Tales From The Crypt “The Ventriloquist’s Dummy”

So, most times, whoever gets punished in Tales from the Crypt seems to deserve it.

I am not sure the guy here does.

Young Billy Goldman sees the great ventriloquist Mr. Ingels (Don Rickles) perform his final show before a tragic fire did…something.  Years later, an adult Billy (Bobcat Goldthwait) is an aspiring ventriloquist who looks up his hero, working under the assumption that his idol will, as promised, give him some pointers.  Ingles, however, is living far from everybody, his one hand covered up, and he tries to get rid of Billy before going to see Billy’s act.

It’s terrible.  Goldthwait’s high pitch screaming actually works to make it more obnoxious.

Like, really terrible.  But when Billy thinks Ingels has killed a woman, he tries to talk to him again, and Ingels blames his old dummy.  Billy finds that preposterous.  Then the truth comes out: the dummy was a murderous conjoined twin, stuck on Ingel’s hand, and…oh, he just ripped Ingels’ throat out with his teeth.  He truly is awful.  So, why does Billy get punished in the end?

I guess because Billy had a momentary sense of greed when the little stump of a mutant offers to be his new partner.  Does that mean he deserves to have the brother now, somehow, grafted to his own hand?  I don’t know.  It’s weird. I don’t think he deserves that.

What about the Cryptkeeper?  He tries his own ventriloquism, but he ends up tossing his dummy into the fire after one joke at the Cryptkeeper’s expense.

Notable Names:  Rickles, Gotdthwait, director Richard Donner, and…wow, the writer was Frank Darabont.  If you don’t know who that is, look him up.