Devil Doll is a
horror filmHorror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
about an evil ventriloquist, "The Great Vorelli", and his dummy Hugo. Decades after its initial release, it was featured on a 1997 episode of
Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
.
Plot
Devil Doll begins with a performance by hypnotist/magician "The Great Vorelli" (
Bryant HalidayBryant Haliday was an American actor, as well as producer, of film and stage, who was instrumental in providing a showcase for international film titles in the United States by co-founding Janus Films with his partner Cyrus Harvey Jr.-Early Life and Stage Career:After entering Harvard to study...
) and his dummy Hugo before a packed
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
audience. The audience observes tension between the ventriloquist and his dummy. American reporter Mark English (
William SylvesterWilliam Sylvester was an American television and film actor. His most famous film credit was Dr. Heywood Floyd in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey...
) becomes fascinated with Vorelli while attending the performance. English solicits his girlfriend Marianne Horn (
Yvonne RomainYvonne Romain is a British film and television actress of the late 1950s and 1960s.-Early career:...
) to go with him to another show. From the beginning, the film drops strong hints that the dummy, Hugo, is actually alive and mobile.
At the following show, Vorelli asks a member of his audience onto the stage. When no one volunteers, English encourages Horn to go up. Vorelli succeeds in hypnotizing her and making her dance. Horn is left partially hypnotized by Vorelli, who recognizes her name as that of a wealthy heiress. English, inexplicably wanting to do a story on Vorelli because of his unique powers, gets Horn to invite Vorelli to her aunt's charity ball. Vorelli has already decided to go to the ball, having read about it in the newspaper and seeing it as an opportunity to seduce the rich Horn.
The night of the ball, Vorelli stays at Horn's aunt's mansion. He calls Horn to his bedroom where he seduces her against her (subdued) will. In the meantime, Hugo miraculously appears in English's room and asks English to help him. Hugo repeats "1948" and "Berlin" before disappearing. The next day, English begins an investigation into Vorelli's past. Meanwhile, Horn falls into a semi-coma that the doctors cannot penetrate. In one lucid moment, she tells English that "He keeps calling me" and "Make him stop". It is not clear whether English makes the connection.
Through a colleague, English discovers that Vorelli had once been a medical doctor who dabbled in mysterious Eastern magic and was disbarred for an unknown reason. The colleague traces Vorelli to Berlin from 1947 onward and uncovers the story of a former assistant to Vorelli. English travels to Berlin to interview her. Vorelli's former assistant claims that she and another assistant, "Hugo", had worked for Vorelli in 1947 and 1948. In their act, Vorelli would hypnotize Hugo into a state where he could not feel pain: Vorelli would stab a knife into Hugo, who did not respond and never appeared injured. The female assistant says that over time, she would catch Vorelli and Hugo in strange conferences. One night, Vorelli killed Hugo on stage and simultaneously transferred Hugo's soul into a dummy off stage. Vorelli was cleared of all charges due to the risky nature of Hugo's job. No one believed the female assistant's story. It's unclear how she knew the details of what happened.
Hugo's present-day assistant (an aging blonde) appears periodically through the film. She helped Vorelli get his start on the stage and they are still lovers. She becomes jealous of Vorelli's relationship with Horn. Vorelli either manipulates or taunts Hugo into murdering his lover/assistant when Vorelli is visiting with stage crew elsewhere. The murder left unsolved, Vorelli immediately hires a new, younger assistant whom he also puts under his physical and sexual control. Meanwhile, during English's trip to Berlin, Vorelli visits the now-recovered Horn in her home. She is still hypnotized. He tells her to announce that she loves him and is going to marry him. Vorelli confides to Hugo (the dummy) that he plans to take Horn to Spain, marry her, and transfer her spirit into a companion doll for Hugo before letting her body die.
Hugo escapes from his cage, smashes the face of the female doll intended for Horn, and attacks Vorelli. Vorelli seemingly succeeds in wrestling the irate Hugo back into his cage just as Mark English enters the room. "Vorelli" speaks in Hugo's voice and tells English that he (Hugo) has now transferred his soul into Vorelli's body and vice versa. From Hugo's former body, Vorelli begs for help from English, who does not respond as the film ends.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Devil Doll was ridiculed in an October 1997 episode of movie-mocking television comedy series
Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
.
Mike NelsonMichael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...
and his robot friends made considerable light of Vorelli's bizarre relationship with Hugo, the apparent uselessness of the film's nominal hero, and the general bleakness of the film. Paul Chaplin of the MST3K cast commented: "There's a real darkness to this movie, too. You can't see a thing. It's so bad I don't feel like talking about it anymore." The episode was released on DVD by
Shout! FactoryShout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
on November 9, 2010.
Notable cast
Bryant Haliday was one of the founders of the noted film distribution company
Janus FilmsJanus Films is a film distribution company. It was one of the first distributors to bring what are now regarded as masterpieces of world cinema to the United States...
. He would later appear in another MST3K'ed film,
The Projected ManThe Projected Man is a British science fiction film starring Mary Peach, Bryant Haliday, Norman Wooland, and Ronald Allen. It was released in the United States by Universal Studios, as a double bill with Island of Terror. The plot revolves around a scientist, Dr...
. William Sylvester and Alan Gifford both later appeared in the critically acclaimed film
2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
(1968).
Aspects of Production
Frederick E. SmithFrederick Escreet Smith is a British author, who is best known for his 1956 novel 633 Squadron about a Second World War RAF Mosquito squadron undertaking a seemingly impossible mission to bomb a well protected German factory at the head of a Norwegian fjord. The novel was made into a successful...
wrote the original story for
London Mystery MagazineLondon Mystery Magazine was the longest running British Mystery magazine lasting from 1949 to its 132nd issue in 1982...
in 1951, earning £10 for it. He said that one of the conditions of cashing his cheque was that he had surrendered any rights of resale of the story.
Sidney J. FurieSidney J. Furie is a Canadian film director. Furie is perhaps best known for directing American Soldiers, The IPCRESS File, The Entity, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Lady Sings the Blues, The Boys, Gable and Lombard, Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York and the Iron Eagle films.Also...
was originally scheduled to direct but was offered a more prestigious film, so he recommended his fellow Canadian
Lindsay ShonteffLindsay Craig Shonteff was a Canadian born film director, film producer and screenwriter who achieved fame for low budget films produced in England.-Biography:...
.
Richard GordonRichard Gordon was a British-born producer and financier of horror films.-Career:As a youth, Gordon displayed a love of films from an early age. While he was in school, he wrote articles on the subject, edited fan club magazines, and organized a film society...
later said Furie advised Shonteff throughout the making of the film. Shonteff had to re-edit the horror tale of a ventriloquist's dummy to avoid an X rating from the British Board of Film Censors.
External links