Attack of the Puppet People
1958 film by Bert I. Gordon
Attack of the Puppet People (retitled Six Inches Tall for its U.K. release) is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction horror film produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon. It stars John Agar, John Hoyt, and June Kenney. Gordon also supervised the film's special effects. American International Pictures released the film on June 30, 1958 as a double feature with War of the Colossal Beast (1958). (Historian Bill Warren lists the double feature's release date as August 7, 1958.)
The film was rushed into production by AIP and Bert I. Gordon to capitalize on the popular success of Universal-International's The Incredible Shrinking Man, released the previous year in 1957.
Plot
The doll manufacturing company Dolls Inc. is owned and operated by Mr. Franz, who has a personal collection of very lifelike dolls stored in glass canisters locked in a display case on a wall. Sally Reynolds answers a newspaper advertisement for a secretary position. Although unnerved by Franz’s extremely friendly and pushy manner, she is ultimately moved to take the job by his appeals over how short-handed the company is.
“Attack of the Puppet People” enters the record as 1958 film by Bert I. Gordon. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Attack, Puppet and People can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Attack of the Puppet People” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Attack, Puppet and People provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4817980. The first chronological checks are 1958 and 1957.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Attack of the Puppet People”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Attack of the Puppet People primary sources, Attack of the Puppet People archive and Attack research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Attack of the Puppet People”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Attack of the Puppet People” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.