Purely Joyful Movie!

not horrible nor great

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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).

Bert I. Gordon (BIG) stands out as one of the more successful grade-Z auteurs of 1950's films, having made within a few short years a slew of monster/scifi ultra low budget films, all of which involve fantastical changes in the size of people or animals. BIG never made films as good or subversive as Roger Corman, but BIG made a lot of super-cheap films in a short time that made money, provided employment for actors, and provided material for drive-in theaters.Most of the BIG films involve people or animals that become giants, but this one involves a mad toy-maker who shrinks people so as to fulfill some kind of weird personal fetish. There is a crisis point about 2/3 way through this film where Mad Scientist Hoyt decides he must kill his shrunken pets...there is a hint of genuine horror at this point, and I was reminded of the real-life horror the Andrea Yates case, herself guilty of infanticide and simulatanously a victim of both poor mental health and fundamentalist religion. BIG borrows heavily here, from sources as wide-ranging as the Bride of Frankenstein to The Incredible Shrinking Man, as his visuals go. As far as BIG's patented FX techniques go, this is one of his more refined pieces, along with War of the Collosil Beast.Eternally geriatric John Hoyt, who was good in 'When Worlds Collide' and as Gene Roddenberry's original choice for the doctor of the starship Enterprise, plays the mad villain, and does a fine job of it. Hoyt's performance holds the film together, and despite the mad scientist schtick, he is ultimately more engaging than John Agar, to whom I have assigned the title World's Most Unlikable Actor.This is standard, mid-grade BIG fare, which is to say, an enjoyable waste of time for those who enjoy Drive-In era films. The story is not terribly complicated, and I think BIG padded things out so that this film would have sufficient running time for theatrical release, otherwise it could have been done as an episode of the Twilight Zone.BIG made this film for peanuts. Ten years after its release, TV schlockmeister Irwin Allen tweaked the concept slightly, and made the series 'Land of the Giants,' which at the time was the most expensive TV show ever produced, and ultimately much more tiresome than this quaint artifact.

***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.