Dr Cyclops *** (1940, Albert Dekker, Janice Logan, Thomas Coley, Charles Halton, Victor Kilian, Frank Yaconelli) – Classic Movie Review 5916

Director Ernest B Schoedsack’s 1940 Paramount horror movie Dr Cyclops stars Albert Dekker as mad scientist Doctor Thorkel, who cuts travellers to the Amazon down to size – 14 inches actually – in this bonkers fantasy film from the inventive King Kong (1933) people, Schoedsack and producer Merian C Cooper.

Doctor Thorkel may know how to shrink people but actually he needs a shrink himself!

When a group of explorers/ scientists come to Peru, they discover his secret and his rich source of radium that they want for its commercial value. Thorkel promptly shrinks them down to a fifth of their normal size. Now they feel small.

Dekker is nice and creepy, there is atmospheric Technicolor camerawork by Henry Sharp and Winton C Hoch, and Oscar-nominated photographic Best Special Effects by Farciot Edouart and Gordon Jennings.

However, Tom Kilpatrick’s unpersuasive, derivative original screenplay needs a couple of re-writes, though it is still a lot of fun.

Also in the cast are Janice Logan as Dr Mary Robinson, Victor Kilian, Thomas Coley, Charles Halton as Dr Bulfinch, Frank Yaconelli, Bill Wilkerson, Allen Cox, Paul Fix as Dr Mendoza and Frank Reicher as Professor Kendall.

Dr Cyclops is directed by Ernest B Schoedsack, runs 77 minutes, is made by Paramount Pictures, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Tom Kilpatrick (original screenplay), is shot in Technicolor by Henry Sharp and Winton C Hoch, is produced by William LeBaron (executive producer), Merian C Cooper and Dale Van Every, is scored by Ernst Toch, Gerard Carbonara and Albert Hay Malotte and is designed by Hans Dreier, A Earl Hedrick and Robert Odell, with Special Effects by Farciot Edouart (process photography), Gordon Jennings (special photographic effects) and W Wallace Kelly (process photography).

It is shot at Paramount Ranch, 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, and in the Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood.

Dekker’s other star role is in The Woman of the Town (1943).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5916

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