Dr. Cyclops |
  • USA • 1940 • 77m •    • Directed by: Ernest B. Schoedsack. • Starring: Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Victor Kilian, Frank Yaconelli, Paul Fix, Frank Reicher, Jane Webb, William Wilkerson. • Music by: Gerard Carbonara, Albert Hay Malotte, Ernst Toch.      A mad scientist who invents a radium machine that enables him to shrink animals and humans. A group of engineers and biologists are captured and reduced to miniatures when they stumble upon Dr. Cyclops' secret laboratory in South America. Afterwards, danger looms large for the tiny travelers as they escape through the jungle, the evil doctor in hot pursuit.
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Review:
The reclusive Dekker wants to continue his evil experiments in private, killing one rival, and turning a group of people trying to stop him by simply shrinking them to doll size versions of themselves, placing them in a world of terror that we as full grown men and women do not understand. However, in the world of the film of Dr. Cyclops, the audience is put into their shoes, seeing what would happen, if all of a sudden we were 110 of our size, or as it often seems 150 of Cyclops' size. With Dekker sleeping nearby, the little people escape his clutches, manage to avoid a ferocious cat, and end up outside where the most vicious thunderstorm hits all at once, showing the audience the fear of full grown animals who even in their own element are petrified. Shots of two spider monkeys consoling each other in a tree, lions, bears, various birds, and other wildlife critters, is intertwined with the footage of the miniature victims of Dekker's evil plans to find shelter.
The doctor himself takes great glee in teasing these men and women over their predicament, informing one of the victims that they are about to be attacked by a giant rooster. The special effects are outstanding, and the cleverness of these little people is as equal as in the evil of Dekker's mad scientist. The tension arises in how these creatures will deal with their plight, and how they will ultimately stop Dekker from continuing his mad reign of terror. Filmed in beautiful color, Dr. Cyclops is one of the gems of its era, and is a must for all fans of science fiction and horror.
There's also the presence of an adorable loyal dog who looks at his master in bewilderment as he sees him as a tiny version of himself, too confused to acknowledge him but still trained in loyalty to see him as anything else but who the dog knows him to be. The fate of this one particular character is quite tragic, and the impact of what. Of what the Cyclops does will immediately affect you.
Unlike the earlier "The Devil Doll" which had little creatures being used by Lionel Barrymore to cause paralysis to their victims, and the later "Incredible Shrinking Man". Dr Cyclops uses a great deal of imagination in addition to intelligence to create a story that while fantastic and beyond belief, is a reminder that human beings should there not head down this path of knowledge, and find out secrets which God intends we do not find out. I am glad that this is never been remade, because no film creator could ever hope to reproduce the impact that this film has had, and it remains a true sleeper of the science fiction and horror genre.
Review by mark.waltz from the Internet Movie Database.
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