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Year: 1940 Production: Paramount Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack Starring: Albert Dekker, Janice Logan, Thomas Coley, Charles Halton, Victor Kilian, Frank Yaconelli Screenwriter: Tom Kilpatrick Novelization (1940) by Alexander Samalman 75 minutes; Color
A mad scientist in the Peruvian jungle is using radioactivity to miniaturize living things, and shrinks some US explorers who find his laboratory to an average height of 30cm. Made by the director of King Kong (1933), Dr Cyclops is a fast-paced, visually inventive film (though the dialogue is leaden), largely taken up by desperate efforts to survive a series of perils. Dekker's portrayal of the ruthless Dr Thorkel - shaven head, bulky body, thick-lensed glasses - as the "god" toying sadistically with his little creations before casually destroying them is truly menacing; whether by design or accident, he resembles what was become the caricature of the "beastly Jap" during WWII. The illusion of miniaturization - supervised by Farciot Edouart, one of the innovators in the area of trick photography - is very convincing. |
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