Regie:
Ernest B. SchoedsackKamera:
Henry SharpBesetzung:
Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Frank Yaconelli, Paul Fix, Frank Reicher, William Wilkerson, Victor KilianInhalte(1)
Set in the Peruvian jungle, this 1940 landmark science-fiction adventure, directed by pioneering filmmaker Ernest Schoedsack, follows four explorers as they search for legendary physicist Dr. Cyclops. When they discover their missing colleague, they find his brilliant mind has been warped by radiation and decide to return him to civilization for psychiatric help. But the half-blind, half-mad scientist will have none of that, and uses an experimental body-altering device to reduce his former friends to one-fifth their normal size. Now, harmless items and small creatures suddenly become giant-sized instruments of death! The impressive use of special effects, which garnered an Oscar® nomination, helped make this Technicolor sci-fi classic one of the most imaginative and memorable fantasy films of all time. (Umbrella Entertainment)
(mehr)Kritiken (3)
It reminded me a lot to The Incredible Shrinking Man. As a result of the revenge of mad scientist Dr Thorkel (who looks like a bald Himmler), a bunch of other visiting scientists are miniaturized to the size of puppets by a special device and struggle for survival in the inhospitable environment of a house and the jungle. Somehow, Schoedsack's films have become synonymous with special effects feasts and the Master didn't disappoint here. There’s plenty to watch, lots of functional rear/front projections, optical wizardry and especially the studio's evocation of the smallness of the main characters – there are countless larger-than-life models of everyday objects: giant scissors, a squid, a table, books, chairs, a briefcase, a rifle and many, many more. And in the jungle there are giant roots, a rock garden, plants and a giant boat by the shore. There is also an attacking cat, a crocodile and a dog that looks at its miniature master with an expression of confusion. Perhaps only the disposal of the main villain I could imagine more spectacularly, as promised by the games with a giant rifle, but otherwise I have no major reservations. A very nice sci-fi flick.
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Es ist eine erstklassige Trickshow – was sonst könnte man von einem der Autoren des unsterblichen Films King Kong und die weiße Frau und des spannenden Graf Zaroff - Genie des Bösen bekommen? Die Geschichte ist sehr simpel, aber die verspielte Ausführung und das Technicolor-Verfahren machen sie einzigartig. Außerdem sind einige Passagen richtig stimmungsvoll und spannend und Albert Dekker hat seinen verrückten Wissenschaftler offenbar genossen. Nur das Ende hat mir leidgetan. Ich habe ihm nichts Gutes gewünscht, aber seine Vernichtung hätte einfallsreicher sein können.
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One of the five most interesting film contributions to the topic of shrinking human protagonists, which is laudable, but at the same time nothing to celebrate, because for me, the only three truly good films in this category are Downsizing with Matt Damon, Innerspace with Denis Quaid, and the brilliant The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957. Dr. Cyclops gets all my praise for the special effects, which leave almost nothing to be desired when compared to its aforementioned 16 year younger sibling, but the creative decisions of individual scenes, the intellectual insight and the sophistication and the discovery of the fictional world from the perspective of the physically altered heroes are much weaker in this case. That said, I highly recommend it to fans of classic film sci-fi; this film from the same year that gave us Citizen Kane does not deserve to fall into oblivion. 65%
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