The Deadly Dolls

Episode 4:2
Original Air date 10/1/1967
 
"I was a guest star on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in the Summer of 1967. I played this evil Gepetto character and tormented Richard and David unmercifully the whole time. It was great fun."
Vincent Price
I never had any scenes with Vincent Price when we did filmed The Fly in April of 1958. I talked to him a few times off set and we were at the wrap party together. I only knew him slightly then, as another Fox contract player, having seen him around the lot and in the commissary.

Nine years later, he came to Stage 10 as the villain in our 2nd episode of the 4th season. The plot was for him and his puppets to take over the Seaview. It was a very fun week, we were laughing and joking throughout the filming. I even goosed him once.

Vincent pulled me aside and remarked how much I had changed. That I had been so earnest, so serious about my acting on The Fly and now I was so much more relaxed and having such fun with this material. He liked the change.

At the end of the week, Vincent invited me and Richard over to his house for dinner. Richard took his wife, Diana and I brought my girlfriend. It was a dinner party, Anne Baxter and several other old Fox stars were also there, making it a very lovely evening. To be able to sample Vincent's cuisine was a treat. He was a gourmet chef and the dinner was exquisite. There was also his fabulous art collection to peruse.

We remained friends until his death. Vincent was a lovely man with a terrific sense of humor. When I got married in 1968, he gave us his cookbook as a wedding present. We still use it, forty years later. I think of Vincent whenever we make one of his dishes.

David Hedison

Professor Multiple and his world famous puppets entertain the Seaview crew and officers while they are in port.

The Puppets bear a striking resemblance to the Admiral, the Captain and the Exec. They go through a Punch and Judy routine lambasting each other with belaying pins until Multiple breaks it up.

The crew loves it, but when Crane remarks on how much the puppets look like them, Multiple shows them blank faced puppets and claims it's nothing but make-up.

Multiple has to leave the ship so the submarine can sail, but in the middle of escorting him out, Crane is called away.

Sharkey then finds puppets left behind in a storage locker. He calls the Exec to find out what to do.

They are about to send the puppets after Multiple when the Nelson one comes to life, Multiple comes in and Sharkey and Morton are put into a deep sleep and instantaneously transported to crew's quarters.

Multiple then makes the puppets life-size doubles of the crew and sends them off to the control room to take over the boat.

Crane returns to the control room not knowing his crew has been replaced. Seaview suddenly makes an uncontrolled dive and Crane can't get anyone to obey him.

Multiple appears with the Nelson puppet on his shoulder and tells Crane of their plan to take Seaview to their alien ship, which was damaged when it came through the atmosphere and now needs Seaview to become it's new "shell."

The Puppet crew advances menacingly on Crane, and Nelson throws in a smoke bomb from the stairwell, which
allows Crane to escape capture, but not before he sees he has been replaced by a puppet as well.

Putting the crash doors in between themselves and the irate puppets Nelson decides to use the laser in The Flying Sub to destroy the alien craft but he will need Lee to help him break free again.

Crane leaves him to get ready and is ambushed by his puppet double in the armory. Lee grabs up a flame thrower and they wrestle for it, but Crane finally manages to get the upper hand and fry the puppet.

When Multiple arrives, Crane tells him he has killed the Captain and they go back to the control room, after the Morton puppet reports that Nelson has launched The Flying Sub and has attacked their ship.

Crane tricks Multiple into letting him throw a switch that sends a nuclear charge through Seaview's hull as she is about to be absorbed by the alien. Nelson needs Crane to throw another switch to break him free, but the puppets all jump on Crane and start beating him up.

Crane manages to break free, throw himself on the switch and receive a healthy shock while doing it. He falls to the deck, unconscious.

The Flying Sub breaks free, the charged Seaview blows up the alien ship and Multiple; the puppets wind up in a lifeless blank faced heap on the chart table.

The crew is released from their trance and they successfully revive Crane.

Then the Nelson Puppet stirs on the table and tells them it's too bad the puppets didn't take over.

Crane orders the puppets destroyed and Seaview sails for home.

Diane Kachmar
9/28/08