Post-King Kong, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper kept their love for adventure and thrills moving. Their films are iconic though many are ignored, such as Mighty Joe Young and this 1940 Technicolor sci-fi adventure Dr. Cyclops. While bettered in 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, Dr. Cyclops still carries enough weight to make it a watchable, if below average, effort.

Set in Peru (though mostly captured on sound stages), a group of scientists sets out to meet Dr. Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker). In a small hut, the classic mad scientist role plays out as his experiments slowly drive him mad unbeknownst to his requested guests. For whatever reason, completely unknown to anyone but himself, Thorkel is determined to shrink humans down to a minuscule size using radium.

The latter plot hole is one of many problems for Dr. Cyclops. Unlike other Schoedsack/Cooper efforts, this one has little excitement. It takes a substantial amount of time for the plot to come full, and it’s over halfway through before the human subjects are shrunk. They do so off-screen, but the after-effects are impressive. Enlarged sets are indistinguishable from the real counterparts, and the amount of split screen use is incredible for a 1940 film (especially in color).

Odd choices destroy any tension or built up atmosphere. As the shrunken humans try desperately to escape, Thorkel falls asleep. They manage to stack books and open a door to finally make it outside. When Thorkel awakes, there are his unwilling human subjects on a picnic table making clothes and shoes as if they’ve been there for months. Why bother even escaping?

A few fast-paced action sequences are noteworthy, and the survival tactics by the experiments are fun. Sadly, many come down to Thorkel wrecking his home to find his subjects as they run around the room to avoid his grasp. Even at 76 minutes, the film is repetitive.