Devil Doll

Rating:
Summary: an essential 'sleeper' for any collector!
Review: Although less well known than a lot of it's contemporary horror films, DEVIL DOLL is a remarkable effective production that deserves a place in any afficianado of the 'golden age' of British horror.
The title is slightly misleading, as the doll of the title is not the evil protaganist - That role falls to the dummy's 'master', the Great Vorelli. The story is fairly routine - A journalist (William Sylvester) wants to debunk noted stage hypnotist/ventriloquist Vorelli so eggs his girlfriend into going on stage to take part in the act. Vorelli then plots to place the woman in his thrall (and as played by the stunning Yvonne Romain, who can blame him?), but help comes from unexpected quarters.
It's the stylish direction of the film that makes it so amazing - Director Lyndsay Shonteff was young & inexperienced when fellow Canadian Sidney Furie had to step aside, but it certainly doesn't show on screen. The use of freeze frames, negative images & accelerated motion are all experimental for a film of this type and they add enormous atmosphere to the prceedings. The stock music is very appropriate and the sound effects are genuinely unsettling - The tension between Vorelli & 'Hugo' is palpable thanks to the conviction of the actors - There isn't a single bad performance in this film, with Bryant Halliday's extraordinary voice lending his potentially on-dimensional character great gravitas. The immediately recognisableWilliam Sylvester is also excellent, moving from sceptisism to belief throuhout the film.
Produced by the legendary Richard Gordon for around £50,000 (!), this film stands proudly alongside his more famous films like FIEND WITHOUT A FACE & GRIP OF THE STRANGLER - Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: the eerie doll and his master
Review: i am waiting so patiently for this dvd to be released. i put my order in months ago. i love this movie so much that i ordered two of them. one as a spare.if you like the old black and white horror movies like frankenstein and dracula. this one is even better.this puts child's play to shame.it's a 80 minute movie but worth every dime.see this one for you're self and i'll bet my life on it you will agree.

Rating:
Summary: i do not understand
Review: i do not understand what is taking this movie so long to be released. i love this movie and i hope to get it soon. they keep making a new release date. it started out april 30. i will really be disapointed after all this waiting if they don't release it. thank you.

Rating:
Summary: i do not understand
Review: i do not understand what is taking this movie so long to be released. i love this movie and i hope to get it soon. they keep making a new release date. it started out april 30. i will really be disapointed after all this waiting if they don't release it. thank you.

Rating:
Summary: STRANGE LITTLE CHILLER
Review: I saw this on tv as a teenager and remembered it as just being a weird movie and I felt sorry for the little dummy but couldn't remember why. Having now purchased "DEVIL DOLL" and sat down and watched it again I now remember. Image has done another fine job of lovingly presenting a rare film to be re-appreciated by a target audience. It features beautiful, crisp black & white photography and clear soundtrack. Seeing it now must be what it was like seeing it on it's release in 1964. It also features the stunning Yvonne Romain ("Circus of Horrors" and Hammer's "Curse of the Werewolf") as the girl-in-peril and you can't take your eyes off her. Another added feature is the "hot continental version" that I'll get around to watching one day. In the meantime, I'm completely satisfied with it as it is. The performances are good--especially Britisher Bryant Haliday as the evil Vorelli. He makes the predicament of Hugo the dummy truly sinister and you want Hugo to break free...but how? I have to admit, as jaded a horror film fan as I am, I did not see the shock ending coming. I recommend this little gem to anyone fond of obscure black & white shockers as a satisfying staple of their DVD collection. I certainly have. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: a nifty little thriller
Review: it's about time they released this on dvd. i bought three of them. this movie was excellent and the clear print that they took this from is superb. this is a must buy for all classic horror fans.

Rating:
Summary: Sensational, Edgy chiller...........a forgotten classic
Review: masterly performances especially by Halliday as Vorelli the ventriloquist. This is undoubtedly the finest of the psychotic Ventriloquist movies along with Dead of Night. There is a quality to the film that makes it compelling viewing.........the scenes where Vorelli is performing on stage are chilling to the bone. Its an fantastic little film - not one to be missed by horror fans. The person below isnt the only person to have ordered two copies of this great film........I too have had to place two orders in my total devotion to this film. The release has been delayed till august........one waits patiently! Bravo to image for putting an obscure classic like this out on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Superb DVD release of creepy Brit-horror classic
Review: Reporter Mark English (William Sylvester; Gorgo, 2001: A Space Odyssey) is assigned to write a story on dark, sadistic hypnotist/ventriloquist The Great Vorelli (Bryant Haliday). English convinces his girlfriend Marianne (Yvonne Romain; Curse of the Werewolf, Circus of Horrors) to volunteer to be an on-stage hypnotic subject of Vorelli's, whose popular act also involves his sarcastic talking, walking dummy Hugo. Determined to discover the secret of the dummy's animation, Mark indirectly arranges to have Vorelli perform at Marianne's aunt's charity ball, to which Vorelli readily agrees since he's become obsessed with Marianne. While staying over at the aunt's after the ball, Vorelli puts Marianne in a strange, lingering trance and Hugo himself gives Mark a clue to as to his 'secret.' Further plot threads, which shouldn't be disclosed, are interwoven, leading ultimately to an open-ended yet satisfying 'twist' ending. Haliday, in his finest hour, is terrific as Vorelli, intense and creepy, in a makeup reminiscent of Barrymore's Svengali, if a bit better groomed. Lindsay Shonteff's direction (closely 'supervised' by Sidney J. Furie) is also better than usual here (try watching Shonteff's Curse of the Voodoo sometime), utilizing lots of expressionistic low camera angles and a few avant-garde-ish negative image inserts. The (part electronic?) soundtrack is also surprisingly effective, especially since it's made up entirely of 'library' cues, some of them scored by the likes of Malcolm Lockyer (Dr. Who and the Daleks, Island of Terror). The story moves along briskly, there is some brief, mild gore and nudity, and the acting is generally of high caliber (Yvonne Romain displays some surprising chops, and the little person inside Hugo very convincingly assays the shambling gait of a living doll). The overall effect is that of an excellent extended Anglicized episode of Twilight Zone or Thriller (and that's meant as a compliment) with echoes of both Dead of Night and Svengali for good measure. Both the original English/American version of the film and the 'hot' continental version are included on the DVD. Purists will probably prefer the English cut, especially as the continental version completely replaces a key dialogue scene between Vorelli and his assistant Magda (Sandra Dorne) with a relatively unerotic and superfluous striptease number. This cut completely removes the motivation for the following scene and creates needless confusion, particularly for the first-time viewer. Definitely watch the English version first if you've never seen the film before. The other two scenes with added nudity (bared breasts) were reshot for the continental version, hence don't affect the story line or running time.
Source prints for both versions are virtually pristine. Physical damage is limited to some very light speckling; black level, brightness, contrast, sharpness, and shadow/highlight detail are uniformly excellent. The digitally remastered transfers are matted at 1.66:1 and anamorphically enhanced. A lightly speckled but fairly sharp trailer with very good to excellent tonal values is included, as well as a nicely done gallery of approximately 95 stills, ad mats, and posters. The liner notes by Tom Weaver consist primarily of an interview with Frederick E. West, who wrote the original short story upon which the film was based. The audio commentary by producer Richard Gordon, with Weaver, (who also paired for Criterion's terrific Fiend without a Face DVD) is, as usual, exhaustively informative, although they do not directly comment on the on-screen action a great deal. I've always believed Devil Doll to be one of the underrated gems of non-Hammer British horror (along with Circus of Horrors) and this DVD is the ultimate tribute. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Devil Is In The Details!
Review: Two versions of the movie "Devil Doll" are available on the DVD; the American version and the alternate Continental version of the film. For some reason, the Continental version includes a striptease number in place of a key scene between the Great Vorelli and his assistant. As presented, what's left of the scene immediately following the striptease makes no sense. The makers of this DVD should have taken the Continental striptease scene and added it to the American version of the movie, creating a longer and better movie.

The Great Vorelli is a master hypnotist as well as a ventriloquist, whose dummy Hugo acts more like a real person than a puppet. Whoever designed the dummy did a great job. Hugo's smirking face is both amusing and threatening at the same time. Instead of engaging in comic banter, Hugo argues with Vorelli on stage. When Hugo insists that the audience's applause is for him, Vorelli instructs him to walk to the front of the stage to properly thank the audience. Hugo gets up off Vorelli's lap and walks under his own power, amazing the audience. Reporter Mark English, who is assigned to report on Vorelli, is determined to expose him as a fraud. He is sure that Hugo is a mechanical puppet or a small person disguised as a ventriloquist's dummy. Mark convinces his girlfriend Marianne to volunteer to be hypnotized by Vorelli on stage. Vorelli is clearly smitten by her. Marianne later asks Vorelli to perform at her aunt's charity dinner party. During that performance, Hugo is surly and disobedient. He grabs a knife off the table and brandishes it at Vorelli. I guess you could call Vorelli's act, theater of the absurd for dummies!

While previous reviewers did not discuss the extent of Vorelli's amazing powers, describe the secret of Hugo's true nature, or reveal the twist ending of the movie, I will now divulge all of the details. What's that noise? Is that you, Hugo? Vorelli?? Whoever you are, put down the knife! Aaaaaaauuuugh!!!

Rating:
Summary: Good low budget chiller with a few unintentional laughs
Review: Unrelated to the 1936 Tod Browning movie of the same name; DEVIL DOLL has a similar story to the (later) famed segment of DEAD OF NIGHT and also to William Goldman's later novel MAGIC, which was filmed in 1978 with Anthony Hopkins.
Scripted by George Barclay and Lance Z. Hargreaves, and based on a story by Frederick Escreet Smith; DEVIL DOLL is a compact but enjoyable little chiller.
The Great Vorelli (Bryant Halliday) is a charismatic hypnotist/ ventriloquist who arrives in London to do his famed show, in which his dummy Hugo can walk and talk by himself- but there's one hitch: This is no trick.But the audience don't realize that. Of course no magic show would be the same without audience participation; and co-incidentally one of the chosen patrons is Marian Hore (Yvonne Romain), the attractive daughter of one of England's richest men. Vorelli uses this opportunity to offer to do a charity performance for her.
But during the act Hugo gets carried away and he reveals his homicidal tendencies. Would it have anything to do with his "Master" locking him in a cage and goading him into committing murder? There's an amusing bit at this performance where Vorelli makes Hugo drink wine, saying to him: "Don't drink too much, Hugo. It might make the sawdust in your stomach swell".
DEVIL DOLL is more funny today than frightening, but Halliday is perfect as Vorelli; helping make a silly idea into a fairly good chiller, albeit one with a wholly predictable resolution.