The Devil-Doll (1936)

Writers:

Garrett Fort (screenplay) &
Guy Endore (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 July 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror

Plot:

An escaped Devil's Island convict uses miniaturized humans to wreak vengeance on those that framed him.

Plot Keywords:

Devil's Island | Escape | Vengeance | Revenge | Murder

Cast

Lionel Barrymore	...	Paul Lavond
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Lorraine Lavond
Frank Lawton	...	Toto
Rafaela Ottiano	...	Malita
Robert Greig	...	Emil Coulvet
Lucy Beaumont	...	Madame Lavond
Henry B. Walthall	...	Marcel
Grace Ford	...	Lachna
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Charles Matin
Arthur Hohl	...	Victor Radin
Juanita Quigley	...	Marguerite Coulvet
Claire Du Brey	...	Madame Coulvet (as Claire du Brey)
Rollo Lloyd	...	Detective Maurice
E. Alyn Warren	...	Commissioner of Police

Also Known As:

The Witch of Timbuctoo

Runtime:

78 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:PG | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2328)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Francis McDonald (Detective) and Inez Palange (Concierge) are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members for their roles, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: As one of the men who framed Lavond is reading about his escape from prison, the paper he's holding is shown both folded and unfolded between shots.

Quotes:

Charles Matin: There'a a certain amusing irony in offering a man's own money for his capture. Fifty thousand francs? Why not?

Movie Connections:

References The Unholy Three (1925)

The Whole World Shrinks

You know how it goes in a cinematic life. You find filmmakers that you can trust to engage you. It's not so much that you feel comfortable with them, or that they entertain you.

From the thirties, the filmmaker that delivers for me is Tod Browning. Where Tim Burton portrays a damaged world, he does so in order to laugh at it. Browning's world is populated entirely by freaks, even the cops. Its all an honorable circus.

This is one of his best, because it is less obvious and because it has some really good actors.

The story is completely incomprehensible. A framed bank president seeks revenge. He is thrown into control of a situation which begins the movie: there's a system for shrinking people and animals but they lack minds, so can be controlled by concentrating. This works for humans and animals and inexplicably the controller (usually Lionel Barrymore, the wronged banker), gets feedback somehow so he can direct the little people even when he can't see what's happening.

Things are complicated by a slew of women: the newly dead scientist's wife who has the shrinking secret and who thinks everyone should be shrunk — to save food, you see. There's the banker's mother and daughter. The latter provides some melodrama. And our banker disguises himself as a woman dollmaker.

These women grind the soft spots in our minds.

There are tons of plot holes. But we don't mind a bit because the deal here is the creation of a world of darkness and weird physics.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.