Alexander Thorkel

Dr. Alexander Thorkel is the main antagonist and (semi) title character of the 1940 film Dr. Cyclops, in which he is portrayed by Albert Dekker.

Biography
Thorkel was once one of the world's most brilliant biologists, until he began losing his grip on reality. He retired to the jungles of Peru to work in private with the assistance of a former student of his, Peruvian scientist Dr. Mendoza. The two had discovered an abandoned gold mine with a rich deposit of uranium, which Thorkel harnessed for use in his experiments, which involved attempting to reduce the size of living creatures. An extremely secretive man, he trusted only Mendoza. The only other human being he interacted with at all on a daily basis was his Peruvian servant Pedro, who was forbidden from entering the pair's laboratory.

Thorkel's work was only partially successful. None of the shrunken animals he created lived for longer than a day. He always fed them to his pet cat to get rid of the evidence. As time wore on, Thorkel began losing his eyesight. He was forced to wear extremely thick-lensed glasses to correct his vision, but even then, he was almost completely blind, forced to rely more and more on Mendoza to be his eyes, particularly when looking through a microscope. One day, a disagreement between the two scientists led to Thorkel murdering Mendoza, giving him a lethal dose of radiation.

Needing a new pair of eyes, he wrote to an old colleague of his, Professor Kendall, requesting three experts to come to his Peruvian home. Biologists Dr. Rupert Bulfinch and Dr. Mary Robinson are readily available, but the third individual Thorkel requests is unavailable, forcing Bulfinch and Mary to rely on fugitive American engineer Bill Stockton. The three rent mules from miner Steve Baker, who accompanies them to Thorkel's isolated compound.

All Thorkel has them do, however, is take turns looking through his microscope. Their reactions confirm something he has suspected, and, confident he can now correct his error and keep shrunken animals alive for longer than a day, he dismisses the four without any further explanation. Insulted at having been asked to travel thousands of miles just to look through a microscope, however, the four elect to remain and poke around, figuring they deserve an explanation. In retaliation, Thorkel punishes them for their nosiness by shrinking them, along with Pedro, who overheard their discussion. He keeps the five tiny humans imprisoned in his home and studies them, treating them like lab animals rather than human beings.