Product Description

After threatening audiences with , director-producer-special-effects "whiz" Bert I. Gordon again proves that size does matter in his revamp of for American International Pictures. John Hoyt, the wheelchair-bound tycoon from , is Mr. Franz, a lonely doll maker who reduces anyone who abandons him to doll-size. How Franz, a former puppeteer, could accomplish this scientific marvel is never explained, but Franz's collection (who, in an oddly unsettling scene, are forced to participate in a marionette show) include his salesman Bob (John Agar, by now an established B-movie staple) and secretary (June Kenny, from Gordon's ) as well as a handful of strangers (including Ken Miller from and the Queen of Outer Space herself, Laurie Mitchell). As always, Gordon's limitations overshadow his intentions, and his direction and atrocious effects (AIP monster maker Paul Blaisdell is credited with "special design"), as well as the script by SF hack George Worthing Yates (), undo the film's few laudable aspects, chief among them Hoyt's sympathetic performance. However, his self-promotional skills are topnotch--Bob and Sally see on their drive-in date. won't impress younger audiences, but parents raised on a diet of drive-in fodder will appreciate its pulpy plot and solid genre cast. Filmed as , it was retitled after being paired on a double bill with . MGM's full-screen print looks excellent, with only mild speckling.