A deaf mute named Malcolm Shanks (Marcel Marceau) is a puppeteer. He lives in an abusive home with his alcoholic brother (Philippe Clay) and constantly complaining sister-in-law (Tsilla Chelton). He's also in love with sweet Celia (Cindy Eibacher). He goes to work with a scientist named Old Walker (also Marceau) who uses electricity to bring the dead back to life. Old Walker dies and Shanks decides to use his discovery to make his life better.<br /><br />A REAL weird film from William Castle--his last film as a director. This is almost impossible to see--I taped it off TCM where it played at around 3am! There's a reason for that--it's pretty terrible. It tries something different but doesn't succeed. You know you're in for something different when this starts off with a title card saying "William Castles presents A Grim Fairy Tale"! There's very little dialogue--most of the information is conveyed through title cards (like a silent movie). Marceau is very good in his two roles and manages to convey all his emotions by facial expressions and body language. The rest of the cast is just OK. It starts off pretty good but slows down half way through and (for some reason) Castle totally ignores the horrific aspects of the story and plays it more like a comedy. It completely derails at the end when a motorcycle gang pops up out of nowhere to wreck havoc! It's a odd movie alright but it's very slow, dreary and frankly just dull! It's commendable that Castle tried something different--but it just doesn't work. Castle himself does a cameo as a grocery clerk. I give this a 2.