Why so much hype?

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

From Tod Browning, the director of horror classic Dracula (1931) and the infamous Freaks (1932), The Devil-Doll is a fun horror/fantasy that, while patently absurd, is very entertaining, with a great cast and some impressive special effects.Lionel Barrymore plays convicted banker Paul Lavond, who was sent to prison after being framed by his co-workers for embezzlement and murder. After 17 years inside, Lavond escapes with fellow prisoner Marcel (Henry B. Walthall), with revenge on his mind. On arrival at the swampland cabin inhabited by Marcel's crazy crippled wife Malita (Rafaela Ottiano), Paul sees something that will make it possible to even the score with his old colleagues: the miniaturisation of human beings that can be controlled by telepathy.After Marcel dies, Levond and Malita travel to Paris, where they set up a toy shop. Disguised as Madame Mandelip, the shop's proprieter, the escaped convict sets into motion his plan for revenge.With not one person-not even the police chief with whom he converses-suspecting that Madame Mandelip is Lavond, the film stretches plausibility quite a long way, but Barrymore is so amusing as his doddery alter-ego that all is easily forgiven. And with some great visual trickery, using a combination of mattes and excellent oversized props, The Devil-Doll is a delight for anyone interested in the history of movie special effects.The film is also very touching at times, with Lavond desperately wanting to clear his name so that his daughter Lorraine (the lovely Maureen O'Sullivan) will no longer hate him. As Madame Mandelip, Lavond has several conversations with his daughter (who also sees nothing peculiar about the heavy set woman with masculine features), but even after proving his innocence, he is unable to reveal his true identity.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for the awesome line 'She's an inbred peasant halfwit'.

Escaped from prison, an ex-con learns from his partner that he can seek revenge on those who wronged him with a special voodoo spell to turn them into miniature dolls, and armed with the knowledge to do so, sets out to accomplish his goal.This one has a few really good parts to it. The most telling is the great special effects work, as this has a large amount of scenes where the dolls are interacting with their surroundings, and the scenes where the dolls are running around in shots as the life-size humans are interacting with them look great overall. The early scenes where they're running around on the counter-tops are fun, but the real joy comes when they start playing around at the end where they turn into killers and stalk the unsuspecting victims. These are all wonderfully fun scenes, as they come into very active parts of the film and really manage to work so great because of the ingenious way of accomplishing this task. The ability of getting them on the same screen with the life-size characters as well as their centric scenes are convincingly done and really manage to impress in every well as there's no hitch in anything of these scenes. This one also features some great action scenes here with the dolls carrying out the revenge here where the one dolls does through the house and stealing the jewelry from the wife before engaging in the actual revenge of the miniature doll scurrying along the bedding to carry out in the attack on the banker which is quite a fine scene here. The attack on the last banker is quite fun as well with the stalking in the grand, elaborate mansion decorated in Christmas regalia as the protective guards wander around until the fateful moment where it finally pulls the whole revelation together in a fine sequence. It even has a really great ending that comes with a fine resolution to matters and a really fun fight that really manages to provide some excitement and really make the movie entertaining. This one only has one mild flaw, and that is the large section of time taken up to get through the middle segment. This is mostly through the romance angle of the daughter being interrupted by her hatred for him which doesn't need to be there. They could've done the daughter subplot without having the romance thrown in by merely keeping the two separate, focusing solely on each other and not really offering much of a chance to spill over as the constant inferences in every scene means it's tiring and clichéd. As well, this manages to further another minor flaw as it really makes a short movie feel really long with an overabundance of such scenes when it really doesn't need to be. This lone gripe is the movie's flaw.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence.

For me, there are 3 reasons to watch this film: 1. To realize that even the grandest studio of all -- MGM -- could make a really dumb movie. 2. To realize that even that grand old actor -- Lionel Barrymore -- made some real stinkers. 3. To watch a film just for the sake of enduring just dumb it could be.Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, let me give you some details.Barrymore is one of two old men who escapes from Devil's Island. The escape lasts all of about 5 minutes, and is consequential to the film only because it gives a basis for the revenge that Barrymore will take on his ex-banker friends in Paris who framed him. Barrymore is paired up with a mad scientist who has learned to shrink people to 1/6 their normal size. The scientist's wife is played so over the top that she makes Elsa Lanchester's roles in horror films look as if she was on sedatives. The scientist dies of a heart attack (we viewers of the film should be so lucky!), and Barrymore and the scientist's wife go to Paris to exact revenge on the bank partners and continue the scientific research.If it all wasn't campy enough, once Barrymore gets to Paris, he disguises himself in drag as an old woman. After that, there are some good moments and the ending is rather touching. And throughout, there is the satisfaction of watching just how good Barrymore was...even in a dumb movie.

The Devil Doll which was based on an Abraham Merritt novel Burn Witch Burn is really based on a reworking of The Count Of Monte Cristo. If Mr. Merritt's work arrived reasonably intact to the screen, he's quite lucky that Victor Hugo was long dead, lest Merritt and MGM be sued for plagiarism.The chase is cut to in The Devil Doll. The film begins with the escape of Henry B. Walthall and Lionel Barrymore from Devil's Island and their arrival at Walthall's sister's house. The sister Rafaela Ottiana has been keeping Walthall's experiments going. He's found a way to shrink people to one sixth the size. The problem is that they become complete automatons at that size, ready to do the bidding of any who know to telepathically communicate with them.Walthall dies, but Barrymore sees the possibilities of carrying out Edmond Dantes like revenge on the three men who framed him for embezzlement and sent him to prison. These little people, these Devil Dolls help him in his plan and at this point the film follows closely The Count of Monte Cristo.It's a good film, but not a great one and possibly that's because the Code just came into force two years earlier. This project must have been on director Todd Browning's drawing boards for years. In fact I'm sure it was meant for Lon Chaney at one time. I'm absolutely sure that a different ending was originally meant for this film.Maureen O'Sullivan is Barrymore's daughter and her boyfriend is Frank Lawton who went back to Great Britain the following year. Lucy Beaumont who was only three years older than Lionel Barrymore played his mother just as she did in A Free Soul. The big treat is to see Lionel Barrymore in little old lady drag, the better to fool the police and more importantly his three targets.Rafaela Ottiana is good as the sister who is definitely not playing with a full deck, so obsessed as she is on completing Walthall's work. The Devil Doll has its moments, but its not the classic that Dracula was for Todd Browning or as good as any of the many silent films Browning did with Lon Chaney.