Daily Archives: May 11, 2014

Dr. Cyclops
Directed by Ernest B. Shoedsak
Written by Tom Kilpatrick
1940/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Alexander Thorkel: Strange how absorbed man has been in the size of things![/box]

I put this on thinking it would be a good double feature with Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.  Imagine my surprise when it surpassed its mediocre IMDb rating and proved to be a complete delight.

Genius biologist Dr, Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker) has been working for two years at an isolated outpost in South America on a top-secret project involving radium.  Aside from driving him insane, his intense work has weakened his eyesight to the point where he can no longer see clearly through the microscope, later earning him his nickname.  After murdering his assistant, he sends off for a group of scientists to act as “eyes” for him. Two biologists and a geologist pick up a mule-team owner and a local handyman along the way.  All are excited either to work with the famous Thorkel or because the radium deposit could make them millions.

But Thorkel rapidly dismisses them after they briefly confirm what he thought he was seeing through the microscope.  The curious group refuse to leave and are caught spying on the good doctor’s experiments.  So Thorkel gratifies their curiousity by shrinking them to under a foot tall.

The little people are extremely resourceful and escape him, fighting off the many perils to those of their size.  However, Thorkel starts a relentless extermination campaign after he figures out his creations are slowly growing and could later expose him.

I don’t know why humans are so fascinating by miniatures.  I think it has always been so. This movie does an outstanding job, in Technicolor no less, of convincingly combining its “miniature” people will normal sized people and a combination of giant and normal sized props.  It looks like a movie made a couple of decades later.

This was Albert Dekker’s year.  I really enjoyed his performances in The Long Voyage Home and Strange Cargo.  Here, where he carries the film, he is the ideal combination of a scary, menacing villain and a bit of a fussbudget scientist.  If you like this kind of thing, I’d recommend it.

Doctor Cyclops was nominated for an Oscar for its superb special effects.

Trailer

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe 
Directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor
Written by George H. Plympton, Basil Dickey, and Barry Shipman from the newspaper feature “Flash Gordon” by Alex Raymond
USA/1940
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

Tagline: NEW THRILLS! NEW MARVELS! NEW WONDERS! in 12 NEW Dynamic Episodes

This is for everyone who loves cheesy special effects, ridiculous costumes, and campy over-acting as much as I do.

Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) , formerly Emperor but now in 1940 Dictator of Planet Mongo,  has unleashed the Purple Death upon the Earth as a prelude to his ultimate goal of conquering the Universe.  Dr. Zarkov presciently discovered its source on Mongo and takes off with Flash Gordon (Larry ‘Buster’ Crabbe) and Dale Arden on their rocket ship to obtain the antidote and defeat the bad guys.   After countless adventures and constant peril, Flash is said to have “conquered the universe” instead.

These things are easier for me to watch in a condensed form but this was better than most serials as each episode was not too padded with excerpts from previous outings. “Flash Gordon” has an overdose of the Bond-villain syndrome in which the villain always finds an excuse for not polishing off the hero even after the hero has demonstrated many times that he can and will escape. But that is only part of the fun along with the kitschy vision of life in outer space.  I wonder if these things seemed campy even in the 1940s?

I love Charles Middleton’s Ming.  In the commentary to Virginia City, in which he played Jefferson Davis, it was pointed out that Middleton’s regular gig was portraying Abraham Lincoln.  Go figure.

Fan “trailer”/clips