Although released in 1940, DR CYCLOPS was filmed in 1939, the benchmark year of so many great Hollywood classics. It was not the first film to feature a mad doctor shrinking people. That was Tod Browning’s 1936 fantasy-melodrama THE DEVIL DOLL. It WAS the first Hollywood movie to attempt fantasy special effects in Technicolor and succeeds brilliantly on that score. Speaking of scores, the soundtrack, for me, is DR CYCLOPS’ weakest element. It sounds like one of Walt Disney’s SILLY SYMPHONY cartoons. As pointed out elsewhere, it’s too lighthearted. There’s just not enough menace for the story being told. As there are 3 composers credited, that sounds like post-production tampering but I’m willing to overlook it as the rest of the movie is so entertaining.
Director Ernest B. Schoedsack was no stranger to fantasy. He started out making the 2 jaw dropping silent Asian documentaries GRASS (1925) and CHANG (1927). That would lead to the THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) and then KING KONG (1933). After KONG came a version of H. Rider Haggard’s SHE (1935). DR CYCLOPS is basically KING KONG in reverse. Instead of making something small appear big, it makes big things appear small. This was done by using the most advanced special effects at the time which included rear screen projection, forced perspective and even a giant mechanical hand (just like in KING KONG). One personal observation. Today’s digital technology (especially Blu-Ray’s HD) makes the effects less impressive by showing too much detail.
The plot involves an eccentric scientist, Dr. Thorkel, who is working in the jungle on secret experiments involving large doses of radium. Boris Karloff did the same thing 3 years earlier in THE INVISIBLE RAY. Constant exposure has weakened his eyesight so he sends for other scientists to confirm his observations. After they arrive he shrinks them down to 12 inches. The rest of the film focuses on their staying alive and trying to escape. The name “Cyclops” refers not only to his myopic vision but to his giant size recalling Ulysses in Homer’s ODYSSEY. One of the characters is even named Bulfinch (after BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY). This being 1940, we know how it will end but who will be around when it does?
Albert Dekker as Thorkel gives a towering performance as befits his role. The other actors (Charles Halton, Janice Logan, Tom Coley, Victor Killiam, Frank Yaconelli) do the best they can with their stock characters but they are not well written. At least the lone female character is a scientist. The brightly colored “clothes” they make for themselves doesn’t bother me as the studio wanted to get its money’s worth out of the Technicolor. After all suspension of disbelief is what a movie like this is all about so anything that happens…happens. Just sit back, go with the flow, and enjoy what is really a remarkable achievement considering when it was made.
The Capsule Critic 