The Great Gabbo

This bizarre, often unintentionally funny, and very campy film casts Erich von Stroheim, in his first talkie performance, as The Great Gabbo, a half-crazy ventriloquist who is losing his personality to his own dummy, Otto, while punishing his pretty assistant, Mary (Betty Compson), for imagined wrongs. Gabbo becomes so jealous of his helper that he drives her from his side, the dummy actually insulting her and heaping so much abuse on her head that she quits the act, even though she loves Gabbo. The ventriloquist loses his identity to the dummy altogether and goes berserk at the end, smashing the dearest thing to his heart, Otto, the wooden extension of his persona...