Radi skull and devil doll10/2/2023 Production values are understandably limited, but not to the point of distraction and certainly not hysterically so. Though a movie's appearance on Mystery Science Theater 3000 is often a red flag for mediocrity, Devil Doll is far more competent than its MiSTied brethren and is actually very entertaining taken on its own. Even its entry on the Internet Movie Database is perhaps the least riddled with the inane "this movie is sooo bad adn stoopid id never watch it if not for mike and bots, for the ovie i give 0 stars, mst version i give it 5 stars" banter that dimmer fans of the series deem necessary to post for every movie given the MST3K treatment. Devil Doll manages to stand out from the rest of the lot. Reviews of MiSTied films not surprisingly tend to be less than enthusiastic, particularly those penned after its episode had first bowed. The crowd that generally seeks out DVD reviews online will probably best remember Devil Doll from its turn on the eighth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Hugo pays English an unexpected late night visit, dropping some cryptic hints that promise to reveal why Vorelli keeps his dummy in a padlocked cage. As the reporter discovers there's nothing at all unusual about the doll on the surface, Vorelli puts the hypnotic moves on Marianne, mentally manipulating her into becoming his love slave. In an attempt to get closer to the dummy and hopefully discover its secrets, English convinces his wealthy lady love Marianne (Yvonne Romain) to invite Vorelli to strut his stuff at a charity benefit. Though the act does includes such mainstays as a dummy chatting away while his ventriloquist downs a drink, there seems to be genuine tension between Hugo and Vorelli, not to mention the fact that Hugo is inexplicably able to walk freely about the stage. That's all well and good, but what really intrigues reporter Mark English ( 2001: A Space Odyssey's William Sylvester) is Hugo, Vorelli's dummy. The first glimpse of Vorelli on-stage involves duping a veteran that a bullet is slowly piercing his skull. As a hypnotist, he sets his sights beyond the banality of compelling a random audience member to cluck like a chicken. Janus Films co-founder Bryant Haliday stars as the Great Vorelli, a successful performer with a remarkable stage act. The result was, if the title appearing in big, bold letters an inch or two above wasn't enough of an indication, 1964's Devil Doll. British producer Richard Gordon ( Fiend Without a Face) was looking for an inexpensive premise to exploit, and he found it in the pages of a British anthology magazine. Dummies in recent years may have been largely limited to direct-to-video dreck and episodes of Goosebumps, but oh, there was a time when they were able to effectively pull in horror audiences in decades past, beginning in the mid-to-late '20s with The Unholy Three and The Great Gabbo and continuing with the dummy-defining segment in 1945's Dead of Night. Filmmakers seem to find it exceedingly difficult to cast a ventriloquist without tossing in some sort of murderous doll angle.
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