Shanks
Shanks

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- 55/100 based on 746 votes

Malcolm Shanks is a sad and lonely man, deaf, mute and living with his cruel sister and her husband, who delight in making him miserable. His only pleasure, it seems, is in making and controlling puppets. Thanks to his skill, he is offered a job as a lab assistant to Dr. Walker, who is working on ways to re-animate dead bodies by instering electrodes at key nerve points and manipulating the bodies as if they were on strings. When the professor suddenly dies one night, Shanks ... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in Shanks:

Marcel Marceau
Tsilla Chelton
Philippe Clay
Cindy Eilbacher
Biff Manard
Helena Kallianiotes

Full Plot Details

Malcolm Shanks is a sad and lonely man, deaf, mute and living with his cruel sister and her husband, who delight in making him miserable. His only pleasure, it seems, is in making and controlling puppets. Thanks to his skill, he is offered a job as a lab assistant to Dr. Walker, who is working on ways to re-animate dead bodies by instering electrodes at key nerve points and manipulating the bodies as if they were on strings. When the professor suddenly dies one night, Shanks gets the idea to apply their experimental results to a human body, and then to start exacting some revenge.

Review & Comments

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Movie Reviews

User Review - 10/10 by Chris PThis is seriously one of my favorite movies ever. Would love to find a copy on DVD.
User Review - 8/10 by Evan WOne of the weirdest films I have ever seen, and that's saying something. An odd near-silent fable about a puppeteer taught to animate the dead, William Castle's last film as a director is strange, slow-moving, and doesn't always make sense, but is still pretty jaw-dropping.
User Review - 8/10 by Rob N"A Grim Fairy Tale" -- Pretty amazing. Marcel Marceau in a mute, dual role. William Castle's last film. Reminded me of Edward Scissorhands at times, but more adult and macabre.
User Review - 8/10 by Greg SAfter apprenticing to a reclusive scientist, a deaf-mute puppeteer learns how to move corpses using electrodes operated by remote control. William Castle (!) directs Marcel Marceau (!) in this "grim fairy tale" mixing black comedy with pantomime slapstick and silent film aesthetics with an exploitation movie plot to create a movie like nothing else out there.
User Review - 6/10 by Gregory Wcamp b movie fare from the schlock master castle
User Review - 6/10 by Brody MEnjoyable in the same way when you see a car crash. Caught this on TCM and boy was I lucky since it's hard to find in watchable quality.
User Review - 6/10 by Christopher SNow this is a strange film. Directed by William Castle (his last), it's really just a vehicle for legendary mime Marcel Marceau's odd talents. It's really the excellent and atmospheric score by Alex North that carries this nearly silent gothic fairy tale. The production values are uneven, and it's slow-paced and overlong, but an interesting and original oddity for cult movie fans.
User Review - 6/10 by Eric B"Shanks" is not marvelous, but if you wanted to make a film to exploit the talents of Marcel Marceau, there would be few ways to do it better. Marceau portrays Malcolm Shanks, an innocent puppeteer who is beloved by the town's children but saddled with an abusive sister and her nasty, drunk husband. Keen to seize his wages, they find him a job with an old, rich scientist (also played by Marceau, in ridiculously heavy makeup) who is conducting reanimation experiments on the dead. Sure, it happens! When the scientist dies himself, Marceau takes over the operation, finding that his marionette skills are well-adapted to mastering the handheld invention which directs a dead creature's movements. At least three mimes portray animated corpses, and most of the fun is watching these artisans at work in such an unusual, macabre setting. No one utters much dialogue except the sister and husband -- Marceau's character stays silent but *does* croak a few lines in the guise of the old scientist -- and the wordless action is accented by occasional title cards in the style of a silent film. Eventually, a hoodlum motorcycle gang complicates the plot, which unfortunately is a rather clichà (C)d touch. "Shanks" is just a novelty, but it's entertaining. It is also William Castle's final work as a director.
User Review - 4/10 by Jacob FCastle's final film is one of the most bizarre; not so much in its fairy tale-esque maccabre but rather in it's distant yet bi-polar tone. There are some awesome near experimental sequences and what the film is trying to do, make a mime-based neo-silent film is commendable, but worth only a glancing look by the most devoted of horror buffs. There's hardly a story and what is there doesn't merit a feature film, and after a while the film feels laborious and repetitive.
User Review - 4/10 by Brian CI have mixed feelings about Shanks. It was quite innovative and quite daring to have a movie centered around so many non-speaking mimes. Marcel Marceau plays the titular characters who is a mime and makes human dolls out of corpses using electronics wizardry. Marceau is really quite wonderful. His expressions are creepy and off-putting, yet there is a childish playfulness to it. The characters of the brother and sister were really good, and they were amazing as the reanimated doll corpses. They really looked and moved like a marionette would! The bikers however, were extremely bad. From their really bad dialog and acting they didn't even feel like real people. So there were some major faults in this film, but so many wonderful parts and subtle comedic moments.

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