Barrymore As Grandma...with Killer Dolls

Well, if you want to see Lionel Barrymore dressed as an elderly lady, with voice to match, using the disguise to exact revenge on those who framed him of a crime he didn’t commit (and they were responsible for), then Tod Browning’s The Devil-Doll (1936) will hit the sweet spot. It is a rather amusing film to me, seeing the diminutive dolls actually alive and obedient, born from the mad genius of a scientist who escaped with Barrymore from prison into a swamp cabin occupied by Malita (Rafaela Ottiano, wearing a Bride of Frankenstein coif, scientist Marcel’s (Henry Walthall) assistant). When Marcel dies of cardiac arrest when it appears his newest experiment (a pint sized beautiful variation on an inbred mute street urchin) is dead, Malita and Barrymore’s Paul Lavonde take their work to Paris, operating a doll shop as a front to carry out the revenge on the evil three using the dolls to paralyze them with poisoned action-figure daggers. I think the novelty here will be Barrymore as grandma, trying to get as close to his resentful daughter (Maureen O’Sullivan of Tarzan fame), and avoiding detection while sending out the dolls to paralyze those who put him away in prison falsely for seventeen years. The effects are not too bad but just a bit dated. Ottiano mugs it all crazy in a high camp performance playing the nutty Malita, bound and determined to see her beloved’s work accomplished although Lavonde is just using Marcel’s experiments to get revenge and nothing else. While Lavonde is presented as a rather sympathetic character, he does use violence through the hate built inside during his prison stay, so this isn’t someone without flaws. Seeing close ups of a lustfully grandma Barrymore eagerly awaiting the results of his diabolical dolls, as they discreetly move about, unbeknownst to the corporate white collar crooks that sent him to the slammer, at his command is part of the campy charm of this Browning offering. Not exactly a horror-packed film as much as mad science used for revenge tale. I think horror fans just need to be prepared because the title could be misleading. Frank Lawton is O'Sullivan's laundress' cabbie love interest. The Paris setting is occasionally used for effect but not much so.