For me, The Devil-Doll (1936) is one of the real curiosities of the Golden Age of horror. With some obvious content, it reminds me of Bride of Frankenstein, released a year earlier. For example, one of the main characters, Malita (Rafaela Ottiano), has a white stripe in her piled hair. Ottiano gives an over-the-top performance that evokes someone other than Elsa Lanchester… Una O’Connor. It’s not with a shrill voice, though, just the physical intensity. Plus, the tools of revenge are as if Dr. Pratorious’s miniature creations have been released from their glass bell jars to wreak havoc.
The two movies are also similar in tone. As I rewatched it for this discussion, I sometimes felt like it was a dark comedy. It’s mostly because of Malita, but also because of watching escaped, but innocent, convict Paul Levond (Lionel Barrymore) hide from the authorities by disguising himself as an old woman, Madame Mandelip. It’s played straight but evokes another character and movie that have absolutely nothing to do with this or classic horror, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993.) I half expected Barrymore to do a Robin Williams and set his/her chest on fire and shriek about hot flashes.
Mrs. Doubtfire also shares a similar sentiment with The Devil-Doll. However, instead of using an alter ego to earn co-custody of his children, Lavond uses it to earn forgiveness from his daughter. You see, he’s innocent and was wrongly imprisoned. Therefore, he also seeks revenge on the three bankers who set him up for a crime he didn’t commit. That’s where his cellmate comes in handy. Emil Coulvet (Robert Greig) and his wife, Malita, have been experimenting with shrinking people to one-sixth their size, the ultimate goal being to… feed the world?
Lavond, my friend, millions of years ago the creatures that roamed this world were gigantic. As they multiplied, the earth could no longer produce enough food. Think of it, Lavond: every living creature reduced to one-sixth its size. One-sixth of its physical need. Food for six times all of us!
So, this is a very strange mix of ideas. When I think about them individually, I like them. However, I’m not sure the entire movie works by mixing magic/voodoo, revenge thriller, cross-dressing hero who does bad things, family, drama, etc. If director/producer Tod Browning unintentionally borrowed from Bride of Frankenstein, he must have intentionally borrowed from himself. Lon Chaney donned wig and spectacles in the silent film The Unholy Three (1925.) (Chaney did the same for its talkie remake five years later, with which Browning had nothing to do.)
Again, I like parts of this movie. For example, where Whale used big shots in his Bride of Frankenstein castle laboratory, Browning uses close-ups in his The Devil-Doll backroom lab. This creates intimacy and examples of Lavond and Maleta working together in tight quarters. I also enjoy Barrymore’s performance. We don’t learn for a while that he’s the good guy, so he at first evoked his real villain role, Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946.) As Madame Mandelip, he at first lays low when the police are near, but when he realizes they don’t recognize him, he gets in their face, almost defying their ignorance.
Finally, while Browning made the best of risky special effects by utilizing shadows to create realism, it was his next to last film and feels like he lost some of his creativity for originality while throwing together everything but the kitchen sink to make something original. More prolific in the Silent Age, he nevertheless made some amazing movies in the Golden Age, primarily Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932.) I’m not too fond of Mark of the Vampire (1935) and although I haven’t rewatched it lately, I like The Devil-Doll a tiny (pun intended) bit more.
Originally released in the United States on July 10, 1936, by MGM, we’re celebrating the 90th anniversary of The Devil-Doll this month! It’s available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive.
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