Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge

Plot

The film is set during 1941 in World War II Berlin. A scientist named Dr. Hess is forced by the Nazis, especially his Gestapo liaison Major Kraus, to create a drug capable of animating corpses to use as living shields on the battlefield after losing too many on the Eastern Front. But while the corpses do reanimate, they have a tendency towards mindless violence. In a small theater downtown, André Toulon has set up a satirical puppet show for children, in which a six-armed puppet named Six-Shooter attacks an inanimate reconstruction of Adolf Hitler. The show is also attended by Leutnant Erich Stein, Kraus' driver. After the performance, Toulon and his wife Elsa feed the puppets with the formula which sustains their life force, but they are watched by Stein, who informs his superior the next morning. Hess, genuinely fascinated by the formula, wants Toulon to freely share the secret with him, but Kraus wants to take Toulon in for treason and insulting the Führer.

The next day, André gives Elsa a puppet crafted in her likeness as a gift, but soon afterwards Kraus, Hess, and a squad of soldiers break into the atelier and take Toulon, Tunneler, and Pinhead. When Elsa attempts to prevent them from taking the formula as well, she is shot by one of the escort. When Kraus prepares to leave, the wounded Elsa spits at him in defiance, and Kraus shoots her dead in cold blood. However, while transporting Toulon off, the two soldiers guarding him are killed by Pinhead and Tunneler, enabling Toulon to escape.

After hiding for the remainder of the night, Toulon returns to his theater to find that the stage has been burnt by the Nazis. He finds Six-Shooter and Jester and leaves with them, then sets up camp in a partially destroyed hospital. Seeking revenge, Toulon breaks into the morgue to get Elsa's life essence and inserts it into the woman puppet, and as she comes to life, he inserts several leeches into her. Later that night, Toulon and his puppets ambush and kill Stein while he fixes Kraus' car. On his flight from his pursuers, Toulon subsequently finds shelter in a bombed-out building.

Back in his lab, Dr. Hess is studying Toulon's formula, and desperate to meet and talk with him, he goes back to the old theater. Meanwhile, some friends from the puppet show, a boy named Peter Hertz and his father, find André and decide to live with him after Peter's mother was arrested on charges of espionage. The next day, Toulon sends Six-Shooter to kill General Müller, the supervisor of the Nazi reanimation project, while Müller is visiting a brothel. Six-Shooter kills the general, but Müller shoots off one of the puppet's arms beforehand. Peter goes back to Toulon's old atelier to look for a replacement arm and is caught by Hess, who treats him kindly and gets him to take him to Toulon.

Cast

Production

Development

Executive producer Charles Band wanted a prequel to the original Puppet Master film set during World War II. He met C. Courtney Joyner, who had seen the film at a screening at the University of Southern California and was visiting the set of Puppet Master II. Joyner was asked to write the film's screenplay, as well as those of Doctor Mordrid and Trancers III, and wanted to make the film "the Where Eagles Dare of Puppet Master movies", though as author Nat Brehmer noted, "he wound up writing the Citizen Kane of Puppet Master movies instead." Director David DeCoteu liked the idea and wanted to make the film similar to Pinewood Studios' World War II films from the 1960s, particularly The Night of the Generals.

In this film, André Toulon escapes Berlin in April 1941. However, Toulon commits suicide on March 15, 1939 in the first installment, and this film mentions the Eastern Front, whose conduct of operations did not take place until the summer of 1941.

Filming

The Nazi Germany scenes were initially set to be filmed in Romania, but there was political instability in the country at the time, with Ted Nicolaou, who had finished shooting Subspecies there, advising DeCoteau to not travel there. The scenes were then planned to be shot in Hungary, but weather conditions during winter were judged too harsh for filming. The scenes were eventually shot on the Universal Studios Lot in 18 days. Band and distributor Paramount Pictures requested that the surgery scene in the film's opening sequence be toned down to make it less intense.

Casting

Band wanted a cast of European actors and actresses for the film. Actors and actresses cast for the film included Guy Rolfe, Ian Abercrombie, Kristopher Logan, Aron Eisenberg, Sarah Douglas, Matthew Faison, Michelle Bauer, Jasmine Touschek, Eduard Will, John Regis, Neal Parrow, Kenneth Cortland, Lenny Rose, Laurie Mateyko, Rhonda Britten, Michael Lowry, Michael Leroy Rhodes, John Cann, Conrad Brooks, Gino Colbert, Michael Deak, Landon Hall, Kevin O'Hara, Michael Todd, and JD Walters. Ralph Bates was offered to play the role of Major Kraus, but died of pancreatic cancer on 27 March 1991 shortly before production began. DeCoteau wanted Christopher Neame, who was friends with Bates, to play the role, but Band insisted on casting Richard Lynch instead, as he thought that having another European actor would convince the film's foreign distributors that it was not made in the United States and would "hurt [his] sales". Herbert Lom was considered for the role of General Mueller, but Walter Gotell was cast instead. The laughter of the puppet Six-Shooter was provided by Charles Band's father Albert Band, an actual escapee from the Nazi regime.

Special effects

The puppet effects and stop motion animation were done by David W. Allen, Kevin McCarthy, Mark Rappaport, Scott Oshita, Anthony Allen Barlow, Joanne Bloomfield, Yancy Calzada, Lynette Eklund, Chris Endicott, Paul Gentry, Dennis Gordon, Joseph Grossberg, Louis Gutierrez, Mark Killingsworth, Donna Littleford, Mark Sisson, Kirk Skodis, Lisa Sturz, John Teska, Brett B. White, and Steve Switaj at David Allen Productions. A six-armed ninja puppet holding multiple swords was originally created for an unmade film by Empire International Pictures. It was planned to appear in the original Puppet Master, but was cut since it would be too expensive to create. The concept would later be repurposed for Toulon's Revenge. Being a fan of Westerns, Joyner decided that one of André Toulon's puppets should represent the opposition toward the Third Reich, and changed the ninja into a cowboy named Six-Shooter. Graham Humpreys, who created the film's poster, used a 1988 Foot Soldier toy as a base for Six-Shooter. The film's opening sequence was planned to have a scene animated by Allen, where Six-Shooter's strings are cut and he comes to life, but it was cut due to time constraints. Stunts were coordinated by Chuck Borden and performed by John Cann, George B. Colucci Jr., Christopher Doyle, Lane Leavitt, Dennis Madalone, John Miller, Jon Conrad Pochron, and Tim Trella. The makeup effects were done by David P. Barton, Adam Brandy, Christl Colven, Thomas Floutz, Perry Fongheiser, Mark Garbarino, Palah Sandling, Yolanda Squatpump, Johnny Vegaline, and Scott Wheeler at Modus EFX.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 0% based on two reviews, with a weighted average rating of 5.2/10. Author John Kenneth Muir gave the film three stars, stating, "Of all the Puppet Master movies, Toulon's Revenge is the best. It's not a great film, but one clever idea–a role reversal–grants the direct-to-video series new life and an injection of much-needed energy."