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After the Comic: Movie History, Cast & 3 Surprising Facts
After the Comic: Little People, Big Trouble
Old School BJ here! Those little folks carrying off my popcorn have the right idea: when the world gets too big, bring friends. Attack of the Puppet People (1958) turns that joke into a wonderfully strange nightmare. Imagine needing a rescue plan just to get off a desk. Suddenly, my snack bowl looks less like refreshments and more like a mountain range.
Produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, this black-and-white American International Pictures release runs about 79 minutes. AFI records filming in late October and early November 1957, with George Worthing Yates writing the screenplay from Gordon’s story. Its working title was The Fantastic Puppet People. The finished picture belongs to the era when an ordinary laboratory could produce an extraordinary problem before anybody thought to call an inspector.
The people behind the little people
Bob Westley
Mr. Franz
Sally Reynolds
Director, pictured with Susan and Flora
John Hoyt plays Mr. Franz, a lonely doll maker whose solution to abandonment is horrifyingly possessive: shrink people so they cannot easily leave. John Agar plays salesman Bob Westley, while June Kenney plays Sally Reynolds, the secretary who realizes something is wrong. Hoyt makes Franz’s needy politeness uncomfortable; Agar and Kenney give us people to root for when furniture becomes an obstacle course.
Agar was already familiar to monster-movie audiences through Revenge of the Creature. Kenney also starred in Gordon’s Earth vs. the Spider. Hoyt’s long career included When Worlds Collide and the original Star Trek pilot. Gordon, meanwhile, repeatedly explored creatures and people at the wrong scale. His initials, B.I.G., certainly suited that fascination.
Three things you might not know
1. Playing tiny could leave an actor sore. According to Ken Miller’s recollection, John Agar’s table-climbing work left him so stiff that a masseur was brought in the following day. Miller also recalled a frustrating climb toward a doorknob: the rubber rope stretched as he climbed. These are reported cast memories, rather than evidence of a documented serious accident. The screen illusion required real physical effort.
2. An illness created an unexpected debut. Gordon’s daughter Susan appeared as Agnes after another child actress became ill and could not perform. That last-minute substitution became her film debut. Behind a brief scene was the familiar production problem of replacing someone quickly enough to keep filming. She subsequently appeared in other films directed by her father.
3. The giant world had several makers. Paul and Jackie Blaisdell received special-design credits; Flora Gordon assisted with technical effects, alongside Bert’s own effects work. Oversized props and split-screen photography helped sell the scale. The enormous telephone was reportedly borrowed from the telephone company. Watch the characters struggle with familiar objects: making everyday equipment look gigantic was as important as making the actors look small.
That is the charm for me. The effects invite you to notice the ingenuity, and the story makes loneliness feel dangerous. I love old sci-fi—but if Mr. Franz offers me a job, I’m keeping my full-size self outside!
Tap the picture for BJ’s introduction, followed by the movie.
Movie source: Internet Archive · Black-and-white archival copy · About 79 minutes
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