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Eerily atmospheric and oddly erotic, this may not have equaled the 1936 version, but I am telling you, there came a time when I was cheering for Hugo, the dummy. Isn't it interesting how most dummies in this genre look amazingly the same--think "Dead Of Night" and "Magic." The only exception is Chuckie in "Child's Play," who, frankly, looks like Brad Pitt on crack. When "Bride Of Chucky" was filmed, the female doll should have been modeled on Amanda Plummer! Maybe then, I would have seen it.
We also learned that the rubber chicken's name is Kerwin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for the film, Bryant Halliday's performance as hypnotist/ventriloguist The Great Vorrelli, makes it clear Vincent Price was the first choice for the role, but even he could not tolerate this script's cheesienss. It was directed by Lindsay Shonteff, making his debut, and it shows. Shonteff provides great visuals, atmospheric settings and art direction, macabre cinematography, but cannot do a thing with the actors. The dummy, I am telling you, gives the best performance.
Certainly not Yvonne Romain (Marianne), Sandra Dorne (Magda) and Heidi Erich (Grace), all of whom are from Britain's Central Tramp casting! The amount of cleavage show in this film is pretty daring for its time, which is maybe why Svengoolie kept insisiting viewers use discretion in watching it.
It's great to look at, but ponderous to watch, as it is slow moving. As for what it centers on, I refer you 1971's "The Mephisto Waltz," which is a better film.
The dummy, though, does have the last laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 comments:
So glad you reminded everyone this was airing: I haven't seen it since the Late Late Show circa 1988! Totally forgot how creepy (yet sympathetic) the Hugo dummy was. True it has some slow spots, but this was exacerbated by the tedious padded Svengoolie presentation: edit all that out and the movie itself is barely 77 mins.
If one looks it up on Wikipedia, some fun facts emerge. Unusual for 1963. there were two theatrical versions: the European cut is apparently chock-a-block with more bare breast incidents than a Russ Meyer 42nd Street softcore special, while the USA version uses substitute shots with the same actresses demurely clothed in full bras and negligees. Unfortunately neither version offers any explanation why the rebellious Hugo would agree to murder that one person, who seemingly played no hand in his dilemma at all: the nifty ending is undercut a bit by this dangling thread.
Perhaps more fascinating, the actor who portrays Vorelli founded Janus Films, which ushered in the foreign language film era in North America! This is about as odd a career trajectory as Roger Ebert veering from screenwriter of the craptastic "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls" to influential film critic.
MY Dear,
I still long to see the 1936 version.
And I love Svengoolie and Kerwin, the
rubber chicken. He mentioned about
Bryan Halliday founding Janus Films.
Imagine. indeed!
This has become the highlight of David
and I's week. See what the pandemic has done?
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