Dr. Cyclops [Blu-ray]

Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack Ernest B. Schoedsack

Overview

In this film, the evil Dr. Thorkel (Albert Dekker) has developed a way to shrink people to a minuscule size and sets about inflicting his experiments on everyone he can find.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/07/2020
UPC:	0738329237271
Original Release:	1940
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:17:00
Sales rank:	28,640

Special Features

Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith; Trailer from Hell with Jesus Trevino; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Albert Dekker	Dr. Thorkel
Janice Logan	Dr. Mary Robinson
Thomas Coley	Bill Stockton
Charles Halton	Dr. Bulfinch
Victor Kilian	Steve Baker
Frank Yaconelli	Pedro
Billy Wilkerson	Silent Indian
Douglas Carter	Cab Driver
Paul Fix	Dr. Mendoza
Frank Reicher	Prof. Kendall
Allen Fox	Cab Driver
Gerard Carbonara	Composer
Albert Hay Malotte	Composer
Ernst Toch	Composer

Technical Credits

Tom Kilpatrick

Farciot Edouart	Special Effects
Gordon Jennings	Special Effects
W. Wallace Kelley	Special Effects
William LeBaron	Executive Producer
Ernest B. Schoedsack	Director
Dale Van Every	Producer
Merian Cooper	Producer
Tom Kilpatrick	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Ernest B. Schoedsack, who had earlier co-directed King Kong, once explained that the entire technical side of Dr. Cyclops had been "plotted on blueprints before shooting began," a common enough method today, but apparently unusual in 1940. The result is one of those early science fiction-thrillers that it is very hard to dislike. Although the once so frightening aspects of the tale may have been lessened by later explorations into the art of shrinking living tissue -- The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957 immediately comes to mind -- Dr. Cyclops remains an entertaining treatise on the subject. It is still fun to watch a group of stock company players deal with the sudden dangers of giant-sized household items and one can still marvel at the obvious ingenuity that went into making the film, Albert Dekker's rather obvious mechanical hand notwithstanding. Unfortunately, the story that screenwriter Tom Kilpatrick concocted and the performances of the mostly unknown cast are routine at best, and the garish Technicolor seems an unnecessary addition.