Devil Doll

About this Broadcast

A ventriloquist's (Bryant Halliday) doll has a life of its own. William Sylvester. Marianne: Yvonne Romain. Assistant: Sandra Dorne. Heller: Karel Stepanek. Aunt: Nora Nicholson. Directed by Lindsay Shonteff.

1964 English

Mystery & Suspense Horror Drama Mystery

Cast & Crew

Bryant Halliday (Actor) .. The Great Vorelli

William Sylvester (Actor) .. Mark English

Yvonne Romain (Actor) .. Marianne Horn

Sandra Dorne (Actor) .. Magda

Karel Stepanek (Actor) .. Dr. Heller

Francis De Wolff (Actor) .. Dr. Keisling

Nora Nicholson (Actor) .. Aunt Eva

Philip Ray (Actor) .. Uncle Walter

Alan Gifford (Actor) .. Bob Garrett

Pamela Law (Actor) .. Garrett's Girl Friend

Heidi Erich (Actor) .. Grace

Anthony Baird (Actor) .. Soldier

Trixie Dallas (Actor) .. Miss Penton

Margaret Durnell (Actor) .. The Countess

Ray Landor (Actor) .. Twist Dancer

Ella Tracey (Actor) .. Louisa

Guy Deghy (Actor) .. Hans

David Charlesworth (Actor) .. Hugo Novik

Lorenza Coalville (Actor) .. Mercedes

Jackie Ramsden (Actor) .. The Nurse

Bryant Haliday (Actor)

More Information

Did You Know..

Bryant Halliday (Actor) .. The Great Vorelli

Died: July 28, 1996

Trivia: Actor, producer, and writer Bryant Halliday founded Janus Films, the first American distributor of foreign classics. Movies he brought stateside include those of Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman. Halliday grew up in a Benedictine monastery and was slated to become a priest, but at age 21, the acting bug bit and Halliday joined Cambridge's Brattle Theatre Company. While with the troupe, Halliday appeared in a wide variety of shows, including Shakespeare. He and associate Cyrus Harvey launched Janus Films in the early '50s. Halliday also ran the 55th Street Playhouse in New York and used it as a primary location for exhibiting Janus-distributed films. He returned to acting in 1963, making his feature film debut as an evil ventriloquist in the cult-favorite Devil Doll (1964). Halliday then starred in such films as Curse of Simba and Tower of Evil. Upon selling Janus, Halliday spent the rest of his career involved in French television. Halliday died on July 28, 1996, following a stroke; he was 68.

William Sylvester (Actor) .. Mark English

Born: January 31, 1922
Died: January 25, 1995

Trivia: American-born actor William Sylvester relocated to England just after World War II. For the next quarter of a century, Sylvester was a fixture in British radio, TV and films, graduating from roles of the "two-bit hood" variety to full-leading man status. His most famous movie assignments included the lead in the ventriloquist-controlled-by-dummy yarn The Devil Doll (1964), and the crucial expository role of Dr. Heywood Floyd in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Returning to the U.S. in the late 1970s, William Sylvester continued essaying secondary character parts in films, and was seen as Dr. Leonard Driscoll on the 1976 TVer Gemini Man.

Yvonne Romain (Actor) .. Marianne Horn

Born: January 01, 1938

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the '50s.

Sandra Dorne (Actor) .. Magda

Born: June 19, 1925
Died: December 25, 1992

Trivia: Who better to play the slatternly Suky Tawdry in Peter Brooks' 1952 film version of The Beggar's Opera than British "blonde bombshell" Sandra Dorne? Though never as famous as such sex symbol contemporaries as Diana Dors and Marilyn Monroe, Dorne worked steadily in films well into the late '80s, nearly always cast as trollops, good-time girls, and "other women." In the later stages of her film career, she was seen in such heavy-breathing melodramas as The Devil Doll (1964) and All Coppers Are? (1972). Sandra Dorne was married to actor Patrick Holt.

Karel Stepanek (Actor) .. Dr. Heller

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: January 01, 1980

Trivia: Though born in Czechoslovakia, actor Karel Stepanek was generally regarded as a German actor due to his extensive film work in Germany (as Karl Stepanek) in the years before World War II. Stepanek fled to England in 1940, where, like many European refugee actors, he specialized in portraying Teutonic villains. He tried to stay away from out-and-out Nazi roles, but his predilection for wearing black uniforms and barking out guttural commands left little doubt as to the political preferences of Stepanek's screen characters. One of his most typical characterizations could be found in the 1946 POW drama, The Captive Heart; Stepanek also registered well as a friendlier foreigner in The Fallen Idol (1949). Commuting between London and Hollywood, Karel Stepanek continued to fight World War II, usually on the wrong side, into such '60s films as Sink the Bismarck! (1960), I Aim at the Stars (1960) and Operation Crossbow (1965).

Francis De Wolff (Actor) .. Dr. Keisling

Born: January 07, 1913
Died: April 18, 1984

Trivia: British character actor Francis de Wolff first appeared onscreen in the '30s.

Nora Nicholson (Actor) .. Aunt Eva

Born: January 01, 1889
Died: January 01, 1973