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The Devil-Doll (1936)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 4:51 pm    Post subject: The Devil-Doll (1936) Reply with quote

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From Tod Browning (director of "Freaks") comes this amazing movie which is rich in imagination. Lionel Barrymore plays a Devil's Island escapee, framed for embezzlement by his crooked business partners. He escapes with a brilliant-but-ailing scientist who takes Barrymore to his laboratory and shows him the strange process he developed which can shrink people down to doll size.

The scientist wants to use the amazing process to end world hunger by turning the Earth's population into mini-people, thereby reducing the amount of food they consume (a logical yet lunatic idea).

Unfortunately a test of the process proves it to be flawed — it turns the subjects into tiny automatons who can be controlled by telepathy! The scientist dies from shock when he realizes his failure.

But Barrymore uses the process to dish out a well-deserved punishment to the men who unjustly sent him to Devil's Island.

The special effects in "The Devil-Doll" are as good as those in "Dr. Cyclops" (although they're in black-and-white). The plot is complex, exciting, and just as incredible as the special effects. Example: Lionel Barrymore eludes the French police by masquerading as a little old lady!

A showcase for the talents of a fine actor. If you're not already a Barrymore fan, this film will convert you. Maureen O'Sullivan plays Barrymore's lovely daughter.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:32 am; edited 5 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Good trailer for this interesting movie. Enjoy it!
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___________________ The Devil-Doll - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Nov 15, 2021 3:35 pm; edited 2 times in total
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The Spike
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 7:11 pm    Post subject: Browning's creepy miniatures. Reply with quote

Paul Lavond is a wrongly convicted prisoner serving his time on the hellish Devil's Island. Engineering an escape with loopy scientist, Marcel, they take refuge at Marcel's old laboratory. Here Lavond finds to his initial horror just how brilliant Marcel's work is, he has invented a serum that can turn any living being into a miniature of itself. Upon learning of the formula, and disguising himself as an old woman, Lavond plans to wreak horrific revenge on those who framed him and sent him to prison.

It's not very often that I actually wish myself to be older than I am, but this is one such case, I can't believe I wouldn't have been terrified back in 1936 as Todd Browning's little people went out bidding Lionel Barrymore's vengeful work! Now of course the picture looks wearily hokey, but as hokey films go, this is up with the best of them.

The special effects stand up to repeat viewings even in this day and age of overkilled S/E purely for ticket selling purposes, with the over-sized sets and props of the trade expertly realised. Barrymore has a great time and entertains fully from first shot till last, with great support coming from the gorgeous Maureen O'Sullivan and a gruff Robert Greig.

Adapted from Abraham Merritt's novel called Burn Witch Burn! (co screenplay credit to Erich von Stroheim no less!), it's actually cinematographer Leonard Smith who deserves the biggest pat on the back. Capturing the fantastical nature of the piece perfectly, it's really only now with crisper DVD (etc) transfers available that we can see just what a difference a great cinematographer can make to films in need of atmospheric touches.

Still wish I could have seen this on a big old creaky screen in 1936 though! 7.5/10

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Just how many reasons are there to totally reject the ridiculous idea that shrinking people to 1/6th their normal size to make the Earth's resources last longer would work? Confused

Actually, there are too many to list them all — or even a significant percentage! But here are just a few of them which should prove that this idea is dumber than making martinis with Clorox bleach! Shocked

~ If the purpose of this wack-o idea is to make people who need fewer resources because we're smaller, how can miniature farmers do their chores on farms that still have normal-sized chickens, pigs, and cattle? These animals would begiants which might trample them . . . or eat them!

~ A farmer has to operate complex farm equipment: plows and harvesters. These machines can't be reduced in size to fit the new 1/6th version of people. Only the cab with the controls could be modified to fit the operator . . . but he'd still be living in a world where the machine and all the fields he works in are six times bigger that "normal".

~ Every single house, apartment, dormitory, factory, office building, and city in the world would have to be torn down and rebuilt 1/6th smaller to accommodate the new, reduced population!

~ All cars, trucks, buses, ships, airplanes etc. would have to replaced by resized versions to accommodate the re-sized population!

~ Airplanes that were 1/6th as large as normal ones would suffer six times as much air turbulence as the larger, normal ones did! And that turbulence frequently causes the crashes of the normal sized planes!

~ We'd also have to repave all the roads and highways, because not only would they suddenly be six-times too wide, every tiny crack, bump, and pot-hole which our old cars rolled right over would now be six-times larger and more dangerous!

~ Every single item of clothing in the world would no long fit the New Reduced population. And, of course, that also goes for shoes, toothbrushes, hair brushes, combs, nail clippers . . . you name it!

The list of such considerations is endless. The point, of course, that our civilization perfectly fits out size. Make one small change in our size . . . and out entire civilization comes crashing down!

After all, if my Logitech wireless keyboard didn't fit my hands perfectly, I'b be makink terrible typoz eveyr tiem I tpyed! Shocked

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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scotpens
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
. . . After all, if my Logitech wireless keyboard didn't fit my hands perfectly, I'b be makink terrible typoz eveyr tiem I tpyed! Shocked

Well, it seems sometimes that my Android phone's touchscreen keyboard was designed for people with miniature fingers!
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A question. Would a person reduced to 1/6th scale be able to process normal size food? Would the molecules be too large for their reduced scale? Would they be able to process water molecules?

David.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
A question. Would a person reduced to 1/6th scale be able to process normal size food? Would the molecules be too large for their reduced scale? Would they be able to process water molecules?

What about the millions of animal species on the planet, most of which are much smaller than humans? They have no problem digesting normal food and processing water!

There's an issue with brain size, though. Shrink an adult human brain to one-sixth its linear dimensions and it becomes a tiny fraction of its normal volume. (I'll leave it to the math wizards to figure out the exact reduction.) You'd end up with a man with a brain no more complex than that of a small dog.

Of course, if the actual atoms that make up the body are reduced in size (as per Isaac Asimov's novelization of Fantastic Voyage), then all bets are off.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

The comments above are very well thought out, gentlemen. Bravo. Cool

The different theories are interesting and varied, but they do have one thing in common; they demonstrate that the whole "shrunken people" concept is like time travel, in that no matter how you try to explain it, you have to ignore one of more of the laws of physics! Shocked

Example: Is a miniature person composed of atoms that are reduced in size, or are they composed of atoms which are closer together, or are they existing out of phase with the universe — thus making them appear smaller?

Sort of the way a person standing twenty feet away looks smaller than he does when he's right in front of you. Confused

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Krel
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
Millions of animal species on the planet, most of which are much smaller than humans. They have no problem digesting normal food and processing water!

But the animals, insects and such evolved to do so. An artificially reduced human would not have. There would be no such evolutionary adjustment.

David.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Example: Is a miniature person composed of atoms that are reduced in size, or are they composed of atoms which are closer together, or are they existing out of phase with the universe — thus making them appear smaller?

Sort of the way a person standing twenty feet away looks smaller than he does when he's right in front of you. Confused

The miniaturization process in the Fantastic Voyage novelization actually combines the first and the third option.

Isaac Asimov wrote:
"Have you ever seen a photograph enlarged, Mr. Grant? Or reduced to microfilm size?"

"Of course."

"Without theory, then, I tell you that the same process can be used on three-dimensional objects, even on a man. We are miniaturized, not as literal objects, but as images; as three-dimensional images manipulated from outside the universe of space-time.

". . . We neither get rid of atoms nor push them together. We reduce the size of the atoms, too; we reduce everything, and the mass decreases automatically."

And how is this magic accomplished, you ask? By using hyperspace! It's routinely employed in the sci-fi universe to make spaceships travel faster than light. Apparently it can also be used to shrink things!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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What a great post, Scot! Very Happy

You've addressed the issue with intelligence and logic.

Bravo!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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scotpens
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

^^ With all due modesty, I merely quoted a famous science writer and SF author -- who was trying to inject a bit of scientific plausibility into an implausible story!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I understand, sir. Very Happy

And for the record, I think that if a person understands a highly intelligent concept that another person thought of and explains, then the person who understood the explanation is at least almost as smart as the one who originated the idea!

With that in mind, if you understood what I just said, then you're at least almost as smart as me! (Heck, maybe even smarter . . . Very Happy)

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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