Devil Doll (film)

Devil Doll
Year	1964
Directed by	Lindsay Shonteff
Produced by	Lindsay Shonteff Kenneth Rive
Written by	Ronald Kinnoch Charles F. Vetter
Studio	Galaworldfilm Productions
Cast	Bryant Haliday William Sylvester Yvonne Romain
Run time	81 minutes
Riffed in	Experiment #818

For the episode, see MST3K 818 - Devil Doll.

“	I want some wine.	”
	- Hugo

Devil Doll is a 1964 supernatural thriller movie directed by Lindsay Shonteff.

Plot

Devil Doll

Ventriloquist/hypnotist The Great Vorelli has an amazing dummy named Hugo that can apparently walk and talk without Vorelli operating him. Vorelli's act with the dummy is intense, complete with harsh insults and threats.

After Vorelli meets beautiful heiress Marianne Horne, he hypnotizes her, causing her to suffer from a severe fever that spirals into a coma. Marianne’s boyfriend Mark, a newspaper reporter, is suspicious and starts investigating Vorelli’s past. He discovers that a man named Hugo was killed several years earlier during one of Vorelli’s shows in Berlin. Apparently Vorelli stole Hugo’s human soul and transferred it into the body of the dummy.

Marianne awakens from her coma, and announces she will marry Vorelli. The triumphant hypnotist brags to Hugo about his plans for Marianne and his plot to transfer her soul into a female dummy. A violent confrontation between Hugo and Vorelli results in a chilling climactic switch.

Cast

• Bryant Haliday as The Great Vorelli
• William Sylvester as Mark English
• Yvonne Romain as Marianne Horn
• Sandra Dorne as Magda Cardenas

Notes

• Like the ventriloquist dummy in the similar segment of Dead of Night (1945), the doll's name is Hugo.
• According to executive producer Richard Gordon, the theater in which The Great Vorelli performs was not open to the public at the time and was scheduled to be demolished. The film crew was able to shoot inside the theater for the show and backstage scenes before the deadline for the building's demolition.
• The performer inside the male dummy Hugo was a woman.
• Sidney J. Furie was originally hired to direct, but he left for another project before shooting began, and it was assigned to Lindsay Shonteff. Furie was a friend of Shonteff's and helped Shonteff with the direction of the picture when he had problems.

MST3K Connections

• Director Lindsay Shonteff was also director for The Million Eyes of Sumuru.
• Bryant Haliday also portrayed Dr. Paul Steiner in The Projected Man.
• William Sylvester also portrayed Leonard Driscoll in Riding with Death and Sam Slade in Gorgo.
• Yvonne Romain also portrayed Melina in Circus of Horrors.
• Alan Gifford (Bob Garrett) also portrayed Eldridge in Phase IV.
• Executive producer Gerald A. Fernback was also executive producer for The Projected Man.
• Executive producer Richard Gordon was also producer for The Projected Man.

Critical Response

• Leonard Maltin wrote: "Three stars. Obscure, underrated mystery features an eerily effective Haliday as a hypnotist-ventriloquist trying to transfer Romain’s soul into that of a dummy, as he had already done with his onetime assistant. An exquisitely tailored, sharply edited sleeper.."