Re-Viewing ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958)

The other night I settled down to watch the ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958) for the second time in my life. The only reason I watched this in 2019 is because Shout Factory has been nice enough to put it out on a gorgeous looking Blu-ray. I've owned the old DVD for years but after my initial viewing easily slotted this film into the ‘why bother again’ category and placed it on the shelf. After the second viewing I'm thinking it might be time to get rid of both copies of this film as I can never imagine watching this thing again. There are a number of Bert I Gordon films that I enjoy but this one just does not have nearly enough in it to keep me consistently interested for its admittedly short running time. In fact, I find it to be a pretty good cure for insomnia even for someone as in love with films of this type as I am. It feels like a 45-minute long idea stretched to feature-length and is extraordinarily boring for long stretches. Not even the presence of the stalwart 50’s B-movie icon John Agar or his amiable female co-star June Kenney can keep this from being a pretty turgid affair.

The new Blu-ray does have a commentary by the great Tom Weaver and after the first 15 minutes I'll have to admit he's keeping me interested enough to finish listening to what he has to say. He's begun making a decent defense for the movie and a couple of his points so far have amused me, but I really doubt even the entire track is going to change my mind on the qualities of this Bert I Gordon effort. We’ll see though.