Review: Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge

In 1940s Germany, a scientist (Ian Abercrombie) is forced by Gestapo Major Krauss (Richard Lynch) to work for the Reich in using chemicals to reanimate corpses. Meanwhile, puppeteer Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe) does two things to piss off the Nazis; 1) Mock the Führer through his puppet show, and 2) He refuses to give them the secret formula for giving the otherwise inanimate puppets life. Major Krauss responds to this lack of co-operation by having Toulon’s beloved wife (Sarah Douglas) gunned down as she attempts to stop them taking the formula. Time to unleash the puppet master’s obedient followers on the Third Reich!

 

If the first “Puppetmaster” film was the one that got Full Moon studios up and running, this 1991 prequel from David DeCoteau (“Creepozoids”) represents the high point of the series and one of the best films Full Moon ever made. Scripted by C. Courtney Joyner (“Doctor Mordrid”, “Mandroid”), the film is every bit as slow as the previous two films but the key here is that the story is much more enjoyable. I don’t know whether it was Full Moon head or Joyner, but someone here clearly worked out something that I often say: The backstory glimpsed at in the previous films was far more interesting than the main plots. So here we finally get the backstory of Andre Toulon as a full plotline in this puppets vs. Nazis film.

 

The other two big plusses here are firstly that Band obviously realised that the puppets were the stars so we now pivot to them essentially being the good guys here. Second, Band and DeCoteau really lucked out with the casting, this might be one of the best casts ever assembled for a film with Charles Band’s name attached to it. An excellent Guy Rolfe heads the cast as a somewhat benevolent version of the puppet master Andre Toulon. He brings a bit of a Peter Cushing quality to the part (and like Cushing, Rolfe also appeared in the occasional Hammer film). One of cinema’s great unsung villains, Richard Lynch is in very fine form here as the Gestapo Major villain (a role originally intended for Ralph Bates who sadly died), using his nefarious, scarred facial features to excellent sinister effect. “Seinfeld” co-star Ian Abercrombie has one of his best roles as a scientist strong-armed into helping the Nazis, and he’s good in the role. Veteran Bond character actor Walter Gotell is here to play a Nazi General first glimpsed being bathed by a bunch of naked chicks. Basically, he’s General Gogol in a different nation’s uniform and it absolutely works. Sarah Douglas is generally better in villainous roles, although she’s not bad here, it’s just that playing Toulon’s wife doesn’t give her anything to sink her teeth into.

 

If there are any flaws here, they’re minor ones. We get some brief moments of re-used footage for a dream sequence using the Djinn puppet previously glimpsed in a similar dream sequence fashion in “Puppet Master II”. The film doesn’t overdose on shameless padding, but it’s still a cheap, lazy tactic that would only get worse as the series went on. The second issue is the really awful matte paintings, which is unfortunate. I get that these were low-budget affairs, but no film is perfect and I have to be honest. On the plus side, the puppets still look great and I loved the “Bride of Frankenstein”-esque scene where we see the genesis of the Leech Woman puppet. It’s a wonderfully creepy special FX scene. I also appreciated the scene where a Nazi soldier gets it good and nasty from Pinhead and Tunneler. My favourite bit is probably the scene where Six-Shooter hilariously scales the wall of a building like Count Dracula. I can’t adequately explain it, but am I the only one who thinks these puppets have life in their eyes even though their eyes don’t move? I find it especially so with Blade and Tunneler despite them having the least expressive eyes of the bunch oddly enough.

 

Rock-solid film is the series highpoint, good fun without any dead spots, noticeably bad acting, or too much padding. If you see one “Puppet Master” film, this is the one to see.

 

Rating: B-

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