"Living Doll"

"Living Doll"

A talking doll haunts a man (Telly Savalas).

Stars Telly Savalas, Mary La Roche.
Original air date: November 1, 1963.

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Very eerie and quite frightening- excellent episode.

9. Classic Zone.

Leen

AWFUL! I hate it. Even Telly Savalas can't save this one.

Bottom of the barrel, far as I'm concerned.

A piece of "Living Doll" trivia: In a line of dialogue from the teleplay that didn't make it into the episode, Annabelle says that the doll cost $23.95. In an era when a cup of coffee cost ten cents (see "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?"), no wonder an expenditure of that size caused some friction.

A couple of incidents in Ray Bradbury's story "The Small Assassin" remind me of this episode. Although the story isn't about a malevolent doll, anyone who has seen this episode and then reads the story will know exactly what I'm talking about. Bradbury accused Rod Serling of plagiarizing him in a couple of his "Twilight Zone" episodes, and I'll put a link to an article about that in the "Walking Distance" thread if I can find the right one. (Cori posted a link to it on another board.) But I've never heard anything about his charging his friend Charles Beaumont (who was credited with this episode, although it was really written by Jerry Sohl) with anything similar. I don't think Bradbury has a legitimate beef with either author, but to the best of my understanding, "Living Doll" is closer to a Ray Bradbury story than any Serling episode that Bradbury ever complained about.

James BWB writes:

I ran this through the cost of living calculator. $23.95 in 1963 translates to $147.32 in 2004 dollars. Somewhat softens my perspective of Erich (but not much).

http://www.leapinbass.com/zone/picture_pag...05/tz126-01.jpg

By the way, the COL calculater is a neat tool. Here is its link:
Cost of Living Calculator

I dont think I looked at porcelian dolls the same way after I saw this one. Very good episode- In my opinion- the second most frightening TZ's of all time.

There is a Web site called "Talky Tina Press":

http://id.mind.net/~truwe/tina/home.html

It's devoted to providing information to repair all kinds of classic dolls. It also identifies the "actress" in this episode's title role:

"Talky Tina was a Vogue Brickett doll (with the addition of a windup walking mechanism and a volume knob) that performed as a talking doll in a 1963 episode of a classic television show: 'The Living Doll.'"

It's noteworthy that the words "Twilight Zone" don't appear.

The Small Assasin--wasn't the title character a couple's own baby?

If it is, I read it once--a truly scary story--especially the very last scene!

Yes, that's the one. And I agree, a very scary story indeed. For what it's worth, of all of the fantasy short stories that Ray Bradbury ever wrote, this was the one that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America voted to include in the anthology The Fantasy Hall Of Fame. It's also in the Bradbury short-story collection The October Country, among others.

gave this ep. a 6. I probably would've given it higher years ago but it's just sort of worn on me...

If you watch A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight, pay attention to Lucy's voice. It's provided by Tracy Stratford, who plays Christie in "Living Doll" (and is uncredited as Tina in "Little Girl Lost").

It's noteworthy that the script for "Living Doll" as published in TZ Magazine makes no reference to Erich's being Christie's stepfather. We're supposed to assume, with nothing said to the contrary, that he's her biological father. I prefer the televised version, as I feel it explains Erich's behavior towards Christie just a little bit better.

It only gets a 5 from me. Aside from Talky Tina's interesting voice and comments and the truly classic scene at the end when Annabelle drops the doll (in slow motion) after it speaks to her, there's just not a whole lot going on in this episode to me.

- David

Another change from the teleplay, made possible by changing Erich into Christie's stepfather, is Annabelle's line to Erich that "I know you got more than you bargained for when you married me." For a long time, I took this to mean simply that although Erich wanted to marry Annabelle, and in fact did so, he wasn't exactly wild about there being a child from a previous marriage.

But isn't it possible that Annabelle actually hid Christie's existence from Erich until Erich asked her to marry him? In fact, hiding unpleasant realities may be a persistent character flaw of Annabelle's. She tries to hide Tina from Erich after breaking their agreement not to buy any more toys. She even adds insult to injury by refusing to disclose how much Tina cost. (Again, this refusal is another departure from the script.)

This interpretation also adds another dimension to a remark of Erich's that comes shortly before (and seems to motivate) Annabelle's acknowledgement: "I'm glad I'm not the cold, cruel ogre that Mommy and daughter think I am--I appreciate all the faith you have in me!" It seems that something is bothering Erich, anyway. Despite his reluctance to show it, except sometimes by angry outbursts, it's obvious that he is vulnerable and does have feelings. (Doesn't everything?)

All things being equal, I'm in favor of interpreting TZ episodes, or anything else, in the way that makes them most rewarding to experience. The author's intent is always useful to know, or, when unknowable, interesting to speculate about. But ultimately, a story exists independently of the author after it's finished. (I also absolutely believe that sometimes an author or other artist doesn't fully understand the depths of his own work. Maybe I'll write more about that some time in the "Kick The Can" thread.)

We'll probably never know whether whoever revised "Living Doll" intended us to infer that Annabelle deceived Erich before he proposed. I like that interpretation, and feel justified in seeing the episode that way, because 1) it seems to fit with everything else; 2) it helps make Erich a more sympathetic character (therefore making his situation more dramatically compelling), and 3) it helps make the whole dynamic of this dysfunctional family so much richer. In fact, this interpretation is the key to the way I understand the whole episode now. Would I lie?

The version in the book of Jerry Sohl scripts does say that he's her stepfather though. But it doesn't have the line "I'm not your Daddy!" This version of the script also makes it a point to mention several times how ugly Tina is.

That's interesting. Could you please give the line and one or two preceding and following lines for context? I'd like to compare them to the TZ Magazine script in case I overlooked something.

Sure. I have that TZ magazine too, and you're right. An entire conversation between Annabelle and Erich is missing from that version. It starts right between shots 21 and 22 in the magazine, right after "that's not what it said a minute ago". The missing part starts with Annabelle saying, "Erich, I don't know how much more of this I can take", and includes the "cold cruel ogre" bit, and ends with Christie coming back into the room. If you have the paperback of Sohl scripts, it starts at the bottom of page 97 and goes through all of 98, and it's pretty close to what occurs in the episode:

"You love her. But I don't love her. I'm only her stepfather. I'm incapable of loving children because I can't have any of my own. That's what you're saying, isn't it, Annabelle?"

I will never understand what Annabelle saw in Erich in the first place. To want to marry him and bring her child into the relationship? Blecch.

My hope is that Erich took out an accidental death insurance policy.

Leen

Well, I don't know. The authorities might think she did it. Especially if she tried to tell them he was killed by a doll.

I wonder what kind of relationship Christie and Tina have afterwards. I can envision them following Susan and Little Caesar to New York with their own set of poison darts.

One of my favorites dating back to the marathon days of my youth. I still don't like talking dolls or dummies because of the eerie nature in which they are presented in TZ. A 9 for this one.

Another classic! Telly's charachter got what had coming to him!

I wound up giving it a "9", which turns out to be the trend here. But am I the only who docked it a point because Annabelle nearly destroys the episode by saying Erich's NAME nearly every time she speaks to him in this episode?? Seriously, if you made a drinking game wherein you were to do a shot every time she says "Erich" your liver would not stay the course.

People don't state a person's name when talking to them generally more than a couple times in any one conversation. Maybe I'm just nitpicking because I'm a writer and love to write dialogue, so I've noticed how unnatural this is in an otherwise great episode.

Most of us are with you, Dane. This happens on other shows where the use of the first name is overly done. Who the heck does talk like that in real life? No, you're not nitpicking. You're just paying attention!

We have also discussed in the past the repetative dialogue which is kinda fun to throw around once in a while. Do you have a particular favorite?

BTW, Dane...who is the monster?

Leen

Hi, I'm a new member. I think this is one of the classic episodes. Very underrated. The only think I don't like about it is how bad Erich treats Annabelle. So what if she's not his biological daughter? He has no right to yell at her the way he does.
Just my opinion.

LD77,

Oooooo! Nice Dolly!



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LD is a classic. Once you see it it sticks with you for life. Even those who aren't diehard fans remember Talky Tina.

And Christie was such a sweet thing. Hardly what we would call a step-brat.

Leen

LivingDoll77 wrote:

Agreed. Erich's cold mental cruelty towards this innocent child is the reason I simply have no sympathy towards him. While he did not deserve the death penalty, it did not bother me to see him go.

Welcome, LivingDoll!

I feel sympathy for Christie and Erich. In Erich's mind, Christie was not an innocent child, but a child playing tricks on him who then added insult to injury by pretending to be innocent. Erich may have been a coarse guy who was too macho to admit feeling vulnerability, but that was how a lot of men thought they were supposed to be 40 years ago. Some things he does may be subject to interpretation, but the way I see him, all of his mistakes are warm-blooded, not the result of cold mental cruelty. The one that really irritates me here is Annabelle, whom I see as a manipulative sweetie who gives psychology a bad name. I'm sure that's the way she has adapted to the sexism of the day, but she still irritates me, perhaps because I see her as distinctly more cold-blooded than Erich.

If yelling "I'M NOT YOUR DADDY!" into a small, crying child's face isn't mental cruelty, I don't know what is. Imagine being a child and hearing the man you saw as a father yell that at you.
No, while I do have some problems with Annabelle, I see Erich as the heavy, here (at least until Tina says her final line to Annabelle, that is!).

You had said "cold mental cruelty." I don't see Erich's reaction there as cold or as resulting from a delight in causing Christie pain, which I take cruelty to mean. In fact, my memory of the episode is that a flash of guilt crosses Erich's face after he says that. Beyond that, there's not much I can add to what I said in my previous post.

OK, I'll concede the semantical difference. A better way to have said it would be "cold insensitivity". You are right, he was not intending to hurt Christie, he just didn't care if he did or not. I don't recall any flash of guilt but will re-watch the episode and look for it.

This one still gives me the willies. I do not like dolls...*shudders*

I LOVE dolls. Its just the talking ones that give me the creeps. LOL

Don't misunderstand, I'm not nominating him for "All-Time TZ Father" or anything. I just think that in his own mind, he was striking out at Christie for playing a trick on him, and then being phony on top of it.

But do not see how he could believe a child so young could pull something like that off - hiding a wireless two-way transmitter in a doll? No way. Even a child in these high tech times would be hard-pressed to do something like that. And not at that age.

Or the ventriloquism take! Wrong doll Zone Erich! Sheesh

I watched it too, and you're right, there was no flash of guilt after that line. The flash of guilt comes after the "Will you shut that thing OFF!" line before Rod's intro. Thanks for taking issue with that.

About the walkie-talkie... as I understand it, Erich's belief was that the walkie-talkie was built into the doll by the company, though I'm not sure if he abandoned that belief before he came into Christie's room. Looking at it more generally, it seems to me that the most reasonable things for Erich to believe at that point are on the list below.

1) Annabelle and/or Christie was playing a joke on him.
2) His mental health was going down the drain.
3) He was in the Twilight Zone.

Those aren't the only logical possibilities, but these are the reasonable ones that I can see right now. This may be a judgment call, but at this point I don't blame him for still believing 1).

Even if he was positive that Christie was behind this, though, I agree that Erich does handle the situation badly. What he should have done, I guess, was confront Christie about it instead of just jumping to conclusions, taking her doll away and (eventually) being nasty. Then they could have all talked it out together as a family. And then Annabelle and Christie would have decided that Daddy was crazy, and would have left him or had him committed...no, I'm not sure there was a happy ending open for Erich by that time. More ethical and mature options open for him? Definitely.

And while I was writing that, this question occurred to me for the first time: If Erich does believe that Christie is behind it all, why does he try to destroy the doll, instead of talking to and/or punishing Christie? On the face of it, this is a plot implausibility, but on reflection, I don't think it's actually implausible. Erich is probably frustrated and confused enough by now that he's not sure what he really believes or half-believes, let alone whether his belief system is consistent. So I think he does act irrationally, but not implausibly. That's what people do sometimes when they're angry and frightened.

I really enjoy discussions like this.

Yes, good discussion.

A technical issue. Didn't walkie-talkies in those days (and today) have to be manually activated to be spoken into (press a button to talk and release it to listen)? In order for Annabelle or Christie to respond accurately to what Erich said, they would have to have heard what he said to the doll which would have required Erich to depress a button of some sort. Today, I guess a cell phone could be used but would be difficult even then with it's small receiver. Some homes back then had intercom systems but they were not wireless.
But I never felt that Erich was particularly bright. I guess he THOUGHT the technology was possible. (In which case he would have been even more upset as such a doll would have been ENORMOUSLY expensive)

I’m enjoying the discussion of Christie’s dysfunctional family…but what about the damn doll? Let’s remember, this is not a nice doll.

Which brings me to a small gripe: Just why couldn’t Erich get rid of Talky? Why wouldn’t 20 yards of duct tape, a shovel, and a deep hole in the garden have solved his problem?

(Wouldn’t duct tape, a shovel, and a deep hole in the garden have taken care of Willy, too--Beev?)

Mmm, I guess so. And no, I don't think Erich seems particularly bright in this episode, either. Whether he's brighter than he seems or not, by his own admission he doesn't know very much about "modern times."

And Steve, intuitively it seems that your suggested methods would be more than adequate, but this is the Twilight Zone. Willy and Tina have special powers.