After 17 years of being wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, former French banker Paul Lavond manages to escape from the prison on Devil's Island, hellbent on returning to Paris and exacting revenge on the three business partners who framed him for looting the bank and killing a guard. Escaping with him is Marcel, and the two of them evade their pursuers and make their way to a small house in a marsh, where his wife, Malita, is now staying. Once there, Marcel intends to continue the great work that he's told Lavond will benefit mankind: he's found a method to shrink living creatures to one-sixth their original size. The downside is that the creatures' reduced brains make them unable to function without the influence of another's will. That night, Marcel shrinks a peasant girl Malita had hired as a servant, in attempt to create a miniature human that can function on her own, but when he fails, he dies from the strain of his disappointment. Malita then tries to enlist Lavond to carry on Marcel's work and, while he initially refuses to have anything to do with it, when he finds that he can control the miniature creatures with his will as well, he decides to return to Paris with Malita. With the news about his escape out, and the police on the lookout for him, Lavond takes on the alias of Madame Mandelip, an old woman who runs a curio shop where dolls and other toys are made. He now intends to use these "devil-dolls" to exact revenge on those who ruined his life, as well as find a way to make life better for his daughter, Lorraine, who has grown to hate her father because of the misery his supposed crimes have caused her throughout her life.
Lionel Barrymore is just as good here as he was in Mark of the Vampire, but the big difference is that he has a whole lot more to do than simply spout a bunch of exposition. Paul Lavond is a man who was once living a prosperous, happy life, working as a successful banker and having a wife and daughter, but due to the treachery of his business partners, it was all taken away from. For 17 years, he was imprisoned after being framed for looting the bank and killing a guard, and for all those years, he's thought of nothing but escaping in order to return to Paris and make those three rats pay for what they did. He finally gets his chance when he and fellow prisoner Marcel escape from Devil's Island, but when he goes with Marcel to a small house where his wife is now residing, he stumbles across their bizarre experimentation with shrinking living creatures and making them susceptible to another's will. Though appalled by the lack of morality that comes with such work, especially when they shrink a servant woman, and initially wanting nothing to do with it, Lavond realizes that it can be useful in his cause when he finds, after Marcel's death, that he can will the shrunken creatures to do his bidding too. He then returns to Paris with Marcel's wife, Malita, so she can assist him in his plans. Knowing that the news is out about his escape and everyone will be looking for him, Lavond disguises himself as an old woman, Madame Mandalip, and runs a curio shop selling the "dolls" as a cover. Like I've said, this is where you get into the film's bizarrely surreal aspects, as the protagonist is either partially or completely in drag for almost the duration once it shifts to Paris, often talking in an overdone old lady voice, wearing a small, black hat, and carrying around a little basket. They try to use the notion that the disguise, coupled with the fact that all known photographs of Lavond are 17 years old, makes it so nobody recognizes him but, even so, don't you find it hard to believe that anyone would think that was a woman? Regardless, the disguise works well enough to where Lavond is able use the "devil dolls" to exact his revenge, shrinking one of the conspirators, permanently paralyzing a second, and frightening the third into confessing and clearing his name.
Barrymore plays Lavond as quite a complex, multi-faceted character. While he starts the film with simmering hate for the three men who ruined his life, and later looks down on the lack of intelligence he sees in a policeman and people at large, commenting to Malita, "If most men were reduced to the dimensions of their mentality, Marcel's plan wouldn't be necessary," he's never completely without morals. Again, when he first becomes aware of Marcel and Malita's work, he's quite put off by it and is doubly appalled when they use it on a living person, seeing it as not much better than murder. The only other person he allows to be shrunk is one of the conspirators, in order to use him in his plans for revenge, and the conspirators are the only ones he intends to harm altogether. Once the last one has confessed and Lavond's name is cleared, he intends to destroy all traces of Marcel's experiments, revealing to Malita that he never had any intention to continue the work and again decrying it as horrible. His plot for revenge wasn't just for himself but for his family, especially his daughter, Lorraine, who has become a bitter person due to the shame and ostracizing that being associated with her father has brought her. Lavond witnesses her hate up close when, as Madame Mandalip, he visits his blind mother, whom Lorraine is living with, and she goes on an angry, spiteful rant about how much she hates him for what his name has done to her (you can see the glint of a tear in his eye at one point). Due to this and seeing the laundry that Lorraine is forced to work at, Lavond decides that he'd best get a confession as well as revenge. He has a note delivered to the final conspirator that warns him to confess by 10:00 that night or die, and just as he's about to have one of the devil dolls do him in, he confesses. With his name cleared and his fortune now in the hands of his family, Lavond uses Madame Mandalip as a means of explaining what happened to the other conspirators, mailing a confession of his own to that effect in her name. He also decides to take pity on the two shrunken people he's used, sending them to the police rather than killing them (though, killing them probably would have been better, given the circumstances), and intends to see to it that Malita is taken care of, but the crazy old woman turns on him, ultimately destroying the shop and killing herself, along with the two shrunken people. Unable to rejoin his family because of the questions he knows the police will ask, Lavond decides to leave Paris for good (possibly to commit suicide elsewhere, given the way in which he speaks about it), but not before he tells Lorraine's fiance, Toto, what's happened. He also, inadvertently, meets Lorraine atop the Eiffel Tower and, since she doesn't know who he is, passes himself off as the man who escaped with her father. Telling her that her father is dead, he gives her a heartfelt message about how he never really felt like she hated him and ending it with, "He told me to tell you to forget him, to find happiness and keep it, to marry and give your children all the love you might have given him if he hadn't been taken from you." With that, he leaves, his ultimate fate and destination uncertain.
Following Radin's disappearance, Coulvet, who's a fat pig of a man that, according to Matin, often gorges himself to an unhealthy extent, is sure that it's Lavond's doing. He contemplates asking for police protection but Matin advises against it, and since he's unable to get out of town, with the holidays coming up, his only recourse is to simply get ahold of himself. As Matin leaves his house, Coulvet is annoyed at the sight of Madame Mandalip and her peddling her dolls to his wife. Despite the one doll's cost of 250 francs, Coulvet ultimately gives in and buys it simply to get the woman out of his house. As she leaves, though, Coulvet is looking at her in a way that seems to suggest that he feels something is wrong. Little does he know that he has reason to feel that way, as the "doll" he bought was actually the shrunken Lachna, and that night, after everyone has gone to bed, Lavond stands outside their house and wills her to action. After having her toss him the expensive jewelry that Coulvet's wife owns, Lavond has Lachna climb up to his bed and poison him with the same, paralyzing liquid. Coulvet's wife wakes up to find her husband completely immobile, with a terrified expression frozen on his face, and after it's reported to the media, Matin is told by a doctor that Coulvet will never regain mobility. While talking with said doctor over dinner, Matin is handed a note by a waiter that has a number of Bible passages listed on it. That night, after putting them together, he finds that it's a cryptic ultimatum, telling him to either confess by 10:00 or die. With that, he calls the police and asks them for protection, making sure to get rid of the part of the note that mentions confession. Once the police are there at his house, the very jittery and paranoid Matin very quickly loses his nerve, snapping at every one of them for the simplest of mistakes, generally treating them like lowly peasant, and jumping at the slightest noise or odd sensation. 10:00 hits and, just before the last chiming of the clock, Matin's nerve gives out and he makes a full confession, unaware that the shrunken Radin was underneath the chair he was sitting on and was just about to stab him in the back of his foot.
MGM was never a big player in the horror genre, only producing the ones that they did because they saw the success that Universal was having with them and even then, they looked upon them merely as B-movies that weren't worth investing much money into. As a result, even though their horror movies certainly had higher production values than those of Universal, as MGM was a much bigger studio, they still didn't have near the scope and prestige given to other, much more high-profile films they were producing at the same time. The Devil-Doll was clearly such a movie to them, as there's nothing that special about the way it looks. The cinematography by Leonard Smith, while fine enough, is pretty standard, with nothing special or atmospheric in the way the scenes are shot and lit, save for the shadowy nighttime shots in a couple of interior sets, and the same goes for the camerawork. (The latter could have more to do with Tod Browning, though. While his camerawork certainly become more sophisticated after the rather stagey and static way in which he shot Dracula, he never got all that fancy with it.) Truthfully, the only sequences in the film that are done in a strikingly visual way are a couple of montages. The first one is a series of shots of the lab equipment and Malita's crazed face as the finishing touches are put into the shrinking of Lachna, and the other is when the reward is put out for Paul Lavond's capture, as you see newspaper articles and fliers about it being passed around, shots of the police and populace being on guard, and the increase in the reward from 50,000 to 100,000 francs.
As for the art direction by Cedric Gibbons, it's far more modest than what he and Browning had to work with on Mark of the Vampire. The only really extravagant sets are the interiors of Emil Coulvet and Charles Matin's wealthy homes, as well as their fancy offices at the bank and perhaps the observation platform atop the Eiffel Tower; everything else is rather modest, such as the little house in the marsh where Marcel and Malita conduct their experiments, their laboratory (which is very small and rather stereotypical in the equipment they have in there), the little shop that Madame Mandalip runs, and the very low-class, poor looks of the laundry Lorraine works at and the apartment that she lives in with her grandmother. While those sets' modest scales certainly work within the intended low-class, poverty-laden nature of those places, it also goes to show that this, again, wasn't a movie the studio was too concerned with putting a lot of money into. That said, though, I do have to mention the oversized props and pieces of furniture that they created for some shots in the sequences involving the shrunken people, particularly when Lavond is having Lachna loot some pieces of jewelry from Coulvet bedroom before stabbing him with the paralyzing toxin. Those are quite impressive, mostly because of just how big some of them are when compared to the actors, and they end up being much more effective than the optical methods used to create those scenes, which, unfortunately, are used more frequently.
Normally, when it comes to old movies, especially ones from this era, I give them leniency in regards to any kind of special effects work, as I know their resources were very limited. However, I can't do that with The Devil-Doll simply because, as ambitious as the matting effects used to depict the shrunken people and animals were for the time, they have not aged well at all. The effects are more passable in scenes that are lit very darkly, like some shots in the scene where Lachna is looting Coulvet's bedroom before sticking him, but in brightly lit shots, which are the norm here, you can tell that the tiny characters are not really there with the full-size actors. This is especially true with the first effects shots in Marcel and Malita's laboratory, where you have shrunken dogs pattering around the table before Lachna is shrunk, and the little horse that Madame Mandalip passes off as an advanced toy for Radin. Not only does the obvious optical work make them stand out from everything else, appear see-through in some instances, and come off like they're in a different plane of existence, they often don't cast shadows on anything around them. And even in that scene with the shrunken Lachna, when Coulvet's little girl is cuddling her while sleeping, she really sticks out as a separate element, and when she climbs across Coulvet's bed to stick him with the poisoned stiletto, she leaves no indentations on the covers. Given how sophisticated optical and matting work had become since King Kong, which was only a few years before this, and the fact that this had the backing of a big studio like MGM, the effects work here should have been better (the year before, Bride of Frankenstein had featured those tiny people Dr. Pretorious had created and they looked much more convincing than these little creatures). Fortunately, though, the full-on effects sequences here are few and far between, and the only other type of effects work is some rear-screen projection in certain shots, like when Malita blows up the shop around her near the end. Also, as archaic as they are, the effects don't detract that much from the movie's other strengths.
That said, while there aren't as many plotholes as there were in Mark of the Vampire, some parts of the story don't quite make sense to me. For one, I didn't get why Lavond decided to rob Coulvet's wife of the jewelry she had, in addition to paralyzing the man for the rest of his life. I understand the revenge aspect perfectly but I don't get his motivation for taking the necklace and other jewels that he had admired when he visited the house as Madame Mandalip. I thought that maybe it was a part of his personal fortune, as he later removes the emerald from the necklace and says, "Little by little, I'll get you all back," but if that's the case, they didn't make it clear beforehand. Other than believing that it's something that he feels Coulvet doesn't deserve, I don't know what purpose taking it could serve him, as he definitely can't use it to benefit his family, being that it's stolen property and he can't reveal that he was ever in Paris. In fact, all it does is cause him trouble, as he and Malita struggle to hide it when a policeman comes by to ask questions about Coulvet and the missing jewels, since it's know that Madame Mandalip was in his house before he met his fate, and it apparently gets destroyed when Malita blows up the shop near the end anyway. Also, in order to carry out his threat to kill Matin if he doesn't confess, he somehow manages to get the shrunken Radin into his house, hiding him amongst the ornaments on the Christmas tree in the den. I don't know how he could have gotten him in there without anyone noticing, unless he willed him to go in there and hide, and that still would have taken some time involving him loitering suspiciously outside his house, which, it was established earlier, the police didn't tolerate. Even if he did it at night when there were few people around, it still would be problematic. Moreover, I don't quite know how he gave Matin the note with the Bible verses that he worked out as an ultimatum. The waiter at the restaurant brings him the check that has the note attached to it, just as Lavond walks up as Madame Mandalip, offering some fresh mistletoe, so I guess the inference could be that he slipped it at that moment, though I don't know how he could have done so without Matin, the waiter, or the doctor who was dining with him noticing. What's more, the note doesn't appear to be stapled or glue to it in any way that suggests he could have done it before the waiter brought him the check. And if that had been the case, what was the point of being there at the restaurant to begin with?
The film hits the ground running with its story, as it opens right up with Paul Lavond and Marcel having escaped the prison on Devil's Island, with guards on a motorboat searching for them by river, while a group of bloodhounds does so on land. The two escapees manage to lose their pursuers when they cross a river and eventually make it to a small house in the marsh, where Marcel's wife, Malita, is waiting for them. After calling off the dogs there that threaten them when they approach, they head inside the house, where Marcel, despite his weak, ill condition, is intent upon continuing the work that he had told Lavond would benefit the world. He and Malita head into the laboratory, with Lavond following them out of curiosity, only to be bewildered when he sees them fussing over what looks like a bunch of little toy dogs. Marcel hands Lavond one of the dogs and he's surprised that it feels warm, as if it were a real one, and Marcel insists that it is an actual dog, only shrunken. Seeing by his expression that he thinks he's crazy, Marcel explains to Lavond his ultimate goal with his experiments, to make the Earth's finite resources last longer, and also gives him a hint of how he's able to shrink living creatures, as well as the side effect of their brains being shrunken. He then has Malita place the dog on the table and demonstrates how he can control through the sheer force of his will, concentrating and making it stand up. Lavond is amazed at this, and as Marcel continues to concentrate, he tells Malita to get a piece of bread. He tells his friend to watch the other dogs and when he concentrates towards them, they get up and start roaming around the table as well. Malita comes back with the piece of bread and Marcel tosses some crumbs to the dogs, showing Lavond that it's all they need to get by. That's when Napoleon, a full-sized St. Bernard, wanders into the room and rears up onto the table, looking at the miniature dogs. With Malita's command, he gets back down on the floor and Marcel turns to Lavond to see if he's convinced. Lavond watches as the little dogs lay back down, resuming their still, lifeless forms, and Marcel explains that it's because he's stopped concentrating. He goes on to say that that night, he'll complete his experiments by creating a miniature dog with a will of its own, but both Malita and Lavond insist he rest for a while first and take him out into the kitchen. That's when Marcel first notices Lachna and learns from Malita where she found her and that nobody knows that she's there.
Later that night, after he's gone to bed, Lavond awakens to the sounds of the dogs outside howling and heads downstairs, hearing Marcel and Malita talking in the laboratory. Malita tries to convince Marcel that he can do no more that night but he has decided to see it through. Walking into the lab, Lavond sees that they've shrunken Lachna down, with Malita telling Marcel that she's no longer the inbred halfwit she once was, thanks to him. Marcel prepares to complete the process, telling Malita to turn on the tanks, as he begins using some cotton, and pays no attention to Lavond trying to stop him, telling him that Lachna will be perfect once he's finished. After he's covered Lachna in cotton, he has Malita turn on the mist, which hits her covered body, telling Lavond that this will be the beginning of a new age for mankind. Following a dissolve and montage of the beakers and test tubes that are filled with bubbling and draining liquid, with Malita crazily watching, Marcel is shown removing the cotton from Lachna. Marcel tells Lavond that she'll awaken in just a few seconds but, as they stare at her, she does nothing but continue to lie there, as lifeless as those dogs from before. It dawns on Marcel that he's failed and the strain of it proves to be too much, as he turns to Lavond and is about to say something, only to clutch at his chest and slump down. Lavond catches him and he and Malita help Marcel to a nearby cushion. Malita tries to rouse Marcel but quickly realizes that he's dead. Lavond figures that it might be for the best but Malita says that they must carry on with his work. Lavond isn't keen on this, calling it murder, but Malita tells him that Lachna isn't dead and that he must stay and help her. She turns the tanks on again, has Lavond hand her some cotton, and makes an injection into Lachna. Holding the tiny girl's head up, she tells Lavond to concentrate and when he does, Lachna awakens, smiles at him, and stretches. Lavond still wants no part of this craziness and demands Malita restore Lachna back to regular size. Malita, however, says that she will always be small, adding, "We can make the whole world small, as Marcel wanted to do. We can go to Paris. There are many people there." Thinking on this, an idea apparently forms in Lavond's head and he smiles at Malita.
Once back in Paris, and having taken the alias of Madame Mandalip to keep from rousing suspicion, especially after his former business partners offer a reward for his capture, Lavond sets to work in beginning his revenge. The first one he targets is Radin, whose office he visits in disguise, showing him a tiny horse that he passes of as a toy. Initially, Radin tells her that the bank wouldn't be interested in financing the manufacture of toys, but Mandalip says that she thought he himself may be interested in doing so, saying that it's a special, non-mechanical horse that does whatever you tell it to. Putting the horse on his desk, she tells Radin to tell it to do something and, when he does, telling it to get up on its feet, Mandalip uses her willpower to make it do so, as walk around and then trot in a circle there. She then picks the horse back up, with Radin amazed at what he just saw, and when he asks how she pulled it off, he's told that it's a secret. Radin says he'll think about financing it but Mandalip says that she wants to start as soon as possible, seeing as how Christmas isn't too far off. He agrees to visit her shop that night at 8:00 and she, in turn, offers to meet him at the Moulin Rouge in order to guide him to the shop. As she leaves, Radin emphasizes that he's not making any promises and Mandalip, in turn, tells him, "You don't have to. Once you're in my shop, I'll wager you'll do anything I ask."
That night, inside her shop, Mandalip leads Radin downstairs, into the workshop, where Malita is preparing the lab equipment. Hearing Mandalip call for her, Malita emerges from the room in the back where the equipment is kept and is introduced to Radin. She then confirms that everything is ready for him and is asked to get them some cognac, though Radin turns it down. As he sits in the chair, Mandalip brings him a little dog, which he examines and is amazed at how lifelike it is. Mandalip points out a "doll" sitting on a block on the table (the shrunken Lachna) and asks Malita to bring her the figure's tiny stiletto. While Mandalip gives Radin this spiel about how all of the toys' accessories are made in the most minute of details, Malita dips the stiletto's tip into a small vial of a dark liquid and brings it over to her. Mandalip shows the stiletto to Radin, who comments on how authentic a replica it is and she responds, "Isn't it? Isn't?!" With that last exclamation, Lavond drops his old lady voice and sticks Radin in the leg with the stiletto. Radin has barely any time to react before the drug takes effect and he slumps back down into the chair. Lavond assures him that he isn't dying and removes the glasses and the wig that he was wearing, as he sees that Radin recognizes his voice, telling him that it's one of the few things he and the others didn't still from him. He adds, "Another is my hatred. Look at me and see what seventeen years in the grave has done to me. No, Radin, without my hatred I never could have lived to exhume myself. What swine you three are." He then proceeds to tell him that, rather than die, he's going to help him get back what was taken from him.
After establishing Lorraine Lavond and her bitterness and hatred towards her father, which he witnesses firsthand in his mother's apartment, the film cuts to Coulvet in his study at home, as he tries to impress upon the police inspector that it's been two days since he and Matin last heard from Radin. Hanging up the phone, Coulvet tells Matin that he's sure Lavond is behind it and is thinking about asking for police protection, which Matin tells him is a bad idea. As he leaves, he tells Coulvet to get ahold of himself or he'll end up getting them both sent to jail. Coulvet sees Matin to the door, telling him that he's worried about who Lavond will go for next, and when Matin opens the door, Madame Mandalip is standing there. Matin departs and Mandalip tells Coulvet that the butler is showing his wife one of her dolls, much to his annoyance as he storms into the den. Mandalip is then allowed in, walking in right after Coulvet has chided his wife for this, saying he has other things to worry about. Madame Coulvet asks Mandalip if there are any more like the doll she's currently holding and she's told there's only one, which she's made for another customer (said "doll," which is in the basket Mandalip is carrying, is the now shrunken Radin). Telling her that the dolls are made through a process of her own, Mandalip then tells her that the price of the doll she's looking at is 250 francs, which Coulvet himself completely scoffs at. Mandalip says that it shouldn't be so ridiculous a price for someone of his station and proceeds to look at the necklace that Madame is wearing, which has a lovely emerald in the center of it. Mandalip then proceeds to explain to Coulvet why her doll is so special and he finally gives in to buying it, doing so mainly to get rid of her. Once she has the money, Mandalip tells him, "You'll never know how happy it makes me to leave one of my dolls in your beautiful home." The Coulvets' little girl, Marguerite, comes in at that moment, much to her mother's annoyance, as she wanted the doll to be a surprise. Mandalip departs, with Coulvet looking at her strangely, as something about her clearly rubs him the wrong way.
That night, the Coulvets go to bed, with Madame putting her jewelry away in a box on the nearby dresser and opening the window before retiring (given that this is supposed to be Paris, with Christmas not too far off, you'd think it would be way too cold for that). Outside, Lavond, still in disguise as Madame Mandalip, uses his willpower to awaken the shrunken Lachna, who's being clutched by Marguerite as she sleeps. She carefully wriggles out of the girl's arms without waking her, slips through the bars around the bed (Marguerite is older than a toddler but it looks as though she still sleeps in a crib), drops down onto a building block there, and makes her way to the door. Opening it, as it's slightly cracked, she heads towards the dresser near the bed, uses one of Madame's high-heel shoes to climb up onto the small seat there, and then make her way up to the top of the dresser. Keeping an eye on Coulvet, who groans in his sleep, Lachna opens the jewelry box, pulls out a bracelet that Madame was wearing, and drags it out the window, onto the balcony beyond. She drops it off the balcony, with Lavond catching it in his basket, and she proceeds to do the same to the necklace that had caught Lavond's eye earlier, as well as some other jewels. With that done, Lavond wills Lachna back inside the room, where she climbs back down to the floor, makes her way to Coulvet's bed, and climbs up the covers to the top, where he remains sleeping. Lachna removes her stiletto and approaches him, at one point ducking when he stirs a little bit in his sleep. She then quickly closes in and stabs him in the neck, causing him to let out a loud groan. This awakens his wife, who turns on the light to see him stuck in an upright, sitting position, and as she tries to figure out what's wrong, Lachna goes out onto the balcony and climbs down to where Lavond is waiting.
With this latest attack, the chief of police is absolutely incensed and angrily admonishes his men for not being able to find Lavond. He then demands that he be arrested within 24 hours. Meanwhile, at Madame Mandalip's store, Lavond reads in the newspaper about Coulvet's being paralyzed and, looking at Lachna as she lies motionless on the table, he congratulates her on her work before proceeding to remove the emerald from the necklace and place them and the pearls in a cup. He then hears a music box playing in the next room and a cut shows that Malita is using her will to make Lachna and Radin dance on the table amidst some toys there. Putting away some of the jewelry, Lavond walks into the room and is initially amused by what he sees. That amusement turns to aggravation when Radin twirls Lachna around and lets her go near the edge of the table, which she slips off. Malita goes to pick her up but Lavond yells at her not to touch her, walking over and picking her up, telling Malita that she could have killed her. He takes Lachna over to the table and sets her down, pushing the cup containing the pearls and emerald from the necklace, which Lavond had absentmindedly placed on the table in his irritation, in amongst the toys. Lavond tears a bit of gauze off in order to wrap Lachna's injured limb, when he and Malita hear the bell ring at the store's front door. It happens to be Maurice, a detective, and hearing him coming downstairs, Lavond quickly dons his Madame Mandalip disguise and has Malita shut off the still-playing music box. Opening the door, Mandalip lets Maurice in and he introduces himself, declining her offer to talk in the store, saying that the workshop would do. He then begins questioning her about her having visited Coulvet the day before and selling him a doll, asking her about the necklace that Madame Coulvet was wearing and if she knew that it contained the rare Green Sea Emerald. Mandalip then plays the frightened, confused old lady, acting distraught at the prospect of being a suspect in the robbery and prepares to go down to the station with him. Maurice, however, tells her that it's not an arrest, as he has nothing to arrest her for and that he merely wants to ask some questions.
Putting her coat back on the rack, Mandalip talks about the gossip that will come out of being mixed up in something like this and that she could lose all of her customers. That's when Malita notices the cup with the necklace in it on the table and her eyes widen in panic. She watches Maurice notice and pick up Lachna, and as Mandalip tells him about the "doll," that it's a new type of toy in that it has tears in its eyes, she watches as Malita funnels the necklace into a small, rolling toy that's shaped like a clown. Putting Lachna back on the table, Maurice picks up his hat that was also lying there, which dislodges some of the rolling toys, which he notices. He then happens to pick up the one containing the pearls, remarking that he hasn't seen this type of toy in years, and shakes it, hearing the rattling inside. Both Mandalip and Malita watch tensely as he tries to figure out how to open it up, realizing that the head detaches from it. The second he pulls it off, Mandalip takes the toy, telling him that he'll get paint on his hand, but Maurice points out that it's dry. Looking into the toy, Mandalip chides Malita for not filling the inside up to the top, explaining to Maurice that they put candy into them, and proceeds to funnel candy pieces into it. Intending to give one to Maurice for his child, Mandalip is then told that his child is a little girl and says that, in that case, she'd be happier with a little horse, as the clowns are meant for little boys. Putting the toy into a box, Mandalip goes on to tell Maurice what a nice man he is, for a policeman, and apologizes for not being able to help him more. The detective says that they may ask her to come down for the investigation and she says, "As long as my shop is here, you'll always know where to find me."
That night, at a restaurant, the extremely nervous Matin is having dinner with the doctor who examined Coulvet (said doctor, incidentally, is Frank Reicher, who played Captain Englehorn in both King Kong and The Son of Kong) and asks what he thinks could have created look of terror etched on his frozen face. The doctor says it will remain a mystery, as Coulvet will be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Just as the waiter brings Matin the check, Madame Mandalip comes in, offering some fresh mistletoe, but Matin shoos her away. Taking the check, Matin notices something attached to it and unfolds it to find that it's a piece of paper with a list of Bible chapters and corresponding verses. He asks the waiter where it came from and he can only tell him that he wasn't the one who put it there. He lets the doctor have a look at it, as Mandalip watches from outside the door before walking off. That night, at his home, Matin looks up and transcribes the verses, revealing the message to be a warning to either confess his and the others' guilt in the crime Lavond was imprisoned for by 10:00 that night or die. Terrified he reaches for the phone, but before he calls the police, he cuts out the pieces of the transcription referring to the confession, as well as the corresponding Bible verses on the note, and burns them.
As before, Lavond, still disguised as Madame Mandalip, heads towards the house of his intended target, wherein he's hidden Radin amongst the ornaments on the Christmas tree. Matin has a number of officers guarding the place, with three upstairs in his office, including Detective Maurice. Outside the house, Lavond arrives and begins concentrating, prompting Radin to awaken and squirm out of the bow on the tree that he's hanging in. Hopping onto the branch below, he knocks off an ornament, which hits the floor with a loud snap. Hearing this upstairs, Matin jumps up and Maurice has one of his men go down to see what it was. Standing atop the stairs, the cop asks the butler what happened and he explains that it was just an ornament falling off the tree, which the cop then explains to Matin and Maurice. With that, Radin climbs down to the bottom of the tree, hiding amongst the presents there before sneaking his way to the stairs. Upstairs, while Maurice sends a man down to check on the guards outside, the very uptight Matin demands that another one who's playing solitaire stop whistling. On the stairs, Radin has to hide on the railing when the cop comes down and he then hides against the side of a step when he walks to check on the reception room down the hall next to the stairs. Radin begins climbing the stairs, while Maurice tries to tell Matin that the note probably wasn't meant for him, only to get sneered at as a response. Back on the stairs, Radin again has to hide to avoid being spotted, while Matin anxiously looks at the clock above the fireplace. As Radin enters the room, Matin declares that there's something in the house. Maurice insists that nothing can get by his men but Matin points out how the other two men in the room aren't exactly acting like the guards at Buckingham Palace. He's so jittery that, when one of them opens up the door to the balcony, he anxiously asks if it's necessary before giving up trying to allay his fears to Maurice. Radin sneaks under the chair Maurice is sitting on, while Matin keeps pacing, as there are only two minutes to go. He sits down in the chair next to the detective's, as Radin avoids Maurice's foot when he brings it down to tie his shoe and rushes to where Matin is now sitting. Matin asks himself what he should do, when Maurice tells him there's nothing for him to do and that it'll be over in a few seconds. Not only does they not offer much comfort, Maurice has no idea just how prophetic his words are, as Lavond compels Radin to go in for the kill. Taking out a small knife with the paralyzing drug on its tip, he approaches Matin's feet, as the terrified sits when the clock strikes 10:00 and begins chiming. He's just about to be stabbed when he jumps to his feet and exclaims, "Wherever you are, in heaven's name, listen and have mercy! I'll confess. You're innocent. We were the guilty ones." Outside, Lavond smiles, as that's all he wanted to hear.
The next day, with Lavond's proven innocence a headline in the newspaper, he retires the character of Madame Mandalip, throwing the wig he wore into the fireplace. Malita believes that it means they can now go ahead with continuing Marcel's work but Lavond tells him that he's vindicated by not free, as the police would ask a lot of questions if they knew who he was. He tells her that they must leave Paris and destroy all of the equipment used to shrink people. Malita will have none of this, saying they must carry out the plan, but Lavond tells him that his only interest in Marcel's work was to use it to clear his name, saying that it's horrible and cruel. He adds that he's going to see to it that Malita is well taken care of and that he'll send Radin and Lachna to the police. Lavond goes into the next room to change out of his outfit, not knowing that the crazed Malita plans to use Radin in order to shrink and control him. Dipping his little sword in the paralyzing liquid, she rouses Radin to life and picks him up after he climbs out of the basket. Lavond hurriedly puts his clothes on, not noticing Malita step into the doorway behind him, put Radin on the floor, and have him creep towards him. Radin reaches his foot, when Lavond turns and sees Malita. Noticing where she's looking, he looks and sees Radin about to stab him, prompting him to turn the chair over on him. Enraged, Lavond tells Malita that he should kill her along with everything else and begins dousing all of the lab equipment with fuel. Malita grabs a nearby bottle, threatening to throw it, and Lavond warns her that she'll kill herself. Beyond reason, Malita says, "You've had your vengeance. Now, Marcel will have his." Lavond laughs this off, telling her that death doesn't scare him and that he always intended to die once he was completely done. He approaches her slowly, trying to talk her down, telling her to think of herself and Marcel, when she lunges for the bottle. Malita throws it in the back of the room, setting off a massive explosion. Lavond just barely manages to escape and, as the place bursts into flames, he realizes that he can do nothing to save the deranged, misguided woman.
Franz Waxman had scored Bride of Frankenstein the previous year and he'd also worked on the same year's The Invisible Ray before he was brought in to do the music for The Devil-Doll. While the memorable score he did for the former almost completely dominated that movie's entire running time, as was usual with Tod Browning's films, there's not a lot of music to be heard here. In addition, what music there is often is very subtle and doesn't really stick out. One of the few truly big pieces of music is the opening theme, which involves blasting trumpets, a rolling orchestra, and a really emotional string bit that transitions into a low-key, fading suspenseful type of tune. That, in fact, was not composed by Waxman but rather by Bronislau Kaper, who would later adapt it for a dance sequence involving Greta Garbo in 1941's Two Faced Woman. Waxman, however, does do some large pieces for the montages, such as a lovely string arrangement for when Lachna is being reborn as a shrunken person, and a much more urgent one for the montage when Paul Lavond's escape is made public and everyone is on the lookout for him. For the scenes involving the shrunken creatures themselves, Waxman uses some very subtle, unearthly whirring and tinkling sounds, and a building, reverberating one for whenever one of them is closing in on a victim. There's also a low-key, solemn piece of music for when Marcel dies after his attempt to create a perfect shrunken person fails, a tender theme that turns sad during the scene between Lorraine and Toto at the Eiffel Tower, and a soft, somber theme that transitions into a more warm, hopeful, and peaceful one during the meeting between Lavond and Lorraine at the end of the movie. Not a greatly memorable score, sure, but a good one that gives the film plenty of breathing room.
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