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Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
House of Frankenstein, 1944
(Realart, R-1950). Lobby Card (11" X 14”).
Starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe, Lionel Atwill, Elena Verdugo, George Zucco, and Sig Ruman. And Glenn Strange as The Monster…Directed by Erle C. Kenton.
Texas-born Glenn Strange (1899-1973) Worth noting: Strange was paid a measly $500 for two weeks of work on the film. In the Fifties, when westerns were a television staple, Strange worked all the classic series from Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry to The Rifleman, Cheyenne, and Rawhide, eventually earning a regular spot, starting in 1961, on Gunsmoke, quietly polishing shot glasses through 210 episodes as the rock steady, mustachioed bartender, Sam.
In fantasy films, Strange first appeared, briefly and uncredited, as one of Ming’s minions in a 1936 Flash Gordon serial. In 1942’s The Mad Monster, a Poverty Row B-movie devised to cash in on the runaway success of Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941), Strange’s size served the part of Petro, a hulking, simple-minded handyman who turns into a hairy, fanged monster.
Glenn Strange’s most famous and enduringly popular role, no doubt, was playing the last of Universal’s Frankenstein Monsters. By 1944, the Monster had become a stock character, trotted out with Dracula and The Wolf Man in kitchen sink monster rallies. In House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945),http://youtu.be/fF_o10k54-0?t=2s
the monsters, with attendant hunchbacks and mad doctors, were displayed and quickly dispatched in what amounts to individual vignettes, with little or no interaction. Strange’s Frankenstein, after spending most of the show strapped to a slab, was activated in time for a short, climactic walkabout and a quick, catastrophic end.
Without a lot of screen time and very little to do besides glowering at torch-bearing villagers, Strange’s contributions might have been a footnote to Frankenstein film history if not for an unlikely third film, the brilliant Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
With a stellar cast that included Chaney as The Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Strange’s Monster was a central character, interacting with the principals and chasing The Boys in a wild, genuinely funny romp that became one of the most influential movie comedies ever made.
Strange would go on to promote the film with a number of personal appearances wearing an over-the-head mask made for him by Don Post, eventually appearing again with Abbott and Costello, with The Creature from the Black Lagoon thrown in for good measure, in a 1954 episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour on TV. The affable actor even participated in one of fan-filmmaker Don Glut’s 16mm epics, the Frankenstein’s Fury episode of Adventures of The Spirit, in 1963.
The Frankenstein makeup worked very well with Strange’s craggy deadpan. With a boxy head, big shoulders and his trademark windup-toy thread, Glenn Strange gave the Frankenstein Monster its definitive pop culture profile. It was Glenn Strange’s features that would be sampled for a best-selling Frankenstein rubber mask, and his face that was repeatedly used on toy packaging. Significantly, perhaps inevitably, when Boris Karloff died in 1969, most newspaper obits were illustrated with a photo of Glenn Strange in Frankenstein makeup.
Made with the Nintendo pictorial app. by a child aged 9.
Technique: handmade monitor painting with a touch screen pen.
3 handmade paintings superimposed.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Simply titled Dracula in its native England (it was retitled in the U.S. to avoid confusion with the Bela Lugosi version, which had recently been re-issued by Realart), this famous Hammer Studio film was notable for its gruesome aspects (even more vivid in full color) and the powerful performance of Christopher Lee in the title role. Lee has scarcely any dialogue, hissing and snarling like an animal instead, but still puts across an intense sex appeal. Offered here is the incredibly scarce blue version of the American one sheet,
Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, Olga Dickie, John Van Eyssen, Barbara Archer, Janina Faye, and Valerie Gaunt. Directed by Terence Fisher.
Jonathan Harker takes employment with Count Dracula, ostensibly to catalog his vast library. In fact, he is on a mission to kill the Count, a vampire. Before he can do so however, the Count gains the upper hand and Harker soon finds himself as one of the walking dead. Dracula has taken an interest in Harker's fiancée, Lucy Holmwood and it is left to Harker's colleague, Dr. Van Helsing to protect her. He has difficulty convincing Lucy's brother, Arthur Holmwood, of the dangers or even the existence of vampires. Soon, however, Arthur's wife Mina is targeted by Count Dracula and he and Van Helsing race to find his lair before she is lost to them forever.
This Hammer Studios classic is far closer to the letter (and spirit) of the Bram Stoker novel than the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula. The premise finds the infamous count journeying from his native Transylvania to England, where he takes a headfirst plunge into the London nightlife, and begins to rack up victim after victim. In the process, Dracula also runs into his arch-nemesis, Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), which ignites a battle of wills between the two. Heavily censored in Britain when released (with the goriest moments truncated), this outing was restored by the BFI in the mid-late 2000s. It put Lee and Cushing on the map and paved the way for many sequels starring the two, and for many non-Dracula follow-ups with these actors as well.
With so many mediocre vampire films, the few which are truly excellent often get lost in the static. Terence Fisher's 1958 Dracula is easily one of the best, and it proves just how important good writing, acting and directing can be in a time-tested genre. The performances are stellar: Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee make their respective roles of Dr. Van Helsing and the Count uniquely their own. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster's condenses Bram Stoker's novel, shifting most events to Dracula's castle and sharpening the material's dialogue and pacing. Appropriately atmospheric and dark, the film adds enough touches of humor and sexuality to update the tale's heretofore staid feel. Fisher's Dracula is a must-see not just for devotees of modern horror but also for fans of good storytelling in general.
House of Frankenstein, 1944
(Realart, R-1950). Pressbook (Multiple Pages, 11" X 16.75).
Starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe, Lionel Atwill, Elena Verdugo, George Zucco, and Sig Ruman. And Glenn Strange as The Monster…Directed by Erle C. Kenton.
Texas-born Glenn Strange (1899-1973) Worth noting: Strange was paid a measly $500 for two weeks of work on the film. In the Fifties, when westerns were a television staple, Strange worked all the classic series from Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry to The Rifleman, Cheyenne, and Rawhide, eventually earning a regular spot, starting in 1961, on Gunsmoke, quietly polishing shot glasses through 210 episodes as the rock steady, mustachioed bartender, Sam.
In fantasy films, Strange first appeared, briefly and uncredited, as one of Ming’s minions in a 1936 Flash Gordon serial. In 1942’s The Mad Monster, a Poverty Row B-movie devised to cash in on the runaway success of Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941), Strange’s size served the part of Petro, a hulking, simple-minded handyman who turns into a hairy, fanged monster.
Glenn Strange’s most famous and enduringly popular role, no doubt, was playing the last of Universal’s Frankenstein Monsters. By 1944, the Monster had become a stock character, trotted out with Dracula and The Wolf Man in kitchen sink monster rallies. In House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945),http://youtu.be/fF_o10k54-0?t=2s
the monsters, with attendant hunchbacks and mad doctors, were displayed and quickly dispatched in what amounts to individual vignettes, with little or no interaction. Strange’s Frankenstein, after spending most of the show strapped to a slab, was activated in time for a short, climactic walkabout and a quick, catastrophic end.
Without a lot of screen time and very little to do besides glowering at torch-bearing villagers, Strange’s contributions might have been a footnote to Frankenstein film history if not for an unlikely third film, the brilliant Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
With a stellar cast that included Chaney as The Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Strange’s Monster was a central character, interacting with the principals and chasing The Boys in a wild, genuinely funny romp that became one of the most influential movie comedies ever made.
Strange would go on to promote the film with a number of personal appearances wearing an over-the-head mask made for him by Don Post, eventually appearing again with Abbott and Costello, with The Creature from the Black Lagoon thrown in for good measure, in a 1954 episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour on TV. The affable actor even participated in one of fan-filmmaker Don Glut’s 16mm epics, the Frankenstein’s Fury episode of Adventures of The Spirit, in 1963.
The Frankenstein makeup worked very well with Strange’s craggy deadpan. With a boxy head, big shoulders and his trademark windup-toy thread, Glenn Strange gave the Frankenstein Monster its definitive pop culture profile. It was Glenn Strange’s features that would be sampled for a best-selling Frankenstein rubber mask, and his face that was repeatedly used on toy packaging. Significantly, perhaps inevitably, when Boris Karloff died in 1969, most newspaper obits were illustrated with a photo of Glenn Strange in Frankenstein makeup.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Starring Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Otto Kruger, Edward Van Sloan, Gilbert Emery, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Billy Bevan, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper, Claud Allister, Edgar Norton, E.E. Clive, Agnes Anderson, George Kirby, Guy Kingsford, Edna Lyall, Eily Malyon, Clive Morgan, Vesey O'Davoren, Silvia Vaughan, Vernon Steele, Wilhelm von Brincken. Directed by Lambert Hillyer.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Collage created for free art drops and swaps for PCM xmas swap meet.
15 x 10cm
Scissors, paint, glue.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 81. Photo: Warner Bros.
May McAvoy (1899-1984) was an American actress of the silent screen, best known as Esther in the classic epic Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).
Born in New York City in 1899, within a well-to-do family that owned and operated a livery stable, May left school at the age of 17 to act in her first role in the film Hate by Walter Richard Stahl. From then she had small parts, even uncredited roles in films, for various Californian film companies, until she did a few films for the J. Stuart Blackton Company. Blackton, the co-founder of and regular director at Vitagraph, had started his own production company in 1917. After two smaller parts in films for the company, she got her first lead in The House of the Tolling Bell (1920), a mystery film about a haunted house, directed by Blackton himself. Blackton let her star again, again opposite Bruce Gordon, in The Forbidden Valley (1920). In 1921 she acted e.g. in Chester M. Franklin's A Private Scandal, which script had been purposely written by Hector Turnbull for McAvoy. The film was the first of a series of seven films at Realart Pictures, in which McAvoy constantly starred, directed either by Frank O'Connor or William Desmond Taylor. The apparent success of these films convinced Paramount to lure her away with a contract. Petite as she was, McAvoy was independent enough to defend her interests.
In 1922 May McAvoy started to act at Paramount/ Famous Players-Lasky, where she already had done an occasional film in the past. It was William C. DeMille who mostly directed her at Paramount: in Clarence (1922), starring Wallace Reid and Agnes Ayres, Grumpy (1923), starring Theodore Roberts, Only 38 (1923), in which she herself had the lead, and The Bedroom Window (1924), another starring role with Malcolm McGregor and Ricardo Cortez as her co-stars, and probably McAvoy's last film for Paramount. In 1923 McAvoy got into a row with director-producer Cecil B. DeMille, because she refused the role in his film Adam's Rib, as it meant her hair would be bobbed and she had to show partial nudity. Instead, she complained parts she wanted were given to other actresses: to Betty Bronson in Peter Pan and to Betty Compson in Little Minister. After she had been suspended, she bought off her contract and started freelancing.
This didn't mean a fallback at all, as May McAvoy managed to play memorable parts in e.g. The Enchanted Cottage (John S. Robertson, 1924) starring and produced by Richard Barthelmess, Tessie (Dallas M. Fitzgerald, 1925) and in particular Lady Windermere's Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925) with Ronald Colman, while McAvoy replaced Gertrude Olmstead in her best known silent film, MGM's classic super production Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo 1925). McAvoy played Esther, the love interest of the title character, played by Ramon Novarro. Her former rival at Paramount, Betty Bronson, would play the small part of the Virgin Mary. Two years after, McAvoy had an important part in what is often credited as the first sound feature, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crossland 1927), which, actually, was a part-talkie, in which most actors, including McAvoy, did not talk yet. She played Mary, girlfriend of the male lead, played by singer-actor Al Jolson.
Afterward, May McAvoy did act in all-talkie movies, such as The Lion and the Mouse (Lloyd Bacon, 1928), and The Terror (Roy Del Ruth, 1928), shot at Warner's studio in Burbank with failing technology, distorting her voice. Not so much because of her voice, but on request of her new (1929) husband, Maurice Cleary, banker and treasurer of United Artists, she withdrew to private life and took care of their son, Patrick (1932-2012). Despite some sources write they remained married until his death, English Wikipedia has convincing proof they divorced in 1940. It also explains that in 1940 McAvoy went back to the set, but had to satisfy with bit parts. Hollywood was not kind to its former stars. Still, until 1959 she had small parts, even uncredited ones - her last part being an extra in the remake of Ben-Hur (1959) by William Wyler, himself a former assistant-director on the silent version. May McAvoy died on April 26, 1984, in Los Angeles, as the consequence of a heart attack one year earlier. She was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. May McAvoy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1731 Vine Street.
Sources: Dave Lobosco on greatentertainersarchives.blogspot.com/2013/07/may-mcavoy..., Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
American postcard by Stage and Film Celebrity Co., New York. Photo: Realart Picture Corporation.
Mary Miles Minter (1902-1984) was an American silent screen actress.
Mary Miles Minter was born Juliet Reilly in Shreveport as the daughter of Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby. Shelby himself wanted that Juliet and her older sister Margaret also became stage actresses. One night when there was no babysitter available Juliet accompanied her sister to an audition, was discovered and got her first stage role. In order to avoid the Child Labor Act, she used her cousin's passport and took the name "Mary Miles Minter". As a result, she debuted in film in 1912 and in 1915 got her first substantial lead in a feature, The Fairy and the Waif (Marie Hubert Frohmann, George Irving, 1915). With her innocent appearance, Soon after, she started to work for Metro Pictures, while in 1916 she moved on to Mutual Pictures - always playing the leads, despite her young age. In 1917 she moved to the American Film Company, where Henry King often directed here, and in 1918 she traded American for Paramount. Minter became popular and grew into the rival of Mary Pickford.
In 1919 Mary Miles Minter made her most famous film, Anne of Green Gables (presumably a lost film), with director William Desmond Taylor. The film became a huge success, as a result of which Taylor started to promote the actress so that she would grow into a legendary star. Eventually, she got into a relationship with the 30-year-old man. Several films with Minter in the lead were made by their newly founded production company Realart Pictures, but distributed by Paramount. Taylor initially directed her there, but after a few films, various other directors stepped in, such as Paul Powell and Joseph Henabery.
In 1922 Taylor was murdered in his house. Mary Miles Minter told in an interview in 1970 that she collapsed when she saw his body in the morgue. His death became a popular topic in the media and took place while Minter was in the prime of her career. The perpetrator could not be found and her mother Charlotte Shelby was long known as a suspect. In 1937, when the case was still unresolved, Minter demanded that she be given a prison sentence or that the case would be left alone. Eventually, it was announced in 1999 that Ella Margaret Gibson admitted on her deathbed in 1964 that she had committed the murder. Not much later she died of a heart attack.
After the death of Taylor, Mary Miles Minter made four more films for Paramount. Trail of the Lonesome Pine, her latest film, was released in 1923. After her contract was not renewed, she received many other offers, but she refused all because she said she was never happy during the times that she was an actress. Minter has told in interviews that she was much happier after her Hollywood years, although she was robbed in her own home in the 1970s and 1980s. She also sued her mother for all the money she had gained by filming and got a settlement out of court. Minter died of a stroke at the age of 82. All in all, she did some 55 films of which just a little over a fifth survives.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. S. 63-3. Photo: Moody, N.Y.
Mary Miles Minter (1902-1984) was an American silent screen actress.
Minter was born as Juliet Reilly in Shreveport as daughter of Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby. Shelby himself wanted that Juliet and her older sister Margaret also became stage actresses. One night when there was no babysitter available Juliet accomapnied her sister to an audition, was discovered and got her first stage role. In order to avoid the Child Labor Act, she used her cousin's passport and took the name "Mary Miles Minter". As a result, she debuted in film 1912 and in 1915 got her first substantial lead in a feature, The Fairy and the Waif (Marie Hubert Frohmann, George Irving, 1915). With her innocent appearance, Soon after, she started to work for Metro Pictures, while in 1916 she moved on to Mutual Pictures - always playing the leads, despite her young age. In 1917 she moved to the American Film Company, where Henry King often directed here, and in 1918 she traded American for Paramount. Minter became popular and grew into the rival of Mary Pickford.
In 1919 she made her most famous film, Anne of Green Gables (presumably a lost film), with director William Desmond Taylor. The film became a huge success, as a result of which Taylor started to promote the actress, so that she would grow into a legendary star. Eventually she got a relationship with the 30-year-old man. Several films with Minter in the lead were made by their newly founded production company Realart Pictures, but distributed by Paramount. Taylor initially directed her there, but after a few films various other directors stepped in, such as Paul Powell and Joseph Henabery.
In 1922 Taylor was murdered in his house. Minter told in an interview in 1970 that she collapsed when she saw his body in the morgue. His death became a popular topic in the media and took place while Minter was in the prime of her career. The perpetrator could not be found and her mother Charlotte Shelby was long known as a suspect. In 1937, when the case was still unresolved, Minter demanded that she be given a prison sentence or that the case would be left alone. Eventually it was announced in 1999 that Ella Margaret Gibson admitted on her deathbed in 1964 that she had committed the murder. Not much later she died of a heart attack.
After the death of Taylor, Minter made four more films for Paramount. Trail of the Lonesome Pine, her latest film, was released in 1923. After her contract was not renewed, she received many other offers, but she refused all because she said she was never happy in the times that she was an actress. Minter has told in interviews that she was much happier after her Hollywood years, although she was robbed in her own home in the 70s and 80s. She also sued her mother for all the money she had gained by filming and got a settlement out of court. Minter died of a stroke at the age of 82. All in all she did some 55 films of which just little over a fifth survives.
Sources: English and Italian Wikipedia, IMDb.
Man Made Monster (1941)
Review - Author
Jason Jones 12-16-2002
The story of Man Made Monster is one of good fortune gone bad. On a dark, rainy night a passenger bus skids out of control into an electric utility tower. All of its passengers are electrocuted and killed, save one. The sole survivor, Dan McCormick (Chaney) is a carnival performer, billed as "Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man." It is surmised he survived the crash due to immunity to electricity built up while performing his carnival act. When questioned about his act by the "good cop" ethical scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel Hinds, The Raven, Son of Dracula), Dan says his tricks are all just a bunch of "hogwash." Unfortunately for Dan, it's more than hogwash, it's just the electrically-immune, simple-minded ticket to world domination that Dr. Lawrence's (self-proclaimed) mad partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has been looking for.
It's easy to like Dan McCormick. Lon Chaney Jr. always did the "aw, shucks" routine very well. Unfortunately the script by director George Waggner under the pseudonym Joseph West (why didn't he want credit for that?), didn't give Chaney many opportunities to do more than a thin "aw, shucks" routine. His transition from affable, knockaround guy to mindless jolt-junkie happens in a series of quick shots of experiments. When the momentary sequence is over, we see Dan as a mindless brute, slave to pusher Rigas and the life-sustaining electricity he provides. For a guy who literally glows, Dan McCormick is one dim bulb. That brings another of the merits of Man Made Monster, the marvelous, Dynamo Dan glow-in the-dark and electric special effects. The mystery and wonder of "how'd they do that?" makes watching those effects a real joy. Without the aid of computer generated images, Fulton had to be creative. That's classic movie magic.
Dr. Rigas is the epitome of cinematic evil scientists. Suffering from less than Shakespearean dialogue, Lionel Atwill still turns in a very enjoyable performance. His Rigas is both slimey and hammy. While that's a lousy combination for a sandwich, it works for Dr. Rigas. There is no mystery to Rigas though. You have him pegged as a bad guy the moment you see him. For some reason Atwill seemed to play either the vilest of the vile or policemen. Figure that one out for yourselves. It's easy to write off the evil Rigas does because of the cheesy dialogue, but consider that in 1941, other doctors, real-world doctors in Nazi Germany were performing barbarically dehumanizing experiments that were ideologically similar to Rigas's. Did a chill run up your spine? It should.
The biggest pieces of dead weight in the film are the characters of Dr. Lawrence's daughter and assistant June and her fiancé, newspaper reporter Mark Adams. Anne Nagel (The Mad Monster, The Secret Code) and Frank Alberston (It's a Wonderful Life, They Made Me a Killer) give fine performances, but they don't really add to the plot. They are the characters the audience is obviously supposed to identify with, but that is a misstep. June and Mark are plastic interchangeable pieces of set dressing. Diminishing the importance of those two and placing more of the focus on Dan would have served the film well. It would reinforce the audience's empathy with Dan, the really interesting and tragic character and cause greater emotional involvement with his plight, which is really what the movie is about.
Man Made Monster is a good film, but far from a great one. Pop it in the VCR (you have to because it's not available on DVD) and give it a viewing some rainy Saturday afternoon, back to back with The Wolf Man for a real Classic-Horror history review. It's a good two and a half hours worth of black and white B-movie fun with static electricity and fur!
British postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Gaumont.
American stage and screen actress Alice Brady (1892–1939) began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies.
Alice Brady was born Mary Rose Brady in 1892. Brady's father William Brady, a reputed theatrical producer, moved into film production in 1913 with his new company World Film. Brady soon followed along after him, making her first silent feature appearance in 1914. It was followed by another twenty films at World Film. All the while she continued to perform on the New York stage, as World Film was situated in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Now mostly forgotten, World Film was highly active during the 1910s as a production and distribution company, which even had a separate, all-French section with French emigre directors such as Léonce Perret, Emile Chautard, Maurice Tourneur, and Albert Capellani.
In 1918 Alice Brady moved to Select Pictures of former World Film manager Lewis Selznick (the father of David). In 1921 she acted at Realart Pictures and in 1921-1923 at Paramount. In 1923, Brady stopped appearing in films to concentrate on stage acting, and did not appear on the screen again until 1933. After that she acted in another 25 sound pictures. All in all Brady acted in some 80 films. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in 1939. Her films include My Man Godfrey (1936), in which she plays the flighty mother of Carole Lombard's character, and In Old Chicago (1937) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Between 1919 and 1922 Alice Brady was married to actor James Crane, with whom she acted in three films and had one son, Donald.
Source: Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Lexus Melodie 4p
Suzen JueL 5p
PT Beardmore 6p
J Lively 7p
TwinGhost 8p
Visit this location at Altered Reality: Original Art by Suzen Juel in Second Life
Starring Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Otto Kruger, Edward Van Sloan, Gilbert Emery, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Billy Bevan, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper, Claud Allister, Edgar Norton, E.E. Clive, Agnes Anderson, George Kirby, Guy Kingsford, Edna Lyall, Eily Malyon, Clive Morgan, Vesey O'Davoren, Silvia Vaughan, Vernon Steele, Wilhelm von Brincken. Directed by Lambert Hillyer.
Starring Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Otto Kruger, Edward Van Sloan, Gilbert Emery, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Billy Bevan, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper, Claud Allister, Edgar Norton, E.E. Clive, Agnes Anderson, George Kirby, Guy Kingsford, Edna Lyall, Eily Malyon, Clive Morgan, Vesey O'Davoren, Silvia Vaughan, Vernon Steele, Wilhelm von Brincken. Directed by Lambert Hillyer.
Starring Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Otto Kruger, Edward Van Sloan, Gilbert Emery, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Billy Bevan, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper, Claud Allister, Edgar Norton, E.E. Clive, Agnes Anderson, George Kirby, Guy Kingsford, Edna Lyall, Eily Malyon, Clive Morgan, Vesey O'Davoren, Silvia Vaughan, Vernon Steele, Wilhelm von Brincken. Directed by Lambert Hillyer.
Starring Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Otto Kruger, Edward Van Sloan, Gilbert Emery, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Billy Bevan, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper, Claud Allister, Edgar Norton, E.E. Clive, Agnes Anderson, George Kirby, Guy Kingsford, Edna Lyall, Eily Malyon, Clive Morgan, Vesey O'Davoren, Silvia Vaughan, Vernon Steele, Wilhelm von Brincken. Directed by Lambert Hillyer.