Tod Browning 1936
This was a surprising little gem, not particularly scary, but still very compelling. It's one of those odd movies where the villain (the escaped criminal who turns people into murderous little 1-foot dolls) and the hero (the wrongly accused man trying to clear his name and take revenge on those who framed him) are one and the same. The process shots used for the miniaturized people look pretty terrible for the most part, but as the movie goes on they seem to move more and more in the direction of oversized sets and props, which look uniformly fantastic. The central conceit, that our hero/villain is able to hide in plain sight by pretending to be an old woman, is pretty silly and ridiculous - and yet, Lionel Barrymore is able to make it work. There's also a very nice emotional core to the movie, centered around the relationship (or lack thereof) between Barrymore and his now grown daughter. The final scene atop the Eiffel Tower was far more emotional and touching than I ever would have expected. It's amazing the sort of wonderful movies that can slip through the cracks sometimes.
8/10
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