunk down and added to his collection.

Enter John as Bob Westley, a buyer who frenquents the establishment. He puts the make on Sally first thing!

This is great! They go to the drive-in and watch THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, well, kinda watch...

When Sally gets a gander of the new doll line created by Mr. Franz, well, she puts two and two together!

So, Mr. Franz pulls out his shrinking ray and pushes the big red 'GO' button!

She wakes up in terror, aparently undressed and redressed by the old pervert. Gee, I wonder if he inspected her while he was at it! By the way, that rotary telephone prop looks effin' for real!

Alright, the gang's all here! That's Laurie (QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE) Mitchell, Ken (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) Miller and Jack (CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS) Kosslyn as the other victims. Mr. Franz serves them champagne and makes them perform and dance to the swinging music heard in the soundclip!

While the doll maker is distracted, Bob tries to enlarge himself back to normal size before he comes back...

Stan watches through the key hole to warn Bob if Mr. Franz returns. Unfortunately, Franz returns too quickly for Bob to re-enlarge. The doll makers only friend is the distracting Micheal (THE WASP WOMAN / RETURN OF THE FLY) Marks, we love Michael, here at The Dungeon!

There are the pesky detective and the little girl who saw a mini kitty that really bug him, always asking too many questions. The girl is played by Bert's daughter, Susan, who was also in TORMENTED.

At one point, Mr. Franz gives the gang a marionette show, but, Bob comes in and beats the crap out of the puppet!

Bob and Sally escape into the streets, where everything's your enemy!

Bob figures out a clever plan, get inside a box to be delivered to Mr. Franz, and, the rest is just gravy! Mr. Franz quietly stands there and waits for the police to arrive!

3 comments:

A Moose said...

John Hoyt- one of the most under rated character actors.

MDG14450 said...

This is available streaming everywhere, but I've been putting it off--Incredible Shrinking Man aside, I'm not a fan of mini-people movies. That scene at the drive-in makes it tempting, though.

Anonymous said...

@ "MDG"...Absolutely no comparison to Matheson's "Incredible Shrinking Man"...either film or book....

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