Attack
of the Puppet People
They are
miniaturized by a doll manufacturer to provide himself occasional company.
He takes them off
the shelf for the odd party, tiny champagne bottle and all.
There are indications
that the basis of the joke is Hollywood and its studios, but Gordon achieves a
universal utterance.
Empire
of the Ants
The swampland
wasteland proposed development is a lady with a bullhorn and a free cruise to
the back of nowhere, nothing but jungle and giant ants.
Gordon’s best
effect comes after the long degradation of the swamp, suddenly the survivors
are in the sheriff’s car on a highway. The inhabitants of the town are all,
alas, slaves of the ants at a local sugar refinery.
A very droll
sendup of fashionable frauds and their ant farms.
The
Witching
An arcane
mystery, the teaching of which could hardly be accomplished another way. The
boss runs an entire town of witches (no children or old people), he moves a
staffer there whose wife has a gift, she is to raise the boss’s late son from
the dead in a rite of necromancy and take his place.
The town is
called Lilith. Orson Welles achieves some of his grandest effects with scarcely
more makeup than a pair of eyeglasses, the victim is Pamela Franklin.