Producer: Dale Van Every. Copyright 12 April 1940 by Paramount Pictures Inc. (Credit titles give copyright year as 1939). New York opening at the Paramount: 10 April 1940. U.S. release: 12 April 1940. Australian release: 3 April 1941 (sic). 8 reels. 6,906 feet. 77 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: "What you are doing is mad. It is diabolical. You are tampering with powers... reserved... to God." — Paul Fix.
COMMENT: A cult classic science fiction piece with Albert Dekker in his most memorable role as the mad scientist. The faultless special effects stand up well (despite their primitive methodology) to today's computer generation. Of course a more sophisticated modern audience will probably find the dialogue and situations pretty risible. They will think themselves superior not only to the film but to the audiences who originally enjoyed it, not realizing that 1940's picture-goers found Dr. Cyclops pretty much of a hoot too.
But it's not the dialogue and the direction that matters, nor even the acting. It's the special effects. They're great. And it's all fast-paced with plenty of action and cliffhanger thrills.
Imaginative color photography and an atmospheric music score smooth over Schoedsack's inclined-to-be-static camera set-ups. True, this is no King Kong, but Mr. Schoedsack knows his monsters well enough to shoot home another box-office winner here. Oddly, despite this success, it was nine years before he made another film, his last, "Mighty Joe Young".
OTHER VIEWS: Known as the most fearless director in the world, Ernest B. Schoedsack tackles neither real nor imaginary wild animals in "Dr. Cyclops" but a monster in human form. In this thinly disguised anti-fascist tract, Schoedsack casts Albert Dekker as an almost blind and eventually one-eyed Hitler whose lust for power over his own universe causes him to use science to destroy rather than create, to maim rather than heal. He ruthlessly annihilates outspoken opposition and regards his now leaderless subject peoples as playthings and toys, and finally as enemies that must be destroyed.
Dekker's impression in the title role has given him such lasting fame, we tend to overlook the good work contributed by the rest of the players, particularly Charles Halton in one of his biggest and most successful roles as the will-not-be-bullied Bulfinch.
Heroine Janice Logan (this is the last of the only three films I have for her) is an attractive lass, and we enjoyed Thomas Coley (this seems to be his only movie appearance) as the reluctant hero.
The film has been realized on an enormous budget with marvelous effects and technical wizardry. The duplicate sets — one normal- sized, the other gigantic-sized — are all perfectly matched. The process work is impeccable. — JHR writing as George Addison.
SYNOPSIS: "What you are doing is mad. It is diabolical. You are tampering with powers... reserved... to God." — Paul Fix.
COMMENT: A cult classic science fiction piece with Albert Dekker in his most memorable role as the mad scientist. The faultless special effects stand up well (despite their primitive methodology) to today's computer generation. Of course a more sophisticated modern audience will probably find the dialogue and situations pretty risible. They will think themselves superior not only to the film but to the audiences who originally enjoyed it, not realizing that 1940's picture-goers found Dr. Cyclops pretty much of a hoot too.
But it's not the dialogue and the direction that matters, nor even the acting. It's the special effects. They're great. And it's all fast-paced with plenty of action and cliffhanger thrills.
Imaginative color photography and an atmospheric music score smooth over Schoedsack's inclined-to-be-static camera set-ups. True, this is no King Kong, but Mr. Schoedsack knows his monsters well enough to shoot home another box-office winner here. Oddly, despite this success, it was nine years before he made another film, his last, "Mighty Joe Young".
OTHER VIEWS: Known as the most fearless director in the world, Ernest B. Schoedsack tackles neither real nor imaginary wild animals in "Dr. Cyclops" but a monster in human form. In this thinly disguised anti-fascist tract, Schoedsack casts Albert Dekker as an almost blind and eventually one-eyed Hitler whose lust for power over his own universe causes him to use science to destroy rather than create, to maim rather than heal. He ruthlessly annihilates outspoken opposition and regards his now leaderless subject peoples as playthings and toys, and finally as enemies that must be destroyed.
Dekker's impression in the title role has given him such lasting fame, we tend to overlook the good work contributed by the rest of the players, particularly Charles Halton in one of his biggest and most successful roles as the will-not-be-bullied Bulfinch.
Heroine Janice Logan (this is the last of the only three films I have for her) is an attractive lass, and we enjoyed Thomas Coley (this seems to be his only movie appearance) as the reluctant hero.
The film has been realized on an enormous budget with marvelous effects and technical wizardry. The duplicate sets — one normal- sized, the other gigantic-sized — are all perfectly matched. The process work is impeccable. — JHR writing as George Addison.