In a Bert I. Gordon movie, someone or something will often either shrink or turn into a giant. In this one, Gordon shrinks ’em.
A dollmaker torn up over his failed marriage builds a machine that turns people into little doll-sized munchkins. This allows him to assemble a whole group of tiny people to keep around as his pets—and prisoners—so that he’s never alone. Actor John Hoyt doesn’t play Mr. Franz, the dollmaker, as a snarling villain type, but rather as a man who’s kind at heart, yet lonely and hurt and losing his mind over it. He can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to be one of his dolls and live under his care. When his newest secretary June Kenney and her fiancee John Agar get munchkinized, they move the others to finally revolt against Franz.
This film is a clear rush-job, but it’s alright. The scene that passes for a climax feels like they ran out of the time or money to do it up right. For the best movie about shrunken people being chased by house pets, see Jack Arnold’s great The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957.