The great Vorelli (Bryant Haliday) is a master hypnotist and gifted ventriloquist with an amazing act where his dummy appears to be able to walk and talk on its own.
Vorelli has also dabbled in the black arts and learned how to transfer souls from a human body to an inanimate object – which he did with his old assistant Hugo (David Charlesworth), who is now his ventriloquist dummy (Sadie Corre).
American journalist Mark English (William Sylvester) arrives in London to investigate a series of murders and soon suspects Vorelli – but he always has an alibi.
Meanwhile, Vorelli becomes infatuated with the journalist’s rich and beautiful heiress girlfriend, Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romaine,) and sets out to do some soul transferring with her – mesmerizing her and inducing a baffling coma.
Vorelli’s clingy and buxom assistant Magda (Sandra Dorne) fears he will dump her for the younger woman, and threatens to expose him so Vorelli tricks his dummy, Hugo, into killing her while he’s safely elsewhere.
Marianne wakes from her coma and announces she will marry the hypnotist, but when the triumphant Vorelli tells Hugo his plans for Marianne and a new, female dummy, a final confrontation yields surprising results.
The Great Vorelli
Bryant Haliday Mark English
William Sylvester Marianne Horn
Yvonne Romain Magda
Sandra Dorne Aunt Eva
Nora Nicholson Bob Garrett
Alan Gifford Dr Heller
Karel Stepanek Dr Keisling
Francis De Wolff Hugo Novik
David Charlesworth Mercedes
Lorenza Colville Hugo the Dummy
Sadie Corre Miss Penton
Trixie Dallas Hans
Guy Deghy Countess
Margaret Durnell Grace
Heidi Erich Uncle Walter
Philip Ray Louisa
Ella Tracey
The Great Vorelli
Bob Garrett
Mercedes
