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Man Made Monster [VHS]

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One of Lon Chaney Jr.'s best horror vehicles, "Man Made Monster" (1941) holds up surprisingly well for a B-movie quickie. Clocking in at 59 minutes, the film benefits from Chaney's sympathetic portrayal of the electrically-charged "Dynamo Dan." Lionel Atwill lends effective "mad doctor" support and director George Waggner keeps the proceedings moving at a good clip. It's an underrated Universal chiller worth seeking out.

Man Made Monster is an excellent example of Universal Studios' work during the 1940s. This neat little B picture has great mood and art design, some good special effects, and excellent performances by Lon Chaney Jr. in another of his sympathetic parts, and Lionel Atwill playing another of his (almost) over-the-top mad doctor roles. Highly recommended.

Universal Studios, long considered the leaders in Hollywood horror story telling had this genre almost to themselves in the 1940's and with the war in Europe looming closer the demand for escapist entertainment based on tales of mystery, horror and suspense became immense. In among the werewolfs, mummies and Frankenstein monsters, they created some stories that really stood on their own and 1941's "Man Made Monster", was one such effort. It has a most interesting premise that while containing the usual horror/suspense elements also manages to inject tragedy into its story giving it an interesting slant. Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the title character here and despite his often limited acting ability he had a unique ability to breathe great pathos and sympathy into his characters as evidenced in his best efforts such as "Of Mice And Men", and "The Wolf Man". His character in "Man Made Monster", is in a similiar vein and within the confines of this story he makes the most of it.

Based on the short story "The Electric Man", by H.J. Esses and Sid Schwartz, Lon Chaney Jr, plays "Dynamo" Dan McCormick a carnival performer who as the story begins survives an horrific bus smash that sees the bus crash into some power lines electrocuting and killing everyone except Dan. His survival is due to the fact that his carnival act involves him supposedly defying electric shocks which have gradually made him immune to the effects of electricity. Dan becomes a celebrity as a result of his brush with death and when he leaves the hospital he is asked to come and work at the laboratory of Dr. John Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds). Dr. lawrence is curious to know the secret of why Dan has built up this resistance to electricy. However Dan arouses the interest of Dr. Lawrence's collegue, the brilliant but unstable Dr. Paul Rigas (Lionel Atwill), who has his own secret ideas for where his research on Dan is to go. Dr. Rigas has an insane plan to create a master race of men that will follow only his orders and will be able to control the world because of their control of electricity. With Dr. Lawrence away at a conference Dr. Rigas begins to give Dan massive doses of electrical current that make him dependant on them to keep going and which gradually turn Dan into a walking robot following only Dr. Rigas' orders. Dr. Lawrences neice June (Anne Nagel), begins to get suspicious of the treatments and things come to a head when Dr. Lawrence returns and confronts his collegue over his insane scheme. Dr. Rigas has Dan kill Dr. Lawrence and when the police arrive Dan is charged with murder. June with the help of her fiance reporter Mark (Frank Albertson), sets out to prove Dan innocent. Dan is however convicted of murder but breaks out of the prison when the execution is due to take place. Now reduced to a glowing electrical monster with only a short time to live Dan heads back to the laboratory and kills Dr. Rigas just as he is about to murder the suspicious June. Carrying her off Dan senses his life is ebbing away and as the police close in he expires after contact with a metal wire fence thus ending the mad experiment of Dr. Rigas' to use him as a human guinea pig.

Universal Studios had a unique way in being able to make these "B", productions have a far more polished look and feel to them than you would expect. Having seasoned movie veterans of the likes of Lionel Atwill and Lon Chaney on board certainly helped and both actors here in "Man Made Monster", played the type of characters for which both are best remembered. Atwill always excelled at playing sinister mad scientists while Chaney specialised in victim types that tended to always arouse the audience's sympathy. Despite the often limited budget films both had to work in they always delivered reliable and sincere performances. Lon Chaney in particular playing the victim of Lionel Atwill's mad scheme really evokes audience pity and he handles very well the scenes were his overall condition deteriorates as a result of the massive doses of elecricity he is subjected to. Chaney's performance in this little horror effort really paved the way for his best remembered role later that same year in the classic "The Wolf Man". Supporting performances in "Man Made Monster', serve the situation just right with Samuel S. Hinds as Dr. Lawrence and "B", movie actress Anne Nagel as June doing good work within the obvious limitations of their characters. The direction by George Waggner is spot on for this type of effort and since "Man Made Monster", has a running time of only 61 minutes he wisely keeps the character development down to a minimum and instead concentrates on keeping the unfolding action moving at a reasonably fast pace. Atmosphere and special effects wise "Man Made Monster", is a very satisfactory effort for its time. The effects of the electric currents gradually taking over Dan's body turning him into a glowing mass are really quite stunning for the time and are remarkable for turning Lon Chaney's previously lovable lump of a man into a quite frightening monster that is capable of killing anyone he touches. The laboratory that the mad Dr. Rigas works in is your classic Universal Studios mad scientist lab full of strange exquipment, flashing lights and weird substances and the scenes where Dan ungoes the mad doctor's experiments are still quite disturbing to watch even today.

Being a big fan of these 1940's Universal Studios horror efforts I'm always prepared to look past their often obviously limited budgets to be able to enjoy the sincere care and effort that most often was expended on them. While "Man Made Monster", in terms of production qualities and special effects isn't in the same league as for example "The Wolf Man", it more than holds it's own as a respectable little horror effort that is sure to keep the viewers interest up through its relatively short running time. Horror greats Lionel Atwill and Lon Chaney together in the one feature will always guarantee an interesting viewing experience and the combined villainy and tragedy of their two performances here make "Man Made Monster", an essential part of the film collection of any fan of horror from Hollywood's golden age of such efforts. Enjoy!

Chaney plays a man who is immune to electricity. He is turned into a monster by a mad doctor and goes on a rampage escaping from prison and killing the Doctor and the prison wardon. A great movie for halloween

This UNIVERSAL Studios videotape is dubbed at SP speed from a well-preserved vault copy. It's full screen and has clean HiFi audio.
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Director George Waggner's 'B' grade programmer MAN MADE MONSTER has carnival sideshow man Dan McCormack (Chaney Jr.) lighting up like a neon sign after he receives from deranged scientist Dr. Rigas (Atwill) "treatments" of thousands of volts of electricity.

In this pre-Wolf Man sci-fier, the second-billed Chaney plays a sympathetic monster to perfection. His success here led to Lon's casting in the role of a lifetime, that of tragic Larry Talbot.
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Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 IMDb viewer poll rating.

(6.3) Man Made Monster (1941) - Lionel Atwill/Lon Chaney Jr./Anne Nagel/Frank Albertson/Samuel S. Hinds

'Man Made Monster' is one of those little talked about gems from the Universal archives. Lon Chaney Jr. does what he does best and plays another very unfortunate soul who gets the short end of the stick. This is a good solid reworking of the Frankenstein idea with and few changes here and there. Chaney Jr. will never be remembered for being the brilliant actor his father was as in this film, his acting skills are good, but there as subtle as a heart attack as he goes from "happy go lucky all around good guy" to a walking zombie. In his defense, this film is very short(59 minutes)and there isn't much time to get fancy! No matter.....as it's always been a favorite of mine and I'm glad it's available now on DVD on 'Universal Horror' a 5 films set of old Universal classics. Look for it as a Best Buy exclusive for a limited time only.

Lon Chaney, Jr's role will evoke sympathy. Some light hearted moments as well. Though not as campy as "Indestructable Man" (another Chaney film from the same era)to this viewer this film has the same "feel" to it. The ending is awesome.

Man Made Monster is directed by George Waggner and stars Lionel Atwill, Lon Chaney Jr & Anne Nagel. It's adapted from an original story titled The Electric Man which is co-written by H.J. Essex, Sid Schwartz & Len Golos. It is notable for being the first horror venture for Chaney Jr who would make his signature horror movie The Wolf Man the same year. Plot sees Chaney as "Big Dan" McCormick, the sole survivor of an electric train wreck. That all the other passengers were killed by electrocution fascinates the sci-fi boffins, particularly diabolic Dr. Paul Rigas (Atwill), who coerces Dan into a series of tests. The outcome of which will spell disaster as Dan absorbs huge levels of electricity and becomes immune to it. Soon Dan will become the unstoppable Electric Man.

Universal's Man Made Monster has no pretence what so ever, it is what it is, a short sharp shock shocker that plugs itself into the mains and lights up the screen for its 1 hour running time. Which in the case of the excellent Chaney Jr is actually the case, as he is transformed into a hulking, walking light bulb head that garners sympathy in the way that Universal's other man made monster did. The photography (Elwood Bredell) is moody and atmospheric, Hans J. Salter's musical score delightfully oozes familiar Universal values, while Waggner and his team, when one considers the short running time, do very good work on the characterisations; with Atwill given full license to be bonkers-real bonkers.

It's all very conventional in the grand scheme of Universal horror. Monster elicits sympathy, a foxy lady in the mix (Nagel), mad scientist, dashing hero type (Frank Albertson) and here we even have the intelligent pet. There's some smarts in the writing as the makers observe capital punishment and note man messing with things he probably shouldn't be. But really just don't go too deep with it and enjoy a solid little chiller that's boosted by John Fulton's first rate special effects. 7/10

Man Made Monster is one hour and one minute long and was released on March 28, 1941. This was Lon Chaney Jr. first horror picture and not a bad one at that. The movie starts off with a bus crash into an electrical pole. Dan McCormick (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the sole survivor. Dr. John Lawrence asks Dan to come to work for him. Dr. Lawrence wants to run some experiments on him and try to find out why he was the sole survivor on that bus accident. While Dr. Lawrence intentions are good, Dr. Paul Rigas are not. He wants to change Dan into this electric beast and create an army of them. Dr. Rigas finally succeeds in his experiments and in so doing order Dan to kill Dr. Lawrence. Dan is under Dr. Rigas control and has no will of his own. Dan's survives his on electrocution in prison and escapes. He heads back to the Moors and kills Dr. Rigas. Finally Dan meets his own death when his rubber suit rips and is electrocuted himself. There are some special effects, but nothing major. This is a good movie to watch or own.