Dr. Cyclops

Time-Lost

by Will Garth (Pseudonym), Henry Kuttner

Classic Novelization of Famous SF/Horror Movie. Here is the weird and terrifying adventure of a group of people shrunk to the size of dolls by a scientific megalomaniac. Alexander Thorkel, a nearsighted biologist, is pursuing a fantastic experiment deep in the heart of the Peruvian jungle. Using a new radioactive element, he has discovered a method for shrinking living matter. Dr. Thorkel aims to end hunger around the world, reasoning that if people were one-tenth their normal size, there would be ten times as much food to go around. But when a party of Thorkel's fellow scientists penetrates his jungle fastness, the paranoid biologists decides the only way he can protect his secret is to shrink them down to size. When he has reduced the band of scientists to the height of dolls, Thorkel gloats over them, his (to them) gigantic eyes peering down terrifyingly through his glasses. Even then, the scientists defy him, and Thorkel kills one to demonstrate his power. That's when the scientists realize that if they ever truly believed in "brain over brawn," this is the time to prove it. Or any one of them could be the fiendish Thorkel's next victim.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Pulp

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the image in your head is of some Bond villain, white cat in lap, with some grand nefarious plan and secret base in the jungle, then you will be disappointed. The cat is there, but it's more of a mangy feral fat thing.

Kuttner--I wasn't expecting that--clings tight to the limitations of the original screenplay. So not exactly expansive in scope and front-padded with all the preliminary business of travel and story-in-order and no reliance on the reader to work things out. All of which makes it a drag to read. And it doesn't help that the big reveal is spoiled by the cover art. The reader is marking time until the protagonists get little and the interesting stuff can happen.

Thorkel is unapologetically nuts without backstory or motive, an obsessed scientist with his discovery, and the credit that goes with it. The fact that this discovery appears absolutely useless and that he'd need peer-review in order to receive that credit is a secondary concern.

[Robert Defrank · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novelette based on this 1940s movie. A fun little story and a fun little movie. I recommend checking them both out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKuB-...

[Ryan Chang · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm reading a collection of sci fi short stories that became films from a collection called They Came From Outer Space. This first story has nothing to do with outer space or aliens.

It's a pretty flatly written pulpy mad scientist story about people that are shrunk down and have to escape the titular scientist's clutches. I imagine the movie is just as boring.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will Garth was a pseudonym of the famous and prolific Henry Kuttner. This pulp adventure was filmed by Ernest Schoedsack, who had directed the original KING KONG a few years before. The writing doesn't stand up to contemporary standards in the field, I suppose, but it was by far superior to most of the other work being produced in that era. I think that it's still a lot of fun.