Mr. Franz is a deranged doll maker & "mad scientist" who's biggest fear is being alone. He creates a machine and shrinks a group of people to keep for himself. In a roundabout way, Mr. Franz reminds me of Dr. Pretorius (Bride of Frankenstein) with his tiny people and mannerism and I liked that a lot with this film.Do not expect a physical attack from the tiny people that is not their form of attack, it's another form of attacking by trying to find away to grow large again and report what has happened to the police.Talk about some great filming and special effects... it really looks as if they have been shrunk down into doll sized people. The story is good but tragic in a way - Mr. Franz severe fear of being alone.Overall, this is a very fun 1950s sci-fi horror. I recommend it to fans of the classic sci-fi horror shows.8/10

Attack of the Puppet People is a "psycho-drama" — it's literally a case study of a mild-mannered man who is actually a demented, controlling sociopath. This isn't really a sci-fi film at all, and it certainly is very different from other Bert I.Gordon films in that the entire film takes place on a couple of small sets, and mostly in the claustrophobic, office-like laboratory. The film is completely about Mr. Franz and the extent to which he will destroy people's lives just so he can have complete control over them; Franz is Stalin in the guise of a grandfatherly lab technician and doll-restoration expert. Do not laugh at me when I say that I've watched this film 5 or 6 times in recent years and found that it improves with successive viewings. John Hoyt's performance is excellent. Attack of the Puppet People is an underrated film.

***SPOILERS*** Director Bert I. Gordon went from making movies about 60 foot giants like "The Amazing Colossal Man" to 6 inch human puppets in "The Attack of the Puppet People" within the space for a year in order to show his versatility as a film maker. Unlike in Gordon's "Colossal Man" where Glenn Manning went nuts when he found out that he'll never return to his original size in the "Puppet People" the diminutive human beings came to their senses and revolted against the person who made them small doll manufacture Dr. Franz, John Hoyt, by making him pay for what he did to them.Lead by super salesman Bob Weshey,John Agar, and his fiancée Sally Reynolds, June Kennedy, Franz's secretary the puppets revolted against their master Mr.Franz when they found out that the crazy and mixed up guy was planning to do them in together with himself after an encore performance of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" that they were to star, as puppeteers, in! Franz who thought that he was in fact loved by his puppets got the surprise of his life when he found out that they in fact hated his guts!It was with this cockamamie device that he invented, a hopped up photo enlarger, that changes and rearranges a persons molecular structure that Franz was able to turn full size human beings into six inch puppets. Fraz came up with this idea after his old lady checked out on him back in Luxembourg with an acrobat at the circus that he, with his puppet show, was preforming in! Feeling alone and unwanted Franz felt that turning people into puppets or dolls would fill the gap or void of loneliness that he got when his old lady left him. Instead it turned him into a crazed and power driven maniac who not only threatened the lives of those whom he was in control of, his puppets, but both his own life, and sanity, as well! That he was more then ready to throw away together with his live puppets before the cops and men with the white suites and butterfly nets broke into his secret laboratory! And thus took his away in a straight jacket to the nearest mental institution for both treatment and mental observation!

Sheesh, what a misleading title! The people don't ever attack, they aren't really puppets, and the actors are so wooden, they more closely resemble trees than actual human beings. Not only do they not attack, they spend most of the film running away from a creepy mad puppeteer (instead of a scientist,for a change)who turns them into teeny weenie people to play with, and bears a striking resemblance to an evil Mr.Rogers. The only good thing about this Bert I. Gordon Trashterpiece is the evil guy, who is surprisingly interesting because he shrinks people and holds them against their will in order to hold off the loneliness from his wife leaving him(or at least I think it was something to do with his wife, I can hardly remember). The ending was a complete letdown, even though the last line almost makes you care about the evil dude. The ending was completely devoid of action, drama, or , you know, anything else that makes cinema interesting.