The Devil-Doll

Last updated
The Devil-Doll
Devil dollposter.jpg
Directed by Tod Browning
Written by
Based onBurn, Witch, Burn!
1933 novel
by A. Merritt
Produced by Edward J. Mannix
Starring
Cinematography Leonard Smith
Edited by Frederick Y. Smith
Music by Franz Waxman
Production
company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • July 10, 1936 (1936-07-10)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
Language English
Trailer

The Devil-Doll is a 1936 American horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan. The film was adapted from the novel Burn Witch Burn! (1932) by Abraham Merritt. [1] It has become a cult film. [2]

Contents

A French scientist is worried about human overpopulation. He creates a formula able to shrink humans, in order for the planet's resources to last longer. He dies shortly after a prison escape, and his former cellmate decides to use the formula in a revenge scheme. The former prisoner targets the people who had originally framed him for bank robbery and murder.

Plot

Paul Lavond (Barrymore), who was wrongly convicted of robbing his own Paris bank and killing a night watchman more than seventeen years ago, escapes Devil's Island with Marcel (Henry B. Walthall), a scientist who is trying to create a formula to reduce people to one-sixth of their original size. The intended purpose of the formula is to make the Earth's limited resources last longer for an ever-growing population. The scientist dies after their escape.

Lavond joins the scientist's widow, Malita (Rafaela Ottiano), and decides to use the shrinking technique to obtain revenge on the three former business associates who had framed him and to vindicate himself. He returns to Paris and disguises himself as an old woman who sells lifelike dolls. He shrinks a young girl and one of his former associates to infiltrate the homes of the other two former associates, paralyzing one.

When the final associate confesses before he is attacked, Lavond clears his name and secures the future happiness of his estranged daughter, Lorraine (O'Sullivan), in the process. Malita isn't satisfied, and wants to continue to use the formula to carry on her husband's work. She tries to kill Paul when he announces that he is finished with their partnership, having accomplished all he intended, but she blows up their lab, killing herself.

Paul tells Toto, Lorraine's fiancé, about what happened. He meets his daughter, pretending to be the deceased Marcel. He tells Lorraine that Paul Lavond died during their escape from prison, but that he loved her very much. Lavond then departs, to an uncertain fate.

Cast

Reception

Marketed as a novelty thriller, The Devil-Doll was not a financial success, although it did receive some praise from critics. [3] [4] The New York Times gave the film a positive review, making special note of its entertaining use of special effects, comparing it favorably to such films as King Kong and The Invisible Man . [5] However, a review in the American science fiction magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories was not as enthusiastic, calling the film a "disappointment" and a "run-of-the-mill thriller which does not attempt to recapture the unique fantasy of Merritt's novel." [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tod Browning</span> American film director (1880–1962)

Tod Browning was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of various genres between 1915 and 1939, but was primarily known for horror films, and was often cited in the trade press as the Edgar Allan Poe of cinema.

<i>Grand Hotel</i> (1932 film) Adaptation of William Drake play

Grand Hotel is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by William A. Drake is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum. To date, it is the only film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated in any other category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Barrymore</span> American actor, director, screenwriter (1878–1954)

Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), and is known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.

The following is an overview of 1936 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.

<i>Cats Eye</i> (1985 film) 1985 American anthology horror film directed by Lewis Teague

Cat's Eye is a 1985 American anthology horror thriller film directed by Lewis Teague and written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories, "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", and "General". The first two are adaptations of short stories in King's 1978 Night Shift collection, and the third is unique to the film. The three stories are connected by the presence of a traveling cat, and Drew Barrymore both of which play incidental roles in the first two and major characters in the third.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed and Lorraine Warren</span> American paranormal investigators

Edward Warren Miney and Lorraine Rita Warren were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of alleged hauntings. Edward was a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professed to be clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband.

<i>Dr. Cyclops</i> 1940 film by Ernest B. Schoedsack

Dr. Cyclops is a 1940 American science fiction horror film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Dale Van Every and Merian C. Cooper, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, and starring Thomas Coley, Victor Kilian, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Frank Yaconelli and Albert Dekker.

<i>A Yank at Oxford</i> 1938 comedy-drama film

A Yank at Oxford is a 1938 comedy-drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Vivien Leigh and Edmund Gwenn. The screenplay was written by John Monk Saunders and Leon Gordon. The film was produced by MGM-British at Denham Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry B. Walthall</span> American actor (1878–1936)

Henry Brazeale Walthall was an American stage and film actor. He appeared as the Little Colonel in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrett Fort</span> American dramatist

Garrett Elsden Fort was an American short story writer, playwright, and Hollywood screenwriter. He is mostly known for his connections with 1930s horror films, with film historian Gary Don Rhodes describing him as "one of, if not the pre-eminent horror film screenwriters of the classic era." He was a close follower of Meher Baba, and travelled to India while developing a screenplay based on Baba's philosophy.

<i>The League of Frightened Men</i> (film) 1937 film by Alfred E. Green

The League of Frightened Men is a 1937 American mystery film based on the 1935 novel of the same name, the second Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the Columbia Pictures film stars Walter Connolly as Nero Wolfe, a role played by Edward Arnold in the previous year's Meet Nero Wolfe. The role of Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin was reprised by Lionel Stander.

<i>The Krofft Supershow</i> American TV series or program

The Krofft Supershow was a Saturday morning children's variety show, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. It aired for two seasons from September 11, 1976, to September 2, 1978, on ABC.

<i>The House of Darkness</i> 1913 film

The House of Darkness is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.

<i>The Unholy Night</i> 1929 American mystery film

The Unholy Night is a 1929 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring Ernest Torrence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafaela Ottiano</span> Italian-American actress

Rafaela Ottiano was an Italian-American actress. She was best known for her role as Grusinskaya's maid Suzette in Grand Hotel (1932) and as Russian Rita in She Done Him Wrong (1933).

Public Hero ﹟1 is a 1935 American crime film starring Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Chester Morris and Joseph Calleia. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production was directed by J. Walter Ruben.

<i>Broken Lullaby</i> 1932 film

Broken Lullaby is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda is based on the 1930 play L'homme que j'ai tué by Maurice Rostand and its 1931 English-language adaptation, The Man I Killed, by Reginald Berkeley.

<i>Lifes Whirlpool</i> (1917 film) 1917 film by Lionel Barrymore

Life's Whirlpool is a 1917 American silent drama film written and directed by Lionel Barrymore with his sister Ethel Barrymore as the star. This is the brother and sister's only collaboration on a silent film as director and star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Barrymore on stage, screen and radio</span>

Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen, and radio. He also directed several films, wrote scripts, created etchings, sketches, and composed music. He was the eldest child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgie Drew Barrymore, and his two siblings were John and Ethel; these and other family members were part of an acting dynasty. Reluctant to follow his parents' career, Barrymore appeared together with his grandmother Louisa Lane Drew in a stage production of The Rivals at the age of 15. He soon found success on stage in character roles. Although he took a break from acting in 1906–1909 to train in Paris as a painter, he was not successful as an artist, and returned to the US and acting. He also joined his family troupe, from 1910, in their vaudeville act.

<i>The Washington Masquerade</i> 1932 film

The Washington Masquerade is a 1932 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Charles Brabin and written by John Meehan and Samuel Blythe. The film stars Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, Diane Sinclair, Nils Asther and Reginald Barlow. The film was released on July 9, 1932, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

References

  1. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c.1993
  2. Paul Simpson, "The Rough Guide to Cult Movies: The Good, The Bad and the Very Weird", Rough Guides UK, 2010.
  3. Towlson, Jon (2014). Subversive Horror Cinema : Countercultural Messages of Films from Frankenstein to the Present. McFarland. p. 41. ISBN   978-0786474691 . Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  4. Towlson, Jon (2016). The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films, 1931-1936. McFarland. p. 159. ISBN   978-0786494743 . Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  5. Nugent, Frank S. "Movie Review - - Hollywood Opens Its Bag of Tricks for the Capitol's 'The Devil Doll' -- The Roxy Presents 'M'liss.' - NYTimes.com". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  6. H.K. (December 1936). "Scientifilm Review". Wonder Stories: 119.