- Ventriloquist Jerry Etherson is convinced that his dummy, Willie, is alive and evil. He locks Willie in a trunk and makes plans for a new act with a new dummy. Too bad he didn't clear those plans with Willie first.
- Jerry Etherson has a reasonably successful nightclub act as a ventriloquist but has one major problem: he believes his dummy Willie is a sentient being who speaks to him and manipulates his life. His agent Frank thinks Jerry needs psychiatric help and tells him he has no future in the business if he doesn't do something about his delusions. Jerry decides to lock Willie in a trunk and try his act with a different dummy. Willie has plans of his own however.—garykmcd
- The ventriloquist Jerry Etherson is a successful show businessman with his dummy Willie. However, he believes Willie is an evil entity and his agent and friend Frank believes he need psychiatric help. When he decides to change his dummy, they lean that this is not possible.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Ventriloquist Jerry Etherson (Cliff Robertson) is performing an act with his dummy Willy (voice of George Murdock) in a small club in New York City. At the end of the act, Willy seems to bite Jerry's hand, and after he goes back to his dressing room he finds teeth marks on his finger. He begins to drink from a liquor bottle he had hidden in a drawer. His agent, Frank (Frank Sutton), comes in and is upset that Jerry has resumed drinking. Jerry tells Frank, as he has numerous times before, that Willy is alive. Frank does not believe Jerry and has already pushed him into getting psychiatric help. Jerry is convinced that further psychiatric sessions would be redundant and that the only solution is to get rid of Willy and perform with a different dummy, "Goofy Goggles," from now on. He quickly comes up with new material for Goofy Goggles and locks Willy in a trunk.
After the second act, Jerry refuses to comply with the owner's wish that he and his dummy mingle with the audience. His agent considers this the last straw and quits, saying that Jerry's behavior, in particular what he sees as his delusional belief that Willy is alive, are keeping him from being a star. Jerry tells Frank he is leaving for Kansas City to get away from Willy. After leaving the theater, Jerry hears Willy's voice following him wherever he goes and sees his shadow on a wall. No one else can hear Willy, apparently confirming Frank's belief that Jerry is suffering from delusional fear.
Jerry runs back into the theater. He goes into the dark dressing room, opens the trunk, throws the dummy on the floor, and smashes it. But when he turns on the light, he realizes that he destroyed the Goofy Goggles dummy instead of Willy. He cannot understand how he could have been mistaken. He then sees Willy sitting on the couch, talking to him and laughing at him. Willy tells him that it was he, Jerry, who made him alive. Realizing the truth, Jerry lowers his head as Willy cackles crazily.
The scene cuts to a man in Kansas City announcing the next act, "Jerry and Willy." The ventriloquist is actually Willy (George Murdock), and he is holding Jerry, who has been turned into a dummy.
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