Customer Reviews

The Mad Monster

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THIS ONE WASTES NO TIME. WE'RE ONLY MINUTES INTO MAD MONSTER & WE GET TO SEE THE WEREWOLF TRANSFORMATION!!! GEORGE ZUCCO IS OVER THE TOP RAVING MAD IN HIS QUEST TO CREATE AN ARMY OF WEREWOLVES TO BATTLE NAZIS. THOSE WHO SCOFF & RIDICULE HIM ARE MARKED FOR DEATH. GLENN STRANGE PLAYS THE DIM-WIT TURNED WEREWOLF. HE'S GREAT FUN AS BOTH. SOME PRETTY NASTY POVERTY ROW STUFF HERE IN WHICH A CHILD IS MURDERED BY THE WEREWOLF...STILL, ALL IN ALL, THIS IS ONE LOW BUDGET CLASSIC & AN ENJOYABLE ROMP DOWN MONSTER LANE...RECOMMENDED.
THE ALPHA DVD VERSION IS PRETTY POOR THOUGH VISUALLY QUITE CLEAR. THE PROBLEM IS IN THE AUDIO, AN ANNOYING HUMMMM....ON THE SOUNDTRACK THAT DISTRACTS FROM THE OVERALL ENJOYMENT...STILL, FOR THE BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICE I'M GLAD I BOUGHT THIS GEM. IT'S MY FAVORITE ZUCCO PERFORMANCE & FOR THAT ALONE A MUST!!!

First I must confess to being George Zucco's greatest fan, ergo the five stars. But truthfully, this is a fine old horror film with a unique twist in the story: This werewolf is created via a syringe-full of chemicals (supposedly from wolf-blood but it's a COYOTE in the lab cage!) concocted by the greatest mad scientist of all time: George Zucco, who portrays Dr. Lorenzo Cameron here.

Zucco has an innocent daughter in this one ("Lenora," played by Anne Nagel), a common denominator in Zucco formula horror flicks. She's in love with an investigative reporter by the name of Tom Gregory who suspects Zucco of being connected to the death of a child and others.

Zucco rents an old mansion (VERY good atmosphere!) where he conducts his heinous experiments upon his house man, "Pedro" (played by the original Frankenstein monster, the great Glenn Strange). Zucco's vision in all this is to generate an entire army of these werewolf-type monsters, but we don't exactly ever discover who might be the ultimate beneficiary of commanding this invincible force. The situation does go a bit awry for Zucco when, during his "tests," he wreaks revenge on former collegues with his monster and, at one point, Pedro reverts on his own into a werewolf without an injection!

One wise old crone of a woman tells the local vigilante leader that his shotguns and rifles are of no avail without a silver bullet. But, you know, I personally assert that a silver bullet is risky business when one is dealing with a synthetically-created werewolf. But, not to reveal the ending, we never get to find out anyway.

Zucco travels back and forth between his rural lab and the city (where he knocks off his former peers) and it takes the young and aggressive reporter, Tom Gregory, to put two and two together.

I really enjoyed this 1942 film as I did yet another great old Zucco/Strange film team effort: The Black Raven. It's also interesting to note that the British censors didn't like all the blood in this film and thus they banned the showing of it throughout the United Kingdom until 1952 when a compomise was finally reached to run a disclaimer regarding the blood transfusions!

My copy of Mad Monster, The was released by Alpha Video (about 5 bucks plus shipping), produced by Pictures Releasing Corporation (PRC), is in black-and-white, runs for 77 minutes, and the aspect is full-frame. The film was artfully directed by Sam Newfield. The soundtrack was composed by David Chudnow and sounds just like the one in The Flying Serpent, another superb Zucco entry! The special effects represent the work of Gene Stone and are also well-done.

My highest recommendation for fans of older horror films. (Also, see my "Listmania" list here on Amazon: "George Zucco... almost live!")

If you're a fan of the sillier monster movies that Universal cranked out during the '40s, you'll probably enjoy this. I'm not sure what studio released it, as I got the Alpha Video edition, which doesn't provide that info. But it was released in 1942, and very obviously a cash-in on the previous year's "Wolf Man".

Here's the skinny: The makeup is very silly, but you do get the chance to see a werewolf in overalls, just like you've always dreamed. The acting is, in my opinion, rather charmingly bad. The misty swampland setting provides for some nice atmosphere. And the ending is pretty exciting.

Also, we get the chance to see two of the more recognizable faces from the latter days of Universal's classic monster movie cycle: Glenn Strange in a non-Frankenstein, speaking role (the first I've seen), and George Zucco, who played the obligatory "high priest of Arkam" in a couple of the "Mummy" sequels. Zucco is a pretty perfunctory mad scientist here, but Strange, although no Lawrence Olivier, is likeable as the hulking halfwit subjected to Zucco's werewolf experiments.

As for the Alpha DVD, it's just this side of "watchable"--something I can't say for some other Alpha releases I've seen. Alpha is always a crapshoot, but at six bucks a pop, sometimes I can't resist. Critically speaking, the movie looks about as good as it deserves to. But speaking as a lifelong lover of silly monster movies from the '40s, "The Mad Monster" is a fun surprise.

One more thing: The dialogue during the first reel is a little low. I'm guessing this is the movie's bad and not Alpha's. It does become clearer for the rest of the movie.

Before huge budgets and fickle audiences caused movie production to extend into years, movies could be scripted, cast and filmed in weeks or even days. Imitation was guaranteed after the success of "The Wolf Man" in 1941, leading the release of this bizarre knock-off the following year.

George Zucco, who was a regular in low-budget films for much of his career, plays mad Dr. Lorenzo Cameron. This doctor is really crazy, because his fixation is using wolf blood to turn people into wolf soldiers. While it is hard to argue with success - after all, he did manage to create a wolf man - there are problems with the doctor's experimental approach, not to mention his ethics.

Probably the biggest problem the doctor has is that the "wolf" looks a lot more like a coyote. I think the monster may also be mad because he would rather have been a wolf man and ended up a coyote man. I also think the doctor is mad because he sees and talks to people who are not there.

The doctor started out with a goal that seemed to have some merit, creating hard-to-stop soldiers, but that goal quickly gets set aside as the doctor focuses on a shorter term goal of revenge. Dr. Cameron sets Petro the coyote man, played by character actor Glenn Strange, off to kill and exact his revenge on the people who laughed at his ideas. The fools! The doctor will show them! Hahahahahahahahaha... Sorry. I got carried away.

Once the plot is set up things become formulaic. There is the obligatory female relative, in this case daughter Lenora, played by beautiful and tragic actor Anne Nagel. There is good guy Tom Gregory, played by Johny Downs, whose mission is to protect Lenora. Then there are the local townspeople who have to become vigilantes and track down the evildoers, including the coyote man. Quite frankly, it is a howl. Did I say that?

A brief word about the sound and picture. I thought the sound was fair, with periods where the sound seemed to drop out a little. I did back up the DVD a little a couple of times to be sure I understood what was being said. The picture was worse. Many of the scenes were darker than I liked. The dark may have helped hide the low budget set. It was a cheaply produced film and I suspect a lot of the blame for current quality can be blamed on the original production rather than the current reproduction.

This ripoff of "The Wolf Man" was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation, often shortened to PRC. This studio and a number of others that produced low-budget movies and were not associated with the major studios were collectively known as Poverty Row. This movie is about average for movies of this type, which means that you spend a lot of time wondering why the movie was made, and how anyone could possibly believe the plot. The acting is often weak, or bad, and though the movie tries hard to be serious, it is frequently funny. Imagine a supposed wolf man in gardener's overalls. If you have to have every wolf man movie made, or are a big fan of George Zucco, Glenn Strange, Anne Nagel or any of the other character actors in this movie, who have starred in hundreds of movies, then this movie could be for you. Everyone else should take their lesson from the monster. He was mad because he was in this movie, and your satisfaction will likely be no greater than his.

Good Luck!

If you enjoy the alternate reality of lousy monster movies up until the 60s (and the advent of color as well as souped up special effects), then this is a fun one to see. You get Glenn Strange - the successor Frankenstein to the immortal Karloff - and Zucco who is notoriously, ridiculously bad as a succession of mad scientists. They are fun, as in sitting around drinking a glass on a winter afternoon when you have nothing to do.

This film involves a bitter genius, who is mixing human and animal blood to get a serum to produce wolf men. He has an antidote, but it is losing its potency. He leads conversations with past colleagues who humiliated him and vows revenge. Meanwhile, he experiments on a mentally retarded gardener while his daughter wonders what is going on and happens to be in love with the reporter who is investigating the mysterious gruesome deaths are occurring with increasing frequency.

Sound like your cup of tea? It takes a certain type to enjoy this junk, I guess.

George Zucco is not at his best in the short thriller. George Zucco plays a mad scientist, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, who was shunned and ostracized by his fellow scientists. He must prove himself and get revenge at the same time. So he moves to a secluded house with a secret laboratory. There he lives in seclusion with his daughter Lenora played by Anne Nagel and his hulking gardener Petro played by Glenn Strange.

He proves to the world that his theories are sound and swears revenge on those who ostracized him.

The moral of this story is do not play with nature or you make get burned.

The film begins with a coyote howling. Another coyote is caged in a laboratory. What kind of experiment is going on? Will he change into a monster? Can blood be transfused across different species? "You're a madman!" "A disgrace to science." "It is foolish to tamper with nature." Can this serum create invincible soldiers? How will they be controlled? Dr. Lorenzo Cameron will get his revenge. Miss Lenora doesn't like this place, and neither does Pedro (whose speech is well done). Why are the animals upset at night? What will happen to that little girl? Were there unintended consequences for this experiment? The men in the village search for the murderous varmint.

Dr. Blaine gets a visit from Dr. Cameron and Pedro. Is there a trick? Blaine calls Fitzgerald to come over. Cameron lures another professor to the meeting and they find Blaine dead. Later a reporter finds Dr, Cameron in that old house. Lenora asks reporter Tom to stay, but he leaves. Tom finds a refuge and learns of another victim. "It's a werewolf." Professor Fitzgerald comes to visit Cameron, who claims to control evolution and life. Fitzgerald leaves and takes Pedro into town. The serum does its trick. The posse shoots at the werewolf and rescues Fitzgerald. Laura tells Tom about Pedro. A doctor makes a house call. Fitzgerald is dead, the coroner will call. Lenora snoops, the monster is freed. "Run upstairs." Will Lorenzo get his just deserts? The fire destroys the house with Cameron and Pedro for rough justice and a happy ending for this morality play.

Aside from the obvious low budget this has a good story which is a combination of "Frankenstein" and "The Wolfman" with some original ideas. The war resulted in OPA rules for movie making which encouraged the re-use of sets and minimized new construction. Minimizing the use of electricity led to darker sets and the label "film noir" for Hollywood dramas. Note the use of kerosene lanterns by ordinary people but the electricity in an old isolated house.

George Zucco is not at his best in the short thriller. George Zucco plays a mad scientist, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, who was shunned and ostracized by his fellow scientists. He must prove himself and get revenge at the same time. So he moves to a secluded house with a secret laboratory. There he lives in seclusion with his daughter Lenora played by Anne Nagel and his hulking gardener Petro played by Glenn Strange.

He proves to the world that his theories are sound and swears revenge on those who ostracized him.

The moral of this story is do not play with nature or you make get burned.

George Zucco is not at his best in the short thriller. George Zucco plays a mad scientist, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, who was shunned and ostracized by his fellow scientists. He must prove himself and get revenge at the same time. So he moves to a secluded house with a secret laboratory. There he lives in seclusion with his daughter Lenora played by Anne Nagel and his hulking gardener Petro played by Glenn Strange.

He proves to the world that his theories are sound and swears revenge on those who ostracized him.

The moral of this story is do not play with nature or you make get burned.

Dr. Cameron (George Zucco) is a scientist experimenting on his handyman, Petro (Glenn "don't call me Lon" Strange), by injecting him with a serum that turns him into a ravenous werewolf by night! Cameron's been using wolf's blood (which is funny since the animal in the laboratory cage is clearly a coyote) to make his serum. Petro thinks he's been doing some harmless sleepwalking, when all along he's been on a murderous rampage! You see, he's Dr. Cameron's test subject, to both convince and slaughter the other scientists who mocked his revolutionary idea of creating an army of werewolves (!) to help in the war effort. Strange does his best to keep his dignity intact under the poofy wig and dime-store make-up he's forced to wear. MAD MONSTER is certainly not a classic wolfman movie, but it's worth a look or two...