Mystery Science Theater 3000: DEVIL DOLL

September 28, 2017 12:28 AM - Season 8, Episode 18

"What is the strange terrifying evil secret of the dummy... and why is it locked in a case every night?" Some people create their own hell for themselves. Such a person is Dr. Vorelli, a man who hates puppets but has a successful ventriloquist act. His marionette Hugo has a dark secret, but it involves ham. And what is it about sinister hypnotist types who put the whammy on women that dooms them to stage performance? There appears to be a lot less money in Svengali-ing than you'd think. It turns out Rasputin's real trick was networking. This is an episode that tends to grow on people. During one's first viewing it's easy to get overwhelmed by the Vorelli's hatefulness and the overall aura of bad, but there are some great lines by Mike and co. And Pitch, a character from the Comedy Central era (a reference to Santa Claus), features in host segments! In the subplot, "Apearlo" and "Brainguyus" are still in Ancient Rome looking for Bobo. Promo - YouTube Premiered October 4, 1997.

Episode 818 DEVIL DOLL
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - Annotated MST3K - TVTropes

Here's Paul Chaplin's entry in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. His reflections:

Our hero (I forget his name and I guarantee so will you) travels to Berlin at one point to interview a former Vorelli assistant, a phase of her life I'm sure she highlights on her resume. She's a dour German woman, rooming with a lumpy German guy. Having grown up around a lot of German women, I have to say, German women are in fact capable of smiling. They do nice things like make Krumkache and Spaezel. So don't get the wrong idea about German women from this one example. She was a real sourpuss.
Sometimes I get a little nervous about having repeatedly played the role of a demon from Hell, even if it is all in fun. I wonder if I might not be somehow inviting the Dark One into my own soul? I sure hope not!

Movie
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1964, 4.0 stars)
"An evil hyponotist/ventriloquist plots to gain an heiress' millions."
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff. Written by Ronald Kinnoch, Charles F. Vetter and Frederick E. Smith. Starring Bryant Haliday, William Sylvester and Yvonne Romain.


Notes:
Watch for several host segment scenes where both a puppet's performer and that puppet are on-screen at once. Satellite News notes it's probably Patrick Bransig running the puppet in those cases.

I hope you guys are prepared for next week, because it's a doozy, another of the worst movies of all....

posted by JHarris (5 comments total)

There are moments of this movie that attain a Racket Girls level of ickiness. For those keeping score at home, that's one stratum higher than the Girl in Gold Boots ickiness tier.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 2:41 AM on September 28, 2017

This is one of the ones that I tend not to watch. Even with the riffs, this is awful people doing awful things.
"Your cruelty amuses us!!"
posted by wittgenstein at 7:43 AM on September 28, 2017

Yeah, this one is dark both physically and tonally. Not a fave.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:59 AM on September 28, 2017

Although I forgot to make the notice last night, once again we (in MST Club) are watching it at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub. I think the preshow this week's going to be Homestar Runner stuff, of which more and more are being officially released on YouTube. I hope to see you there!
posted by JHarris at 4:22 PM on September 28, 2017

If this episode was set in the present?

Vorelli would totally vape.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:34 PM on September 29, 2017