RELEASE DATE: 1964
RATED: Approved In The States
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider
Our tale begins during a drive with a sinister looking fellow who is accompanied by a puppet. This would be master hypnotist and puppet master The Great Vorelli. He has himself a sold out show in jolly old England. Across town, a reporter by the name of Mark has tickets to the event. He takes his gal pal Marianne to the show which consists of some rather sadistic hypnosis. Marianne herself is brought on stage during the performance and Vorelli turns her into a dancing machine. Vorelli seems to take a liking for Marianne during the skit. Wonder why he didn't make her strip if thats the case.
When that part of the show over, Vorelli brings out his puppet friend. Turns out the little feller's name is Hugo and he can talk very well. During the show there is some obvious tension between the two and Vorelli makes Hugo stand up and say thank you to the audience. Backstage Vorelli oddly locks up Hugo in a cage and converses with his assistant about how Marianne is rich. Luckily, Mark quickly becomes obsessed with the dummy (guess he has a thing for dolls...my guess is blow up ones) and wants Marianne to ask Vorelli to perform at a charity event.
She does this and Vorelli agrees to perform for free. During the performance, there is more tension between Vorelli and Hugo. Matter of fact, Hugo almost stabs him but Vorelli commands him to apologize for his actions. Poor Hugo has to buckle once again. After the show, Vorelli hooks up with Marianne and scrambles her brain up a bit with a trance. The stipulation is, she must come to him when he calls. Mark, being useless, investigates Hugo and finds he is pretty much like any other puppet.
During the night, Vorelli summons Marianne for a quickie and Hugo escapes his cage to tell Mark something about Berlin in 1948. Mark is perplexed by this during the next day at work but soon finds out he has worse problems. Marianne has gone off the deep end and is bed ridden due to Vorelli's mind f*cking.
Meanwhile across town, Vorelli's assistant has gotten mighty jealous of Marianne. Vorelli sends Hugo after her (luckily for Vorelli, he got in a last minute booty call with her) who takes care of the problem in his own puppet way. Vorelli sets up an alibi as Hugo does the deed.
The news gets a hold of the murder and Mark enlists the help of another reporter to find facts on Vorelli. Meanwhile, Vorelli orders a new female dummy and gets himself a new assistant. Mark files out to see his reporter buddy who tells him of Vorelli's past. Turns out he went to medical school and excelled in hypnotism. After this, he studied in many different cultures about separating the soul from the body. Not a bad resume.
Anyhow, they both go visit a former assistant of Vorelli's who tells them an interesting tale. She was part of Vorelli's early magic shows with a fellow named Hugo. Ahhhh...so now this is shaping up. Anyhow, she recalls Vorelli receiving a doll one day. Long story short, Hugo (the person) was killed on stage by Vorelli and his soul jumped into the doll.
Back in England, Marianne's condition does a 360, however Vorelli commands that she marries him. This rather upsets Mark who heads off to a bar for a film noir moment. As this happens, Vorelli brags to Hugo how he will have a new puppet friend soon. His master plan includes the murder of Marianne so he can inherit her money. Hugo gets pushed too far by Vorelli and finally snaps. He destroys the doll which would have been Marianne. This gives way to a creepy little fight between the two.
Now heres where things got a bit thrown together plot wise. After the scuffle, Vorelli throws Hugo back into his cage. However...and now pay attention...somehow during the scuffle Vorelli switched bodies with Hugo. Mark arrives to find this out and the movie ends with Hugo getting a new shot at life in a much uglier human body. The Great Vorelli...well he'll make an even greater puppet.
Ok so the ending kind of blowed...still the movie was great campy fun. For a piece of schlock cinema, the film really did a wonderful job of making the viewer hate Vorelli. You actually feel for Hugo who is a prisoner beyond his control in a puppet's body. The story flows like syrup and leves the viewer with a sweet taste in the end. Just a simple in and out movie with a fun plot.
So the moral of the story is, be nice to your toys kids. Oh and that goes for psychotic Harry Blackstone wanna-bes as well .
Most of the violence was emulated so not much of that here. Although it would have been odd yet funny if Hugo got it on with Marianne the doll. Alas...no puppet love in this movie.
1.) The Great Vorelli - This ugly bastard uses hypnotic suggestions to get all the chicks. Perhaps thats the weapon guys like Gene Simmons and Mick Jagger have used in the past?
2.) Hugo - Ok so maybe he isn't evil but I haven't seen a puppet with that much PMS since Miss Piggy.
