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Devil Doll (1964) is a British horror film about an evil ventriloquist, "The Great Vorelli", and his dummy Hugo, directed by Lindsay Shonteff. It stars William Sylvester and Yvonne Romain.
Devil Doll | |
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Theatrical release poster. | |
Directed by | Lindsay Shonteff |
Produced by |
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Written by |
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Starring |
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Distributed by | Associated Film Distributing Corp. |
Release date | 1964 |
Running time | 81 min. |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | est. $60-75,000 |
Screenplay
Hypnotist/magician "The Great Vorelli" (Bryant Haliday) and his dummy Hugo perform before a packed audience in London. The audience observes tension between the ventriloquist and his dummy. American reporter Mark English (William Sylvester) becomes fascinated with Vorelli, and solicits his girlfriend Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romain) to go with him to another show. From the beginning, the film drops strong hints that 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 Marianne to go up. Vorelli succeeds in hypnotizing her and making her dance the Twist with an uncredited Ray Landor, "expert Twist dancer". Marianne is left partially hypnotized by Vorelli, who recognizes her as a wealthy heiress. English, wanting to do a story on Vorelli and his unique powers, gets Marianne 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 Marianne.
The night of the ball, Vorelli stays at the mansion of Marianne's aunt, where he seduces her after using his power to subdue her will. In the meantime, Hugo miraculously appears in English's room and asks him for help. Hugo repeats "1948" and "Berlin" before disappearing. The next day, English begins an investigation into Vorelli's past. Meanwhile, Marianne falls into a semi-coma that the doctors cannot alleviate. In one lucid moment, she tells English that, "He keeps calling me" and, "Make him stop".
Through a colleague, English discovers that Vorelli had once been a disgraced medical doctor who dabbled in Eastern magic. The colleague traces Vorelli to Berlin and guides English to a former female assistant of Vorelli's who lives there. She tells English that another assistant, "Hugo", had worked for Vorelli in 1947, and would be hypnotized into a state where he could not feel pain as part of their act. The female assistant says that she would catch the two in strange conferences. One night, Vorelli killed Hugo on stage and simultaneously transferred his soul into the dummy. Vorelli was cleared in the death, and no one believed the female assistant's story.
Vorelli's current assistant, who is also his lover, becomes jealous of his relationship with Marianne. Vorelli either manipulates or taunts Hugo into murdering his lover/assistant when Vorelli is visiting with stage crew elsewhere. Vorelli then hires a new, younger assistant whom he also puts under his physical and sexual control. During English's trip to Berlin, Vorelli visits the still-hypnotized Marianne in her home and tells her to announce that she is going to marry him. Vorelli confides to Hugo that he plans to marry Marianne in Spain 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 Marianne, and attacks Vorelli. Vorelli seemingly succeeds in wrestling the irate Hugo back into his cage just as English enters the room. "Vorelli" speaks in Hugo's voice and tells English that 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.
Devil Doll was featured in an October 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on 9 November 2010.
Bryant Haliday was one of the founders of the noted film distribution company Janus Films. He would later appear in The Projected Man, another film featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. William Sylvester and Alan Gifford both later appeared in the critically acclaimed film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Frederick E. Smith wrote the original story for London Mystery Magazine 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.
The script was originally written in 1957. The budget came from Gordon Films, Galaworld and the NFFC.
Sidney J. Furie was originally scheduled to direct but was offered a more prestigious film, so he recommended his fellow Canadian Lindsay Shonteff. Richard Gordon later said Furie advised Shonteff throughout the making of the film. Shonteff had to re-edit the film to avoid an X rating from the British Board of Film Censors.
Gordon later said the cost of the film was £20,000 plus $20,000 for expenses and salaries of American personnel, including Gordon and Bryant Halliday, making an estimated total of $60–75,000.
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