Escape and Suspense!

Best or Worst - Perigi's Wonderful Dolls

This is an episode from the science fiction series X Minus One which ran on NBC from 1955-1958.  It is the story of a doll named Toto and a little girl named Cindy. The story is set in Washington D.C. where Cindy's father works as a government official at the Pentagon. On an afternoon shopping trip, Cindy and her mother discover Mr. Perigi's Toy Shop and Cindy's mother is talked into taking home Toto the doll. He walks, talks, laughs maniacally and performs a little song about dolls taking over the earth but none of this worries Cindy and her mom.

They get Toto home and right away there is a showdown between the family dog and the doll. One of my issues with this episode is the name of the family dog, "Mr Blister".  Am I hearing that right? The name is distracting but the family dog doesn't last too long with this doll in the house.

This episode was broadcast on June 5, 1955 and it is entertaining and memorable despite its essentially silly plot and Toto's laughing. Really, Toto does a lot of maniacal laughing in this episode.

Download xmin1.1955.06.05_Perigi's_Wonderful_Dolls.mp3

"Perigi's Wonderful Dolls" had previously been presented on the series Dimension X  on August 4, 1950. The story is the same but there are some differences in the script. I prefer the X-Minus One version but the fight scene between the doll and the dog is better in the earlier version.  Dimension X's Toto seems scarier at first but his tinny voice loses any fright value long before the episode ends.

Download Perigis_Wonderful_Dolls-DimX.1950.08.04_.mp3

(Image from Morguefile.com)

Best or Worst? - The Doll

Ask me to single out the worst episode of Suspense and my mind immediately jumps to the episode "The Doll".  Is it the worst - or is it one of the best ever?  I can't tell anymore. It is one of my all time favorites. Unintentionally funny and surreal, "The Doll" can't be pinned down into any one category.  Suspense began their fifteenth year on the air with this episode on October 23, 1956.

"The Doll" stars Patty McCormack of the movie The Bad Seed and her performance is fine but everything else about this episode is out of whack.  The sappy, lilting music interferes by making it impossible to take anything that happens too seriously. Even worse are the sound effects for the beating heart of the doll which are SO LOUD and distracting that the actors have to strain to be heard over it.

The story begins this way:

A seven year old girl named Val gets a doll from her new stepmother for a birthday present. The doll has "a gadget". You wind it up and its heart beats. Val names the doll after her dead mother (who died of a heart condition). Val becomes convinced that the doll will die too if she doesn't keep it constantly wound up.  Val's father and stepmother argue about the doll because it may have been a bad idea and decide to burn it in the incinerator after Val goes to bed. Val overhears this and runs away but can't get very far because she has always has to keep the doll wound up and...well, from there it just gets better and better!

Suspense broadcast this episode on October 23, 1956.

Download the_doll.mp3