Devil Doll
- 1964
- 1h 21m
IMDb RATING
4.8/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
An evil hyponotist/ventriloquist plots to gain an heiress' millions.An evil hyponotist/ventriloquist plots to gain an heiress' millions.An evil hyponotist/ventriloquist plots to gain an heiress' millions.
Francis De Wolff
- Dr. Keisling
- (as Francis de Wolff)
Redmond Bailey
- Backstage Crew
- (uncredited)
Anthony Baird
- Soldier
- (uncredited)
Tony Castleton
- Charity Ball Guest
- (uncredited)
David Charlesworth
- Hugo Novik
- (uncredited)
Lorenza Colville
- Mercedes
- (uncredited)
Sadie Corre
- Hugo the Dummy
- (uncredited)
Trixie Dallas
- Miss Penton
- (uncredited)
Keith Denny
- Audience Member
- (uncredited)
Margaret Durnell
- Countess
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording 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.
- Quotes
Mark English: [on the telephone to Bob] Now get your tail out of bed and get to work.
Bob Garrett: Wilco, wilco, stay cool and all that jazz. Hey, how'd you know I was still in bed?
Mark English: It figures, boy, it figures.
- Alternate versionsThe international version is different from the original British version.
- The opening and closing credits are different.
- The international version replaces two scenes with topless women with alternate takes, featuring them clothed or covered.
- The international version contains a scene which explains the motivation for Magda's murder, while the British version replaces this with a stage performance in which a woman is hypnotized and strips, ending up topless.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Devil Doll (1997)
Featured review
Good Thriller
Devil Doll (1964)
*** (out of 4)
Effective and perfectly made British horror film has Bryant Haliday play The Great Vorelli, a hypnotist/ventriloquist who can do things that no other can. Why is that? Because his dummy actually has the soul of his former assistant in it and Vorelli plans on making another dummy and putting the soul of a woman (Yvonne Romain) he's hammered with in it. This film has an incredibly low rating on IMDb, which I'm sure is going to keep many people away but I'd guess a lot of those low votes come from people just giving it low votes because MST3K did an episode with this. A lot of other books and magazines praise this film and I'm going to do so as well. I normally tend to find British horror films a tad bit boring and while this one here begins to lose steam as it rolls along, it still manages to be quite effective. What's most impressive is the cinematography and editing, all of which is done on a very low budget. Some have said the film has a made for TV look but I'd disagree with this. Yes, it's mostly close ups used but I think this works out to be very effective because it puts us so close to Vorelli and the dummy that you can't help but feel as if you're under a trance as well. I really loved how the film was edited and this could be used as evidence that editing is the most important thing in a film. Just watch the first stage show where the dummy first begins to walk. It's rather obvious that a midget is doing the dummy but the way this sequence is put together makes it rather chilling when you see him start to walk. The ending, while a bit over the top, also features some great editing as well. I found Haliday to be quite pleasant in his role as was Hammer queen Romain. I wasn't too impressed with William Sylvester but he too was still better than you'd normally get in such a low budget film. I watched the European version of the film, which features a tad bit more nudity and features a few strange sequences like a striptease. This isn't the most original movie ever made but it's the perfect example of something done right with very little money.
*** (out of 4)
Effective and perfectly made British horror film has Bryant Haliday play The Great Vorelli, a hypnotist/ventriloquist who can do things that no other can. Why is that? Because his dummy actually has the soul of his former assistant in it and Vorelli plans on making another dummy and putting the soul of a woman (Yvonne Romain) he's hammered with in it. This film has an incredibly low rating on IMDb, which I'm sure is going to keep many people away but I'd guess a lot of those low votes come from people just giving it low votes because MST3K did an episode with this. A lot of other books and magazines praise this film and I'm going to do so as well. I normally tend to find British horror films a tad bit boring and while this one here begins to lose steam as it rolls along, it still manages to be quite effective. What's most impressive is the cinematography and editing, all of which is done on a very low budget. Some have said the film has a made for TV look but I'd disagree with this. Yes, it's mostly close ups used but I think this works out to be very effective because it puts us so close to Vorelli and the dummy that you can't help but feel as if you're under a trance as well. I really loved how the film was edited and this could be used as evidence that editing is the most important thing in a film. Just watch the first stage show where the dummy first begins to walk. It's rather obvious that a midget is doing the dummy but the way this sequence is put together makes it rather chilling when you see him start to walk. The ending, while a bit over the top, also features some great editing as well. I found Haliday to be quite pleasant in his role as was Hammer queen Romain. I wasn't too impressed with William Sylvester but he too was still better than you'd normally get in such a low budget film. I watched the European version of the film, which features a tad bit more nudity and features a few strange sequences like a striptease. This isn't the most original movie ever made but it's the perfect example of something done right with very little money.
helpful•194
- Michael_Elliott
- Feb 8, 2009
Details
Box office
- Budget
- £25,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content