La poupée diabolique

I actually liked this b/w low budgeter that made the rounds at the drive-ins back in the early-60s. It deserves better than the MST3K treatment since the acting isn't bad at all.

The Great Vorelli (Bryant Haliday) knows the art of transferring souls into inanimate objects, in the case a ventriloquist's dummy Vorelli uses in his stage act. He runs into rich, beautiful Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romain) and seeks to hypnotize her into marrying her and gain her inheritance. William Sylvester plays the reporter (and boyfriend) of Romain who's investigating Vorelli.

The ending fight scene between the dummy and Vorelli is unintentionally hilarious so I can see why MST3K picked it for an episode, but the rest of the film isn't played for laughs. Nice little twist when Sylvester walks in at the end of the fight.

The widescreen anamorphic Image DVD has both the Euro print with topless scenes, as well as the censored U.S. version. The poster named "35541m" has a pretty good rundown over the differences between the two written below. However, I should add that the Euro print is sharper and in slightly better shape than the U.S. print.

6 out of 10