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IMDb > The Devil-Doll (1936)

The Devil-Doll (1936) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   1,071 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
No change in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers:
Garrett Fort (screenplay) &
Guy Endore (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Devil-Doll on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
10 July 1936 (USA) more
Genre:
Plot:
An escaped Devil's Island convict uses miniaturized humans to wreak vengeance on those that framed him. full summary | add synopsis
User Comments:
Send In the Elves more (39 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited 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
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Witch of Timbuctoo
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Runtime:
78 min (Turner library print)
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
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)

Fun Stuff

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. more
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. more
Quotes:
Charles Matin: There'a a certain amusing irony in offering a man's own money for his capture. Fifty thousand francs? Why not? more
Movie Connections:
References The Unholy Three (1925) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
19 out of 23 people found the following comment useful.
Send In the Elves, 6 December 2002
9/10
Author: telegonus from brighton, ma

Director Tod Browning just wasn't drawn to normal people. His movies are often set in circuses and carnivals, or else involve criminals who take on weird or grotesque disguises. Deception of one kind or another is a common theme in his films. Some find his movies to be profound commentaries on the human condition; others see them as just weird. I see Browning as a unique film artist. As to the extent of his genius, it's hard for me to gauge. There's no one else quite like him. Whenever I'm watching a Browning picture I'm inevitably more thrilled by the ideas behind it than I am by the film itself. The Devil Doll concerns a man framed for a crime he didn't commit who is sent to Devil's Island, where he learns the black art of shrinking people to the size of mice from an inventor. He escapes from the island and returns to Paris, where he proceeds to extract his revenge on those who sent him away.

There's a lot of plot in this one, far more than I just outlined, and the movie has on occasion a Victorian-Dickensian feeling, aided in no small measure by the casting of Maureen O'Sullivan and Frank Lawton, who had just appeared in the movie of David Copperfield, as the romantic leads. Lionel Barrymore is the star, and still quite capable of getting around, and delivers a fine performance, alternately sympathetic and diabolical. This is not a fast-paced or exciting movie by today's standards, but it has its virtues, most of them pictorial. The special effects are superb, and the elf-people uncannily persuasive.

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That streak of white pery-1
Brilliant! Suspense, visual effects mapsnmad
Confused about the ending cwaters-3
Mystery Science Theater? atarisafarifx
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