Tonight's movie was "Dr. Cyclops" (1940) selected from my recently acquired "Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection Volume 2". Albert Dekker, a longtime Hollywood actor who specialised in playing bad guys, stars as a research scientist who is working on a secret project deep inside the Amazon jungle. He is having a problem with an experiment but is unable to diagnose it, so he sends word that he needs the help of a respected microbiologist. Veteran character actor Charles Halton answers the call (you've seen him in a bunch of movies) and brings along his assistant, Dr. Mary Robinson, played by the comely Janice Logan. They, in turn, hire another biology specialist to accompany them on the trip, seemingly for little reason other than he is young and handsome and can provide whatever slim romantic possibilities are available where Dr. Robinson is concerned.
Finally, when they get to the Amazonian jungle (country unspecified), they need pack mules to traverse the terrain. The mule owner they locate is intrigued that they are on their way to visit a Mad Scientist, and - as a condition of renting them his mules - he insists he be allowed to come along, so now our trio has become a foursome and the travelling group is finalised, three men and one woman.
When they arrive at Albert Dekker's remote laboratory, the two microbiologists identify the problem that is holding up his research, but then to their surprise the group is dismissed! Charles Halton, the senior scientist, is justifiably upset. After all, he and his team have journeyed ten thousand miles to reach the site, under the impression that they were to be working with Dekker for the duration of his experiment. But he wants them out of there and says so, in polite terms at first.
Charles Halton resists and demands an answer. "We came a long way! Why must we go? What kind of project are you working on"?
But Dekker will not answer that question, because..........he is working on a Shrink Ray.
Yep, the secret is out, but we knew it before the Halton group did, and in fact we saw Dekker in his lab at the beginning of the movie, covered in protective clothing and a giant-sized soup pot helmet to protect himself from the radiation emitted by his device.
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I need to break in here to say that, first of all, the "Mad Scientist" footage at the beginning of "Dr. Cyclops" is some of the greatest Science Fiction imagery I've ever seen. Secondly, it was filmed in lurid Technicolor, which only enhances the effect. You know me - I love my black and white - but in this case, the opening scene was made for the types of tones Technicolor can deliver, which brings me to my last point concerning not only the first scene but the whole movie : the print of the film is as pristine as if you were watching it in a theater. This few minutes of high tech sci-fi from 1940!, at least a decade before the classic era of the genre came into being, is reason enough to watch the movie.
Directed by Ernest B. Shoedsack, who was the uncredited producer/director of "King Kong", "Dr. Cyclops" goes on to become more of an adventure movie than a true science fiction film, as the biology team falls victim to Dekker and his Shrink Ray. Suddenly the four are only a fifth of their former size, ranging from about 13 to 18 inches, and in this new reality they come up against creatures, like cats and roosters, that would have been subordinate to them in their prior life but are now terrors to be feared and prepared for.
All of a sudden they have become shrimps and have to deal with everything being much bigger than they are, and they face a twofold dilemma. They can stay in Dekker's lab and try to deal with him, and the cinematographer lets you know that he is enormous (he was 6'2" in real life but looks bigger in the movie), photographing him from the ground up. He is also a complete psycho who is bent on keeping his tiny friends captive.
Or they can try to escape, and deal with the dangers of the jungle, like gigantic crocodiles and bears (though I didn't know bears lived in the jungle).
I thought the first 40 minutes of "Dr. Cyclops" was awesome. The imagery at the beginning and in scenes spread out through the first half of the film looks amazing, with a HG Wellsian quality, almost Steampunk, but even cooler because it isn't retro.
Later on, the movie becomes more of an adventure story than a classic Sci-Fi, but keep in mind that it was made in 1940, before the atomic age and at a time when stories of jungle expeditions were still popular. It is without a doubt still worth a view, however, and even for more reason than that if you are a fan of classic sci-fi. A large part of the film is about how the shrunken down science team deals with their new reality, and in that sense - for modern viewers who recall shows like "Land Of The Giants" - it can seem like a gimmick, but if you just let things flow and appreciate "Dr. Cyclops" for the time in which it was made, and watch it for it's scenes of incredible Mad Scientist elaborations (again, in pristine Technicolor), you will not be disappointed.
I give "Dr. Cyclops" two regular thumbs up. Two Gigantic Thumbs for the laboratory scenes, though.
It's a must-see for the sci-fi completist. /////
That's the movie report for the evening and all I know of interest on this particular day. I hope your day was a good one and I will see you in the morning. Huge love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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