Fellow Svengoolie SvenPals everywhere will be jumping for joy for his big broadcast premiere of a cult classic horror-thriller masterpiece.
“Svengoolie” presents his big broadcast premiere of “Devil Doll” (1964)*
Original 1964 Richard Gordon/Associated Film Distribution Corp. theatrical release trailer for “Devil Doll” (1964).
The legendary Berwyn/Chicago-based horror film host will present his big broadcast premiere of “Devil Doll” (1964)*, this Sat., Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central on Me-TV.
The 1964 production of “Devil Doll”* was directed by veteran director-producer-writer Lindsay Shonteff. Shonteff’s produced his production of “Devil Doll” (1964)* with veteran independent executive producer-exhibitor-distributor Richard Gordon. One year after the 1964 production of “Devil Doll,”* Gordon and Shonteff worked on the cult classic British independent horror masterpiece production of “Curse of the Voodoo” (1965, a.k.a. “Voodoo Blood Death”). Veteran producers Kenneth Rive and Gerald A. Fernback also served as executive producers on the 1964 production. Eight years after the production of “Devil Doll” (1964)*, Rive later worked as an executive producer for Eugenio “Gene” Martín’s classic independent horror masterpiece feature production with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, “Horror Express” (1972). Gerald A. Fernback later served in an uncredited position as executive producer on Terence Fisher’s classic sci-fi/horror masterpiece with Peter Cushing, Carole Gray, Edward Judd and Eddie Byrne; “Island of Terror” (1966, released in the United States in 1967 by Universal Studios).
The screenplay for the Gordon-Shonteff production of “Devil Doll” (1964)* was written by veteran producer/screenwriter Ronald Kinnoch (credited under the pseudonym of George Barclay), veteran producer/screenwriter Charles F. Vetter (credited under the pseudonym of Lance Z. Hargreaves) and veteran author Frederick Escreet Smith. Kinnoch/Barclay previously produced Wolf Rilla’s classic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) sci-fi/horror/thriller masterpiece with George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Michael Gwynn and Martin Stephens; “Village of the Damned” (1960, adapted from John Wyndham/John Harris’ novel, “The Midwich Cuckoos;” Kinnoch/Barclay co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of “Village of the Damned” with veteran screenwriter Stirling Silliphant). Charles F. Vetter previously produced Robert Day’s classic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) British sci-fi masterpiece production of “First Man Into Space” (1959, with Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi and Bill Edwards) and later produced Montgomery Tully’s classic MGM sci-fi/thriller masterpiece production of “Battle Beneath the Earth” (1967, with Kerwin Mathews, Viviane Ventura and Robert Ayres). Around the same time that “Devil Doll” (1964)* was in production, Frederick Escreet Smith’s wartime-themed novel; “633 Squadron” was also adapted into a feature film of the same name, “633 Squadron” (1964, with Cliff Robertson, Suzan Farmer and George Chakiris ), which was directed by Walter Grauman for Walter Mirisch’s Mirisch Corporation and distributed through United Artists.
Produced under the Galaworldfilm Productions moniker with Richard Gordon’s production/distribution exhibition firm, Gordon Films; the production of “Devil Doll” (1964) was released theatrically throughout Great Britain and the United Sates through the Associated Film Distributing Corp., according to IMDB. Richard Gordon’s distribution firm, Gordon Films would later assume certain distribution and syndication rights to the 1964 production of “Devil Doll,”* according to a 1976 correspondence letter between Richard Gordon’s Gordon Films and 16mm non-theatrical distributor Keith T. Smith’s Modern Sound Pictures; which was recently unearthed on the Internet Archive’s Modern Sound Pictures correspondence collection.
Who was in the Gordon/Shonteff production of “Devil Doll” (1964)*?
The players who appeared in the Richard Gordon-Lindsay Shonteff production of “Devil Doll” (1964)* were Bryant Haliday (as the “Great Vorelli”), Sadie Corre (in an uncredited role as the voice of the dummy “Hugo”), Yvonne Romain (as Marianne Horn), William Sylvester (as Mark English), Sandra Dorne (as Magda), Nora Nicholson (as Aunt Eva), Alan Gifford (as Bob Garrett), Karel Stepanek (as Dr. Heller) and Francis De Wolff (as Dr. Keisling).