Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991)

Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge is a 1991 horror film written by Charles Band, C. Courtney Joyner and David Schmoeller, and directed by David DeCoteau. It is the third film in the Puppet Master franchise, a prequel to 1989's Puppet Master and 1991's Puppet Master II, and stars Guy Rolfe as a puppeteer whose ability to animate lifeless material attracts the attention of the Nazis.

Plot
The movie is set during 1941 in a World War II Berlin. A scientist named Dr. Hess is forced by the Nazis to create a drug capable of animating objects, but can not get it right. In a building, Andre Toulon has set up a politically satirical puppet show for children, starring a six-armed American Old West puppet named Six Shooter, who attacks an inanimate reconstruction of Adolf Hitler. Backstage after the show, Andre and his wife feed the formula to Tunneler, Pinhead, Jester and Six Shooter. Outside the building, a Nazi spies on them and takes pictures.

The next day, Andre gives his wife, Elsa, a puppet crafted in her likeness, as he had been trying to paint her picture for years but could not get it right. Major Kraus of the Gestapo is given the photos and wants to take Toulon in. The Nazis take Andre, Tunneler, and Pinhead. They leave the wife but when she tries to stop them she is shot by Major Kraus. In a Nazi automobile, a Nazi soldier picks up Pinhead and begins to get strangled by him. Tunneler drills into the back of the driver's seat going straight through his chest. Toulon escapes and runs back to his building to find that the stage has been burnt by the Nazis. He finds Six Shooter and Jester and then leaves with them. He discovers a partially destroyed hospital and decides to set up camp in it. Toulon wants revenge, so he, Pinhead and Jester go to the morgue to get his wife's life essence.

In the morgue, Pinhead climbs up and into the window, followed by Jester. Pinhead strangles a doctor with a wire, while Jester watches. Jester runs to the door and unlocks it, and Andre comes in and gets his wife's life essence. Another doctor walks in and when he sees Toulon, he tries to call for help. Pinhead unplugs the phone cord and Jester runs up to the doctor and stabs his leg with a scalpel. Andre and the puppets then walk right out the door. In the hospital, Andre puts his wife's essence into the women puppet he made for her. She wiggles and squirms for a while Toulon put leeches, found in an old medicine drawer into her, she then sits up with a slightly different appearance.

Later that night, Major Kraus' driver is fixing up a car. He puts down the hood to see Jester sitting on a tool box. Pinhead walks up and slams his leg with a wrench. When he opens his eyes he sees Pinhead standing above him with the wrench. He screams and Jester begins to spin his face laughing in joy. The driver is struck across the face by Pinhead and Jester stops spinning. Leech Woman crawls up on the driver and pukes up leeches on his face. Toulon leaves and finds an old wrecked shelter. The puppets get out and make themselves comfortable.

In a lab, Dr. Hess is studying Toulon's formula. Desperate to meet Andre, he goes back to his old building. In the shelter, some friends from the puppet show find Andre and decide to live with him. The next day, at one of the Nazi Wehrmacht general's buildings, behind a short wall, Pinhead stands guard. Andre pretends to be blind and walks up to the side of the building. He places Six Shooter down next the wall. Six Shooter climbs up the wall like a spider into the window. The general walks down a hall to see Six Shooter staring at him. Six Shooter pulls up his bandanna and flips out his guns. He begins to shoot the general, but the general pulls out a gun and shoots one of his arms off. Six Shooter still shoots and the general falls out the window. In the shelter, Peter, one of Andre's friends goes back to his building to look for another arm. He is caught by Dr. Hess, who treats him kindly and gets him to take him to Andre. Dr. Hess finds Andre and talks with him. The two become friends. Toulon's other friend betrays him by telling Major Kraus about Andre and the Nazis come to the shelter. One Nazi enters and gets a brick thrown at him by Pinhead, knocking him out. Dr. Hess takes his gun and runs. A second Nazi walks in and get drilled in the ankle by Tunneler. Leech Woman is on a hanging lamp above the Nazi and regurgitates leaches on his face and in his mouth. The puppets and the Puppet Master get away and sneak into an alley. A Nazi scout runs into the alley and gets shot rapidly by Six Shooter. Dr. Hess runs to him to see if he is really dead. He thinks he is, but the Nazi grabs a knife and kills Dr. Hess. Andre decides to put Dr. Hess' life essence into his new puppet, Blade. At night, Major Kraus is sitting at his desk. He tries to make a call but his phone won't work. On his book shelf, Jester sits holding a pair of scissors. Kraus tries to throw a bowl at Jester but misses. Blade cuts his knee but when he goes down to grab Blade, Blade cuts his hand. Andre comes out from the shadows and Kraus shoots him in the shoulder. Pinhead throws an ash tray at him and then puts hooks in his hands and feet. The hooks are tied to a rope hung up over a light. Andre pulls the rope so Kraus is hung like a puppet. Andre ties the end to the Nazi flag and then burns it. Pinhead puts an axe underneath Major Kraus, and then the rope snaps, causing him to fall right on the axe. Andre and Peter are later seen at the train station leaving Berlin to Geneva, Switzerland with the puppets.

Availablity
Toulon's Revenge, as well as the second, Puppet Master 4 and Puppet Master 5 installments of the series, are only widely available in DVD format through a Full Moon Features box set that has since been discontinued. However, in 2007, Full Moon Features reacquired the rights to the first five films, and the boxset has since been reissued and is available directly from Full Moon, as well as through several online retailers.

Cast

 * Guy Rolfe – Andre Toulon
 * Richard Lynch – Major Krauss
 * Ian Abercrombie – Dr. Hess
 * Kristopher Logan – Lt. Eric Stein
 * Aron Eisenberg – Peter Hertz
 * Walter Gotell – General Mueller
 * Sarah Douglas – Elsa Toulon
 * Matthew Faison – Hertz
 * Michelle Bauer – Lili
 * Jasmine Touschek – Prostitute
 * Eduard Will – Soldier on Stage
 * John Regis – Morgue Attendant
 * Neal Parrow – Young Driver
 * Kenneth Cortland – Pharmacy Soldier
 * Lenny Rose – Airport Agent
 * Laurie Mateyko – Little Girl
 * Rhonda Britten – Mother
 * Michael Lowry – Hess's Guard
 * Michael Leroy Rhodes – Hess's Guard
 * John Cann – Young Dead Soldier
 * Ivan J. Rado – Cairo Merchant

Featured puppets

 * Six Shooter
 * Tunneler
 * Jester
 * Pinhead
 * Leech Woman
 * Egyptian goblin puppet
 * Blade