Diagonaldi Very well executed

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

dougdoepke 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.

LeonLouisRicci Somewhat Charming with a couple of Terrifying Scenes, this MR. BIG(an affectionate nickname for Director and SFX wizard Bert I. Gordon) Movie is Entertaining enough and the Director sure knew How to use Props and Mattes for some Low Budget Thrills.His Movies always had a "Look". A High Contrast Otherworldly Appearance that gave His Stuff an Ethereal Atmosphere of Another Place in Time Space. This one is a Cute "Little" Story about a Lonely Man, John Hoyt, in a Soft Spoken Endearing Performance, that "Makes" His own Friends by Scientifically Shrinking Anyone He "Likes having around.".There are some Good Action Scenes when the "Dolls" Escape and a few Interesting Scenes with a Cat, a Dog, and a Jekyll and Hyde Marionette. Overall, Worth a Watch for Fans of B-Movies, Drive-In Fare, Fifties Psychotronic Pictures.

ferbs54 As most psychotronic-film fans already know, producer/director/FX man Bert I. Gordon was not called Mr. B.I.G. for his acronym alone. From the mid-1950s until at least 1965, Gordon was the creator of a string of entertainments featuring over-sized protagonists, including 1955's "King Dinosaur" (giant, uh, dinosaurs); 1957's "Beginning of the End" (giant grasshoppers), "The Cyclops" (a radiation-spawned giant mutant in a Mexican cave) AND "The Amazing Colossal Man" (a plutonium-blasted giant mutant, to cap off a big year for Mr. B.I.G.!); 1958's "War of the Colossal Beast" (the sequel to "The Amazing Colossal Man," in which giant Colonel Manning returns, albeit with a more messed-up face) and "Earth vs. the Spider" (a giant arachnid); and 1965's "Valley of the Giants" (giant teenagers). Tucked in amongst these outsized films, perhaps inspired by the great success of the sci-fi classic "The Incredible Shrinking Man" in 1957 or maybe just a desire to do something different, Gordon switched gears a bit and, in 1958, gave the world "Attack of the Puppet People." In this one, John Hoyt plays a doll maker named Mr. Franz. A former marionette worker in Europe, Franz has lately led a lonely existence, due to his wife having ditched him years back, in Luxembourg, for an acrobat. Now working in L.A., Franz devises a method of ensuring that none of his companions will ever leave him again. As his salesman (John Agar) and pretty new secretary (June Kenny) soon discover, Franz has invented a new gizmo that enables him to shrink people and objects down to doll size; when not playing with his "toys," the kindly old kook keeps them in glass tubes in a state of suspended animation. A BIG problem for his little friends!Anyway, it must be said here that, fun as Gordon's picture is, it is but a pip-squeak when compared to "The Incredible Shrinking Man." Unlike the superb FX featured in that earlier film, the FX in "Puppet People" range from well done (Agar climbing a chest of drawers) to shoddy (that teeny cat in Franz' palm). The picture would be infinitely better if Hoyt exhibited a bit more maniacal menace, rather than coming off as the insane Mister Rogers that Eccentric Cinema has so aptly called him. The film's ending is something of a rushed anticlimax, too, and Franz' ultimate fate was not a satisfying one, for this viewer. A harsher form of cosmic retribution would have been more appropriate. Still, the film remains fun. How great to see actress Laurie Mitchell, who I had only seen before as the superscarred "Queen of Outer Space," here playing a glamour-girl little person (VERY little person, that is!). And how funny is it that Agar and Kenny sit in a drive-in theatre watching "The Amazing Colossal Man" as Agar proposes marriage, with Colonel Manning's line "I'm not growing...you're shrinking" booming from the speakers and coming as some cruel portent of fate? Turns out that Mr. B.I.G. could also go small, and with highly entertaining results....

johnc2141 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.