Barrymore in a Browning Sci-Fi Classic
In 1936 MGM released Tod Browning's The Devil-Doll, whereLionel Barrymore (which I must mention is one of my all time favourite actors) plays a man framed for robbery and murder who escapes from prison after 17 years with vengeance in his heart. He and a scientist friend, who also escaped the prison, takes Barrymore to his home and shows his incredible invention of shrinking people down to one sixth of their initial size. Barrymore who is driven by anger and hatred against his former business partners who framed and put him in prison, takes the methods to Paris and starts to plan a nasty revenge. He uses the shrunken people for his revenge, everything from stealing to paralyzing his ex-partners with the disguise as an old woman, all while he secretly observes his estrange daughter, to whom he wants to rekindle a relationship.
Small puppet-like people in film are always a hit in my eyes, honey I shrunk the kids, Land of the giants and so on, In it we see great special effects of miniature dogs, horses and small doll-like people. Tod Browning is, BY FAR, one of the most influential, controversial and original directors of all time for me, and I initially wanted to write about my favourite Browning film, Freaks, but that would have ended with me yapping for 7000 words on how amazing that film is. So I chose the second best film from Browning. I will at some point though anyway I'm sure. Browning had, when young, been a member of a traveling circus so much of Freaks was drawn from his own experience and in Freaks he portrays the Freaks as honorable and good people and the 'normal' people as the real monsters, and that makes Freaks one of the most important films in history.
Well, back to Devil-Doll, Lionel Barrymore who plays the lead makes a stunning performance as the angered man who longs for his daughter and thirsts for revenge, and makes the collaboration between Browning and Barrymore quite magnificent.
This was the second to last feature Browning directed, after this he became very reclusive and after his wife's death in 1944 he completely shut out the world until his own death in 1962. Tod Browning's legacy will always live on through his fantastic films and for Sci-Fi he created some of the most sinister and beautiful films ever.
