Living Doll

Ten years ago somebody told me to watch this movie. They explained to me that it consisted of a lonely man finding out that the girl he was obsessed with had died. He then decides to keep her rotting corpse at his flat. I could not wait to watch it as I assumed from that brief synopsis there was so much potential for a really interesting movie. Unfortunately all I saw was an interesting idea far from utilize it's potential. Unlike Randall's earlier movie "Slaughter High" I feel this film wanted to be more than it was but fell well short of the mark. On the upside the pure subject matter may keep you interested for the whole movie and the grossness of the decaying corpse is funny, however these are not enough to win over most fans of the horror genre and it is unlikely to win many casual viewers. So the choice is yours. Rent it, but don't expect too much.

Infamous schlock producer Dick Randall's last film (or last released film, anyway) turns out to be a surprisingly good and grim little horror yarn.

Medical student Howard falls in love with the girl who sells flowers at the hospital where he works. She barely knows he exists. Then one day a body is brought into the morgue and Howard has to assist in the autopsy. Only too late does he realize it's the lovely Christine herself laid out on the cold slab. How this shock affects his already delicate mental balance and what he does to deal with this terrible state of affairs makes this a highly diverting outing for fans of the macabre Mark Jax is great as the disturbed Howard. He never once camps it up and plays even the most ridiculous moments straight. The SFX and make up on the mouldering corpse are excellent,. The plot takes plenty of surprising turns and the final sick twist raised a smile or two.

Great news that this will soon be out on DVD – and in an extras packed special edition.

If you like big studio, star-filled extravaganzas, then this is not for you. But if you're looking for something out of the ordinary, you'll not be disappointed.

Living Doll was the last in an unrelated trilogy of British horror films made by legendary exploitation movie producer Dick Randall. Its bedfellows being Edmund Purdom's ode to Santa Claus abuse, Don't Open Till Christmas (1983/5) and Slaughter High (85) the only slasher movie in which a person is killed by drinking beer, it was also Randall's final work for the cinema (he died in 1996). Unfortunately Living Doll is the ugly duckling of this eccentric batch, but at least the lead actor didn't commit suicide this time around. Living Doll tells the tale of Howard, a medical student hopelessly obsessed with pretty lass Katie Orgill, but when the said girl appears dead on the slab, a grief stricken Howard takes her corpse back to his crummy bed-sit. While captured in the spirit of romance, he fails to notice his true love is quickly becoming a rotting corpse, at least he does until the movies weak denouncement. Like Slaughter High, Living Doll is a British film that goes to great lengths to convince its an American one, mainly by having a cardboard cut-out of the New York skyline as a prop and a days worth of shooting from the real deal. Presumably the film is meant to take place in the little known English quarter of New York! Living Doll falls inbetween being too lightweight to live up to its gristly potential, while being too adult to carry a `romantic horror comedy' tag. The lack-lustre script was apparently jazzed up by Randall but to little avail. To say that Randall's tried and tested exploitation movie approach locks horns with the films aspirations towards that droll mainstay of the British film industry, the romantic comedy is like saying that Four Weddings and a Funeral isn't Love Me Deadly. Whats left is diluted Randall sleaze with moments of bonesaw gore, rotting corpse effects and the casting of tabloid bust model Orgill who gives her worth by appearing as the world's most topless corpse. Amidst sly moments of humour, namely the (Sir) Cliff Richard connotations of the title (the end credits serves up a cover version) and a frankly bizarre cameo by Eartha Kitt. Still at a time when the words `Dodo' and `British Horror Movie' seem synonymous, it would be nice to say Living Doll is more of a heavy hitter. Unfortunately its not, and certainly fails to provide a decent epitaph to Randall's wild and outrageous thirty year career. Dust off your copies of The Wild World of Jayne Mansfield, Pieces, Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks or The Bogeyman and the French Murders and remember him that way.

Howard, a New York morgue attendant, falls in love with the beautiful Kristine but when she dies he digs up her corpse, takes it back it his grotty apartment and treats her as a "Living Doll". British director George Dugdale had previously made Slaughter High (1986), a film made in Britain but very poorly and unconvincingly set in the USA. He's done it again with Living Doll, there are some genuine exterior shots of New York but the majority of the movie was shot in Britain, using British actors who couldn't do an American accent if their lives depended upon it. I guess the makers were aiming for the lucrative American market but in doing so ended up with a film with terrible acting. Mark Jax, who plays Howard, is as flat as pancake, Eartha Kitt plays his landlady, one of the very few interesting characters. Glamour model Katie Orgill plays Kristine and spends much of her screen time naked. In addition to the bad acting the pace is slow and the microphone makes at least one appearance. The decomposing make up for Kristine is fairly decent. My UK VHS is cut by 13 seconds but I won't bother to upgrade to an uncut release. If you can stomach it watch Nekromantik instead!

This British production is an intriguing entry in the rather small necrophilia category of horror films. Instead of a relentless assault of slice and dice, what we get is a somewhat playful script that handles the macabre topic quite well. Both Freddie Earlle as the morgue manager, and Ertha Kitt as a nosy landlady, provide some welcome dark humor. Mark Jax plays the medical student whose infatuation with a hospital flower girl goes way beyond normal. His obsession eventually leads to stalking, grave robbing, and murder. Kate Orgill is the lifeless and slowly decomposing corpse who speaks telepathically to Mark Jax, from beyond the grave. The catchy tune "Living Doll", and general lighthearted chemistry, make "Living Doll" one of the better films of it's type. - MERK