JOHN AGAR AND JUNE KENNEY IN 'ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE'

Attack of the Puppet People Year: 1958 Rates: ****

A better-suited title for ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE would be A CASE OF DOLLS, and literally as dollmaker John Hoyt places real people, from strangers to former employees to, as tiny hero John Agar goes, an employee's fiance, into sealed packages, and all with one thing in common...

Their last mistake was entering the dollmaker's backroom where a sci-fi genre laser-cannon awaits; and although director Bert I. Gordon — aptly nicknamed Mr. Big since his forte was either extra large/small protagonists in a normal sized world — is known as being campy and silly, he can tell a pretty decent story, and this is one of his best, save for that vapid title since they're NOT Puppets (although there's one creepy Dr. Jekyll puppet) and never attack anyone, being totally harmless as the best sequence has the passive ensemble realizing they're all stuck together in a world that consists of a huge dial-up telephone and a phonograph... 

A sixpack of John Agars in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE

They have a nightly recess so their mostly polite captor isn't all that bad, just lonely, and his initial kinship with secretary June Kenney is pathetically endearing... It's just too bad we couldn't hang out with these dolls... ranging from a vain beauty to a young girl singer to a soldier to a cool teenager (TOUCH OF EVIL hophead/beatnik Ken Miller)... for longer...

Their interaction is so relaxing, it's a shame they decide to escape so soon, which is understandable, and also quite suspenseful but... Mr. Big knew how to make the most of his character's downtime, no matter what size.

June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE

Marlene Wells and Laurie Mitchell w/ John Hoyt

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE with Ken Miller

Laurie Mitchell and Marlene Willis in Attack of the Puppet People

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE

Attack of the Puppet People case of Dolls

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE with Jekyll Doll

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE

John Agar and June Kenney with not-a-doberman like the poster in Attack of the Puppet People

John Agar and June Kenney in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE watching more BIG