Do you remember a film or series about being trapped in a dollshouse?

Question

I remember watching a programm involving a dollshouse where the people were real and trying to escape. I seem to remember metal shutters coming down over the windows to stop the people getting out. Also I seem to recall what appeared to be melted chocolate over the house. Can anyone jog my memory with the name of this film? My husband says it's Amityville but I am sure it is something else, I think it may be related to 'V' or something similar.

Answer 1

OMG! It freaked the hell outta me!! I think it was an "Outer Limits", "Twilight Zone" or "Tales of the Unexpected" thing.

Answer 2

Amityville Dollhouse V
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115535/

Answer 3

I think it was part of a film made up of several parts, a sort of 'tales of terror' type film, with different stories in one film. I remember seeing it several times on TV, and it was made in the 1970's. It was British, and there was a young girl whose house it was.

I remember films like this featuring Terry Thomas, Roy Castle, Peter Cushing, and several other British actors at the time. But, I can't remember the name of it: Tales from the Crypt comes to mind.

There were other films about a shop (with Peter Cushing), passengers on a doomed train , people moving into a house, patients at an asylum (with Robert Powell), and other similar films that featured four or five mini stories within them.

Answer 4

If it was filmed in black & white it sounds like may have been an episode of The Twilight Zone

Answer 5

The Secret Life

of the Lonely Doll

The Search for Dare Wright

By Jean Nathan

HENRY HOLT; 309 PAGES; $25



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Jean Nathan's biography of "The Lonely Doll" author Dare Wright is thoroughly engrossing, and fans of the series will want to read her terrific - - and terrifically disturbing -- life story. While her books were a success, Wright is revealed to have been a tormented woman who spent her life yearning for the father and brother she lost at an early age.
"The Lonely Doll" was first published in 1957. Illustrated in a series of evocative black-and-white photographs, the story centers on Edith, a wide-eyed blond doll who lives all alone and prays every night for friends. One morning, two teddy bears -- Mr. Bear and Little Bear -- appear on her terrace and announce they've come to be her companions. The three have a series of adventures in the city and at the beach; later, Mr. Bear sets off on an errand, cautioning Edith and Little Bear to stay out of trouble. The two immediately make a mess playing dress-up, but, after a spanking administered by Mr. Bear, all is forgiven and the bears agree to stay with Edith "forever and ever."

In the late 1990s, New York journalist Jean Nathan, remembering the book from her childhood, sought out a copy. After rereading the text, she was perplexed: "I knew I had once found this book deeply reassuring. ... Decades on, the book struck me as dark and a little troubling."

On a whim, Nathan decided to track down the author, and learned that Wright was on life support in a public hospital for indigent patients. Wright had no living relatives, but her legal guardian, Brook Ashley, agreed to meet with Nathan. In a stroke of serendipity, Ashley was in the process of closing Wright's apartment; she gave Nathan scrapbooks detailing Wright's career and hundreds of photographs. In addition to these primary documents, Nathan collected reminiscences from Wright's friends and associates. Nathan's resulting book concludes that the lonely doll is Wright's alter ego; through her art, Wright tried to exorcise her abusive past.

Dare Wright was born in 1914 to Ivan Leonard Wright, a theater critic, and Edith "Edie" Stevenson Wright, a portrait painter. Ivan, says the author, was an absentee husband who went through jobs -- and alcohol -- at an alarming rate. Edith sought portrait commissions from patrons in New York and Ohio in order to keep the family afloat. By 1919, the pair had separated, with Ivan taking custody of Blaine, Dare's older brother, and Edith keeping their daughter. (The siblings wouldn't see each other again for decades; Wright would never again see her father.)

Wright's childhood makes for grim reading; although Edie had divorced Ivan, she told her daughter they'd been abandoned. When Edie learned that her ex-husband intended to remarry, she wrote to him that neither he -- nor their son -- should ever contact her, or her daughter, again. Wright missed years of schooling and had no contact with other children; a reporter visiting Edie's studio remarked on the child's condition, saying she should be in school; the reporter also mentioned that Wright's dolls and toys were decrepit.

The resulting newspaper story so enraged Edie that she immediately enrolled her daughter in the fourth grade at the Laurel boarding school in Cleveland -- and also bought her an expensive, Italian-made doll, which the two christened "Edith." Mother and daughter would continue their disturbing, symbiotic relationship throughout their lives: Several acquaintances felt the pair were lovers, not parent and child. They lived together, wore each other's clothes and slept in the same bed until Edie's death at age 92.

Wright eventually moved to New York to pursue modeling. There, she was reunited with her brother after a 25-year separation. Again, there are rumors of incest: Nathan reports their feelings for each other were so intense they discussed marriage; but while Blaine soon accepted his role as brother, Wright would remain obsessed with him.

A turning point in Wright's life and career occurred in 1950, when she rediscovered her childhood doll. "Edith" soon sported a high blond ponytail and gold hoop earrings, just like her owner. Wright spent hours with the doll, and held a cocktail party to introduce Edith to her friends; she insisted that visitors acknowledge Edith's presence. An acquaintance suggested Wright channel her obsession into something creative. Why not write a children's book featuring Edith? In 1955, Wright did just that, including in the story line the two teddy bears that represented her brother and her missing father. The book was successful and would generate a series of "Edith" titles well into the 1970s.

Wright's weak spot was reality; having never experienced a normal life, she seemed unable to break away from the surreal, abusive world created by her mother. Nathan chronicles Wright's progressive self-destruction: After Edie died in 1975, Wright descended into alcoholism, roaming the streets and setting herself deliberately in harm's way. Following many years of abuse on New York City streets, she suffered respiratory failure during a routine medical exam in 1995 and was admitted to a hospital, where she remained until her death in 2001.

Is it this?