meddlecore A mad biologist happens upon a deposit of uranium in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, and seeks to harness it, in order to miniaturize living things.But his senses are ailing (or he just wants outside confirmation); so he sends out for help from some of America's most renown experts in the field.They oblige, and trek deep into the jungle, only to discover that he only wanted their opinions on one simple experiment...after which he promptly asks them to leave.Angry and insulted, the group investigates a little and discovers he is experimenting with radium. They question him about this, but he is noticeably bothered by their inquiries.However, he does, eventually, disclose the nature of his experiments to them...but then locks them in the room...and miniaturizes them.He tries to keep them contained, but they escape...and are slowly growing back to normal size- making them a direct threat to him and his continued work.Now they are fleeing through the "rainforest", trying to escape, as the mad doctor attempts to hunt them down.This film is a 1940 special effects extravaganza, with all sorts of fancy uses of the greenscreen, illusory perspective shots (making everything seem large); puppets; and a fine attention to detail when it comes to production and set design.The plot is pretty straightforward, so you tend to focus mostly on the special effects. Though, I did feel the doctor was adequately mad enough. My only problem with this film is that stupid transition from them escaping, to having seemingly formed their own little civilization, within the span of a nap. That totally ruined the flow...which was good up until then.The concept is interesting (probably inspired Honey, I Shrunk The Kids), and the special effects are respectable (for the time); but the story is kind of bland. Though you've got to remember that it's from 1940- so it was certainly ahead of it's time.6 out of 10.

Woodyanders Brilliant, but deranged physicist Dr. Alexander Thorkel (splendidly played with deliciously wicked relish by Albert Dekker) shrinks his enemies down to miniature size after they take him to task for his unconventional experiments. Director Ernest Schoedsack, working from a taut and engrossing story by Tom Kilpatrick, relates the gripping story at a brisk pace, maintains a generally serious tone throughout, and builds a good deal of suspense and momentum. The bald, burly, and bespectacled Thorkel makes for a marvelously ruthless, haughty, and sinister mad scientist. While Dekker clearly dominates the movie with his sterling performance, his co-stars nonetheless do respectable work in their roles: Charles Halton registers strongly as Torkel's most gutsy and vehement opponent Dr. Rupert Bulfinch, Thomas Coley is likable enough as handsome layabout Bill Stockton, the lovely Janice Logan impresses as the feisty and resourceful Dr. Mary Robinson (and looks quite fetching in her purple toga), and Victor Kilian contributes a solid turn as gruff trail guide Steve Baker. The scenes with the tiny people fending off giant animals and fighting back against Thorkel are extremely tense and exciting. The nifty special effects hold up quite well. Henry Sharp's vivid Technicolor cinematography gives the picture a pleasingly vibrant look. The robust and rousing score by Gerard Carbonara, Ernst Toch, and Albert Hay hits the stirring spot. The tight 77 minute running time ensures that this movie never gets dull or overstays its welcome. An immensely fun film.

Robert J. Maxwell Albert Dekker is a reclusive mad scientist hiding away in a laboratory in the Peruvian jungle. Boy, are three scientists back in the states surprised to get an invitation from Dekker to join him. The three surprised scientists are Charles Holton, Janice Logan, and Thomas Coley. They make the arduous journey to Peru and are joined by a lowbrow miner, Victor Kilian, for reasons the script doesn't bother to deal with. At Dekker's laboratory they meet Pedro, Frank Yaconelli, a lovable and sometimes comic Peruvian peasant. I knew the minute I saw him that he was a tostada. That's the function of minorities in movies like this. Dekker, in a padded suit and thick spectacles, greets them and asks them to look through his microscope and tell him what they see. "Iron crystals." Thank you -- and good-bye. The visitors are aghast. They made this trip just so that they could spend 30 seconds looking through Dekker's microscope? Well -- yes. The scientists are offended and curious about what's going on. They discover that Dekker has built his lab next to a super-rich vein of radium ore, which he is using in experiments that shrink living organisms. When Dekker discovers that they have discovered the nature of his discovery, he shrinks them too. Alas, he finds that his now-shrunken five human beings are beginning to grow imperceptibly back to their normal size, so he asphyxiates one, blasts another with his shotgun, and pursues the remaining three until, with pluck and ingenuity, they send Dekker tumbling into a bottomless well. They grow back to normal size and return to civilization, vowing not to tell anyone because who would believe them? Who would believe them indeed? The set designer was obviously influenced by Universal's earlier monster movies because Dekker's lab is a crumbling stone affair like Frankenstein's castle. Most of the movie consists of the tiny humans running around, trying to escape. First they are dressed in white, toga-like strips of cloth, except for the Peruvian peasant who wears what appear to be diapers. Later, they appear in designer clothes of various colors, still modeled after the Romans, nicely tailored for Janice Logan, who looks awfully cute prancing around in her little ensemble.It's too bad she's not much of an actress, but then nobody in the story is particularly magnetic. Dekker huffs and puffs and does everything but cackle like a maniac. Thomas Coley, as the male lead, is a lankylooking galoot, to borrow a phrase, whose performance is actually embarrassing. To be fair, nobody could do much with the dialog. For some reason the main players don't use contractions when they speak, so that "can't" is always "can not", and "I'll" is always "I will." I don't know how important any of that is, though, or whether it was important at all to contemporary audiences. The special effects are the thing. And considering the period, they're not too bad: mattes, rear projection, over-sized sets -- sometimes a combination of effects. Not as good as "King Kong," but still an extravaganza for the 1930s. And it's in Technicolor too. (Supervised by the ubiquitous Natalie Kalmus, who never contributed anything to Technicolor except her name.) Winton Hoch, a real scientist, had a hand in the photography. He was later to win awards with films like John Ford's "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon." The runaways survive all kinds of threats or, in some cases, they don't. They're attacked by cats, alligators, a berserk blind man, and they're threatened by a chicken. Only Pedro's faithful dog plays it straight with them, man's best friend after all.One wonders if the people who made "The Incredible Shrinking Man" saw this film. It's difficult to believe they didn't. The improvised togas look familiar, and there's that pet cat, Satana, who tries to eat them in a frightening scene.An amusing diversion.

MartinHafer This is an awfully entertaining and unique film, though it does seem a bit reminiscent of THE DEVIL DOLL. Both are wonderful films about slightly mad people who have a secret for shrinking people and both excel due to exceptional special effects. However, this movie is one where the mad doctor doesn't actually intend to shrink a group of outsiders--at least not initially. A small group of people trek through the Andes to a very remote region to meet a brilliant scientist who is doing experiments with radium. However, even though they were invited, the doctor soon tells them to get lost!!! The people went through a lot to get there and are understandably irked at the doc. So, because the people refuse to leave and the doc is at heart a real jerk, he decides to use his evil shrink ray to make them all itsy-bitsy (about a pound or so each)! Now so far, the film is pretty interesting and could have degenerated into a lousy B-movie (like in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE). However, decent writing really saved the film. Instead of the little people just running away or trying to save themselves (which they initially do), they decide to stay and fight! This really helped the film and made the shrunken people more 3-dimensional and people you could care about and root for in the film. And all this is done using what were, for the time, exceptional special effects. About the only problem, and boy is it minor, is that at one point an American Aligator attacks the little folks. Sure, they aren't native to South America, but this is such a tiny quibble, who cares?? An entertaining film for kids and adults like me who just haven't chosen to grow up!!