The Devil Doll (1936)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Paul Lavond (Lionel Barrymore) was a respected banker in Paris when he was framed for robbery and murder by crooked associates and sent to prison. Years later he escapes with a friend, a scientist who was working on a method to reduce humans to a height of mere inches (all for the good of humanity, of course). Lavond, however, is consumed with hatred for the men who betrayed him, and takes the scientist's methods back to Paris to exact painful revenge.
- Actors:
- Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Rafaela Ottiano, Robert Greig, Lucy Beaumont, Henry B. Walthall, Grace Ford, Pedro de Cordoba, Arthur Hohl, Juanita Quigley, Claire Du Brey, Rollo Lloyd, E. Alyn Warren, Jean Alden, King Baggot, Egon Brecher, Robert Du Couedic, Paul Foltz, Christian J. Frank
- Directors:
- Tod Browning
- Producers:
- Tod Browning, E.J. Mannix
- Writers:
- Garrett Fort, Guy Endore, Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning, Abraham Merritt, Richard Schayer
- Aka:
- The Witch of Timbuctoo / The Devil-Doll
- Genres:
- Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
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Reviews (1) of The Devil Doll
Thirties Horror - The Devil Doll review by Steve
MGM weren't a big horror studio but they did have Tod Browning under contract in the '20s-'30s and he made a handful of strange and atmospheric horror/fantasy films for them. This one is typical Browning and reminiscent of the eerie and perverse silents he made with Lon Chaney.
Lionel Barrymore escapes from Devil's Island where he was banged up for embezzlement from his bank in Paris, which was actually committed by three of his former colleagues. He returns with a mad scientist who once experimented on shrinking living things in a crackpot scheme to save mankind...
However, the banker will use the technology to destroy his enemies, who grew rich and powerful while he rotted in his prison hell. So there's a lot of camera trickery of tiny people carrying out his revenge. Maureen O'Sullivan adds some contrasting sweetness as his lovely daughter.
Barrymore doesn't camp it up, even in his disguise as an old woman. Rafaela Ottiano is memorably menacing as the wife of the crazy inventor. The effects are decent for the period. And there's a superior score from Frank Waxman. It's just a low budget shocker, but worth seeing for fans of that sort of thing.