- Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack
- Writer: Tom Kilpatrick
- Stars: Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 16 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/2KrV2gT
Commentary
Dr. Mendoza comes in and asks Dr. Thorkel about his work. It’s a success! He used radium to destroy his subject but keep it alive. Mendoza gives him “there are some things men were not meant to know” speech, but Thorkel wants to reshape life. “It’s diabolic!” Shouts Mendoza. Thorkel pushes Mendoza into the radium machine, quickly killing him.
Thorkel is said to be the world’s leading biologist, and his lab is hidden in the Amazon Rainforest. Dr. Bulfinch is heading down there to become his new assistant, and Mary Robinson is going along to handle microscopic work. They pick up a mineralogist, Bill Stockton, along the way; they have to blackmail him into coming along. Baker, the mule-team leader insists on going along as well. Pedro, a stereotypical Mexican character, is already there as a non-science worker for Dr. Thorkel – taking care of the property and so forth.
Thorkel has really bad vision and wears huge, thick glasses. He’s requested assistants because he can’t see to do the work any more, especially in the microscope. They almost immediately find a problem with Thorkel’s work which he sets about correcting. Thorkel then dismisses the whole group; that’s all he needed them for. They are not pleased.
Baker finds a secret mine, but has no idea what’s in it. We see Thorkel playing with a tiny horse, about one foot long. He’s invented some kind of shrinking process. The next morning, Bulfinch finds a miniature pig only about four inches long. It’s one of Thorkel’s cast-offs.
The group sneaks into Thorkel’s lab and reads his notes. Thorkel freaks out, but then he apologizes and explains what he’s been doing with the radium from the mine. He shows them his “condenser” that shrinks animals. He tells them all to examine it closely. Once they’re all in there, he locks the door and turns on the machine. Suckers!
Later, we see Thorkel picking up the leftover clothing from our group. He goes down into the cellar and unlocks the door; his cat follows him down there. All five people have shunk down to about a foot tall. They try to escape, but can’t get up the stairs fast enough. He’s very pleased that they survived the process with their physical and mental abilities apparently still intact.
Thorkel goes to sleep, and the others manage to get outside. The cat attacks, and they all hide in a cactus until Pedro’s dog comes to the rescue. Bulfinch says “We are prisoners in Cyclop’s cave!” Thorkel finds that the little people are very slowly growing – potentially back to normal size, and that concerns him; He kills Bulfinch. The others escape the compound out into the jungle.
They find Pedro’s boat and start to lever it into the river, but an alligator spots them. They fight off the alligator, but Thorkel and the dog are hunting them now. Thorkel shoots Pedro and demands the others come out of hiding. They hide in his sample basket, and he carries them right back to the lab, not even realizing he had them. They get out of the bag quickly enough and now they decide to fight back.
Thorkel goes to sleep again, and the little folks steal his glasses. Thorkel has spares, but they’ve hidden those as well. They break one lens of his remaining pair; now he’s truly Dr. Cyclops, with only one good eye. He chases them out through the jungle again, and he falls into the radium well and dies. Months later, the three survivors walk back to town, fully regrown.
Synopsis
It was made in 1939, in color, so it had to have been expensive. Much of that color seemed to be invested in the flickery-laser effect used to portray the effects of Thorkel’s radium machine. Once again, all the strangeness is attributed to radium, the only radioactive material most people had heard about. Naturally, everyone carries around the rocks containing radium with their bare hands.
Thorkel’s outfits inspired any number of retro-futuristic mad-scientist artwork. Just about anything with goggles looks based on his appearance. The special effects are really well done. We never see the process of shrinking but the scenes of the big doctor and the little people are excellent, especially for an early color film. Giant props, hands, animals, and sets all work together to look realistic. It’s all very entertaining with a classic feel, and I’m surprised this one isn’t more iconic than it is.