1940 Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack
Four explorers are summoned to Peru by the brilliant physicist Dr Thorkel. They discover a rich source of radium and a half-mad Thorkel who shrinks them down to one-fifth their normal size when they threaten to stop his unorthodox experimentation.
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1940 Marathon - Film #17
Honey, I shrunk the scientists.
”Strange how absorbed man has always been in the size of things”
This film from the makers of King Kong is all about the Oscar nominated visuals! It was one of the first horror films made in full three-strip Technicolor and it looks fantastic. You can tell a lot of care went into the effects and the sets to make everything look as believable as possible. The colors and set design are great to look at and there’s some of the best compositing examples I’ve seen from this era.
Sadly though, to a modern eye, the story’s pretty repetitive and kinda boring as most of the film…
Technicolor is fondly associated with the vivid, glossy look that movies in the 40s began to take shape in. Getting it right enough to be profitable took some ironing out, as many of the earliest versions of it, using a red-green additive system, were abandoned as weaker competitors emerged to diminish the novelty and the Great Depression caused the film industry to be seen as frivolous with other matters to worry about, with those first attempts merely coinciding. Attempts to horrify people in these bright colors were limited to weak mystery hybrids like Doctor X or Mystery of the Wax Museum, but it was here with Dr. Cyclops, at a point where the three-strip technicolor process was rolled out and…
I love how Dr. Thorkel asks three people to travel no less than 10,000 miles to meet him somewhere deep in the jungle, talks to them for only a couple of minutes and then basically tells them to fuck off. I can see how that could irritate a person. This guy is something else. Eloquent but rude, totally obsessed and his appearance -big round bald head and thick glasses- is simply unforgettable. He looks even better when he's doing his shady business. It results in a few eerie scenes early on, but as far as horror goes, that's about it. By now the rest feels more like an adventure-comedy than anything else.
No problem though. The formal dialogue in combination…
“Yes, I’ll sign your petition to reestablish the unfairly neglected “Dr. Cyclops” as a forgotten classic of pulp filmmaking. Is there any way I can give money as well?”
(4th movie in Hooptober Ocho/2021)
Three scientists are summoned to the Peruvian jungle laboratory of Dr. Alexander Thorkel, only to learn that he is engaged in nefarious experiments using radium ore. Fearing that these visitors, their jungle guide, and a suspicious servant are going to interfere with his work, the sinister doctor locks them in his atomic ray chamber and shrinks each of them down to 14 inches tall. The only hope for our five miniaturized protagonists is to escape before their megalomaniac tormentor can dispose of them, but the surrounding wilderness is full of formerly ordinary threats that are now all the more menacing from their tiny perspectives. They must also deal with Dr. Thorkel's hungry cat.
The 1940 science fiction horror extravaganza, Dr.…
Hooptober 6.0, p.37- All the Better to See you With!
10/6- 6 Decades (COMPLETE!)
13/6- Countries Represented (USA, UK, Italy, Mexico, Germany, France, Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan, Argentina, Spain) (COMPLETE!)
13/6- Films before 1966 (COMPLETE!)
1st Ernest B. Schoedsack
One of the lesser known collaborations between the men who gave you King Kong, Dr. Cyclops is an enjoyable, special-effects filled sci-fi horror (though it's more horror-adjacent than actual horror) that stands up well to the test of time. The plot is a fairly simple affair- a group of scientists visit a reclusive colleague in the Amazon jungle, who, when pushed to reveal his research to them, shrinks them down and attempts to kill them.
The editing and camera…
Relativ unbekannter Genrebeitrag des "King Kong" und "Graf Zaroff" Regisseurs Ernest B. Schoedsack zur Schrumpfmenschenthematik, wie sie später Jack Arnold mit seinem "Incredible Shrinking Man" zur Berühmtheit brachte.
Die Rückproeffekte, Riesenrequisiten und Matte Paintings sehen auch heute noch toll aus und das grünstichige Technicolorbild, verleiht dem peruanischen Dschungelset eine wunderschöne Patina.
Der Darsteller des titelgebenden Professors, Albert Dekker, machte später als Politiker und auf Grund seines skurrilen und sehr rätselhaften Todes von sich Reden. Spannend also nicht nur vor, sondern auch hinter der Kamera!
Weak-eyed mad scientist Albert Dekker summons some colleagues to the Peruvian jungle to help him look into some microscopes. When they demand to know more about his project, he shrinks them mouse-sized with radiation.
This will be nothing new if you've seen any other shrinking-people movies, but its time-stamp makes it vital. Hokey though it is, the effects and tone are pretty groundbreaking, and the Technicolor gives it visual flair to burn. Really, though, it's all about Dekker, lumbering about his jungle lab with his bald head and thick glasses, crushing anyone who stands in the way of his research, ranting about the glory of science and generally setting the bar for every movie mad scientist to come.
A technicolor neon green nightmare about a mad scientist that shrinks things.
Vibrant nonsense colors, and an exaggerated idea of Peru.
The sets rule. All the fake leaves and rocks you can handle. Then once our heros shrink you got a giant cactus, boxes, tables, and chairs. Something about see things that are so ridiculous and fake just makes me happy.
And! And! Our miniature heros actually kill the mad scientist! It's all pretty awesome.
“Now you can call me Doctor Cyclops, because I have one good eye.”
It sure was nice of the good doctor to spell it out for the characters. What we have here is a Bert I. Gordon premise about twenty years before its time and granted a budget big enough to support both its ambitious visual effects and color film. The resulting adventure is quite exciting, keeping its foot on the gas for nearly the whole way. It doesn’t boast exceptional characters, but the doctor is sinister and delights in his tormenting his unwilling test subjects. It’s a solid genre blend that feels well ahead of its time with both its premise and effects.
Added to:
• 1940s Horror — D Edward Ranks (19 / 59)
I’ve enjoyed this movie since watching it multiple times during TCM horror marathons when I was a kid. Watching it now it’s more sci-fi and special effects spectacle than horror, but it’s still great fun. Albert Dekker makes for a cool mad scientist, more serious than crazy. Not as good as The Incredible Shrinking Man, but that would be hard to do.
Dr. Cyclops (1940), a cool and cheesy color horror where Ernest B. Schoedsack re-use a lot of the same special effect logics as he used for King Kong (1933). While this time the staging are a little simpler, it works just as excellent! Albert Dekker captures the imagination as the mad doctor, but the rest of the cast is bland and just there to be captured and minimized into the world Dr. Cyclops. With a bigger budget I'm sure they could have made it even more adventurous, but as far as 1940 horror films this one is unique.
