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Ventriloquists' Dummies

:eek!!!!:

Come to think of it, Terry Hall looks more scary than Lenny . . .

Carole
 
Evilsprout said:
I'm guessing it's not the same Terry Hall that was in two-tone heroes The Specials?!

No...

He's just a stereotype... ;)
 
Evilsprout said:
"Bands don't play no more, too many Ventriloquist's Dummies on the dancefloor!"

Aaarrgghh! That and them singing Ghost Town is some kind of freak-out nightmare!
STOP!
 
Ray Allen of 'Ray Allen and Lord Charles' fame is the best ventriloquist there is......you just cannot see his lips move...I'll shut up now.
 
That's cos he's not a ventriloquist... LORD CHARLES IS ALIVE!
 
Anyone remember the very funny ventriloquist's dummy from the spoof 'Soap'? He was one of the best characters! ;)
 
Yep. IIRC, quite recently he had his own show over here, made recently and shown at some late hour. And it was pretty funny too.
 
Was Archie Andrews a vent act on the radio???

I'm sure I've heard an episode of Educating Archie.....laugh?.....well, no, actually.......
 
Possibly, but he wasn't very good as we could hear his lips move.
 
Blueswidow said:
Was Archie Andrews a vent act on the radio???

I'm sure I've heard an episode of Educating Archie.....laugh?.....well, no, actually.......

Archie was present at every recording of Educating Archie, presumably for the benefit of the studio audience. His "minder" was Peter Brough. I've read a couple of biographies of Tony Hancock, which both say that, during his stint on the show as Archie's tutor, the sight of the dummy hanging on a peg in the dressing room gave him nightmares. Then again, Hancock also blamed the troubled production of his film The Punch and Judy Man on the malign influence of Punch, so he seems to have had a thing about small wooden replicas of people!

On the subject of scary dummy films, here's a picture of the evil Hugo from the 1963 movie Devil Doll. It's a bit of a Dead of Night knock-off (even has the same name for the dummy), but sounds like it could be worth a look!
 
I seem to remember that 'Lambchop' was not a scary vent' dummy/creature...
 
Chuck and Bob were the funniest thing on Soap.

There's a great episode where someone hides Chuck so Bob starts doing his vent routine with household objects, then he starts making half of a lemon talk. Billie Crystal's character takes it off of him to make juice, only as he pushes in onto the squeezer it goes 'Aaaaaaarrggg!"

Then Chuck turns up in the refridgerator...

Marie
 
How many films have this as a theme as I'm trying to get the various films straight in my head.

Dead of Night (1945)

Now if I remember this correctly (and I think I saw the film quite recently) in "The Ventriloquist’s Dummy" they are looked in a mental institution and the guy 'smothers' the doll and then takes on its personality. Which sounds about right.

http://members.fortunecity.com/roogulator/horror/deadofnight.htm

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0037635/

Devil Doll (1964)

This is the one where the puppet is actually the independent murderer (and pictured in an attachment above).

http://members.fortunecity.com/roogulator/horror/devildoll64.htm

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0058007/

Magic (1978)

Now I don't think I have seen this as the description doesn't ring a bell.

http://members.fortunecity.com/roogulator/horror/magic.htm

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0077889/

Child's Play (1988)

More of slasher move whos protagonist happened to be a doll - still scray at the time though.

Wasn't it partly blamed for the killing of Jamie Bulger (and the connection was really tenuous if I recall).

http://members.fortunecity.com/roogulator/horror/childsplay88.htm

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094862/

The Great Gabbo (1929)

Now this is mentioned in the above entries and it sort of rings a bell but I can't place the film.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0019946/

Ahhhhhh I think the name was familiar because it was the name of the ventroliquist's dummy in the Simposons episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled":

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season4/page23.shtml

If I remember correctly it was implied that gabbo was an independent entity but the whole thing was never pursued or rbought to a conclusion.

pictures:

http://images.google.com/images?q=gabbo

------------
Right I think I have it all straight - is that right?

[edit: Oh and I did track down a couple of good Barbarella websites:

http://membres.lycos.fr/angel/Barbarella/index.html

http://members.lycos.co.uk/euro_selections/barbarella.html

but no scary doll pictures. However, there is a good overview here:

Then the movie's stupidity kicks into hyperdrive. First we have to sit through a heinous doll attack on Barbarella psychedella. See, she crash lands on this ice world and these two little brats show up and hit her in the face with a loaded snowball. Then the dolls attack! There's all these stupid looking dolls with metal teeth and their mouths go up and down and scary music plays as the begin their horrific assault. My heart was bleeding for Barbie as a perfectly good pair of fishnet stockings were ruined by all these tiny teeth marks. In any event, I was taken back to such classics like Devil Doll as these dolls did their thing. The whole time I'm thinking, "where's that Chucky fellow?" and wishing he'd show those dolls what a killer doll is supposed to be. Finally the doll attack subsides and Barbie is rescued by a real hairy guy that she rewards by screwing in the old fashioned way.

http://monsterhunter.coldfusionvideo.com/Monster12.html ]

[edit2: Something similar was discussed in this thread:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5791&highlight=ventriloquist+dummy

although it is probabl different enough to avoid The Merge ') ]
 
James Whitehead said:
I have only vague memories of the Hopkins movie but I think it
wasn't half so horrid as Michael Redgrave's take on the theme.
It comes in the 1945 portmanteau horror Dead of Night. :eek:

Thankyou for reminding me about that *shudder* Hopkin's take on it's a walk in the park compared with the origional. Redgrave's such a dignified actor and to watch him go to peices in front of your eyes *shudder*

I blame that movie for me being scared of dolls.
 
Which film on this subject was it that was on the 100 Scariest Moments (or whatever it was called)?

I remember a particularly scary story in one of those 'photo-romance' annuals popular in the 80s. That was about a vent dummy whose jealousy knew no bounds when his owner started 'going out' with a girl. She used to wake up and it would be sat on a chair staring at her. Naturally, the bloke didn't believe her.

Horrible.

Clowns aren't much better, I have to say. :eek!!!!:
 
Anyone seen that mad laughing clown thing at Blackpool pleasure beach? WAY scarier than the rides.
 
molga parrot said:
Anyone seen that mad laughing clown thing at Blackpool pleasure beach? WAY scarier than the rides.

*metaphisical shudder*
 
There's a nice freaky bit of Twighlight Zone style internette animation featuring a vent dummy at:

http://www.matazone.com/

If you follow the 'Misc' tab, The Clown Killer is rather good too.


Re killer dolls (as opposed to vent dummies) in movies, The Puppet Master was quite good:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098143/

And has some quite revolting little characters, including one doll that attacks by regurgitating leeches onto its victims(!), and another with a large bore drill bit for a head.

Dolls from director Stuart 'I see Lovecraft movies' Gordon is supposed to be quite good, haven't seen it though:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092906/
 
Anyone see the Nina Conti documentary last Sunday on BBC Four? I've just caught up with it, it's on iPlayer if you're interested. She was a student of the legendary Ken Campbell and decided to donate one of his dummies to a vent doll museum, so she made an hour long programme which was frankly very weird, with her having conversations with her dummies, including a life size Campbell.

Anyone scared of these might be able to tolerate the ventriloquists' convention in Kentucky, there were some really talented folks there from all over the world, but the scenes in the museum will give you the heebie-jeebies.

It was a lot like that film Dead Silence (another for BRF's list). But if you like weird TV docs, this was one of the best of the year (even if you worry for Nina's mental health).
 
Another good and horrid variation on the theme is The Glass Eye, the episode that began Series Three of Hitchcock's television show. Robert Stevens directed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAIsq2s1Vk8

Stars Jessica Tandy and a young William Shatner. The ventriloquist is Tom Conway, the brother of George Sanders. :shock:
 
gncxx, I saw it the other day. It came over as a curious mix of fascinating entertainment and borderline nightmare fuel, but I can't really pin down what it was that left me feeling rather uneasy. I saw the QI episode which had Nina Conti on and that left me feeling the same. It's unsettling seeing someone (or several people) having a conversation with little more than a sock-covered hand and behaving as if it's a real person.

She was also on Russell Howard's Good News recently, and at one point used a mask contraption to make an (apparently) reluctant audience member dance on stage. That was rather clever and amusing to watch.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Clip from Dead of Night

:shock: definitely eek! material!

A good film and a satisfying ending to that character.
Deadofnight.jpg


Precisely what you want to happen to his head from the moment you first hear his/its voice.
 
myf13 said:
gncxx, I saw it the other day. It came over as a curious mix of fascinating entertainment and borderline nightmare fuel, but I can't really pin down what it was that left me feeling rather uneasy. I saw the QI episode which had Nina Conti on and that left me feeling the same. It's unsettling seeing someone (or several people) having a conversation with little more than a sock-covered hand and behaving as if it's a real person.

Yeah, she did seem a bit... eccentric to say the least. I wonder if it was a good idea to reveal as much as she did? On the other hand, you could see it as exorcising a few demons in a manageable way, but trying to drown the gran puppet or having the Ken puppet make her admit her abortion might have been better left out!

Can't imagine Keith Harris and Orville making quite the same sort of programme. I think she has another programme on BBC Four this Sunday, too.
 
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