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The Strange World of Coffin Joe

1968 film by José Mojica Marins

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ7766917 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Strange World of Coffin Joe (Portuguese: O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão) is a 1968 Brazilian anthology horror film directed by José Mojica Marins, who also plays his alter ego Zé do Caixão (in English, Coffin Joe). The film is a collection of three short films titled O Fabricante de Bonecas (The Dollmaker), Tara (Obsession), and Ideologia (Theory). Joe only appears briefly in the role of a horror host, introducing the segments, and the film is not a part of the Coffin Joe trilogy (At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse, and Embodiment of Evil). The hymn-like title song was written by Marins, and performed by Edson Lopes and Brazilian samba band Titulares do Ritmo.

The segments and cast

The Dollmaker (O Fabricante de Bonecas)

A story about a local doll maker who is very popular for realistic dolls, which are made by his four beautiful daughters. A group of robbers, overhearing that the doll maker does not keep his money in a bank, proceed to attack the old man in his shop. The doll maker seemingly faints during the attack and the attackers try to rape his seductive daughters. Resistive at first, each of the women begins to notice the "beautiful eyes" of the attackers and become accepting and even encouraging of their advances. When the recovered dollmaker appears in the room, each daughter quickly and silently takes leave of their attackers, leaving them to be shot and killed by their father. The following scenes reveal that this is the technique by which the doll maker obtains the realistic eyes for his dolls.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Strange World of Coffin Joe” as 1968 film by José Mojica Marins. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Strange, World and Coffin.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1968—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1968-11-25. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Strange, World and Coffin providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Strange World of Coffin Joe”, the useful work is to connect “1968 film by José Mojica Marins” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7766917. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Strange World of Coffin Joe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Strange World of Coffin Joe primary sources, The Strange World of Coffin Joe archive and Strange research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Strange World of Coffin Joe”?
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  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Strange World of Coffin Joe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.