Customer Reviews

The Monster Maker

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

 

 

A most intriguing film about an immigrant named Markoff arrived in America after killing a Doctor in the olde country, thereby taking credit for his years of research and work in the field of glandular disorders, particularly a disease called "Acromegaly", which cripples with an enlargement of the extremities, essentially resembling elephantitis, which comes a particularly hard blow to a concert pianist, who also happens to be the father of a young lady who is the focus of Markoff's amorous attentions, who actually strongly resembles his deceased wife, whom he himself afflicted with the dreaded "acromegaly" to prevent her from leaving him - the classic "if I can't have her, no one will" motive. After besieging her with unwelcome attention, her father decides to pay him a visit, and ends up being knocked on the head, thus becoming another subject for his experiments, inflicting him with the deforming malady.

Assisting Markoff is a lurch-like henchman and a pretty young nurse who harbors an infatuation for him, and whom is also his hypnotic power. Her infatuation ends when she learns the truth of his intentions, and the manner in which he "achieved" his medical prominence. Luckily for the Pianist, a cure is developed while under the subjection of the "doctor", using this knowledge to barter for the affections of the young lady. Her suitor does not appreciate this, and a scuffle eventually transpires in which the "doctor" is shot. All seems lost with no hope for the pianist to recover, but gratefully for all, the nurse just so happens to know the cure herself, subsequently attending a concert once the pianist recovers.

One pointless character herein is an ape kept in a cage at the "doctor's" office, who at one point wanders off to attack the nurse, released by Markoff with the intent that he crush the rebelling nurse.

So Markoff turns out to be an ersatz "Dr. Frankenstein" {without the noble intent of furthering forensic science} - ergo. the "monster maker" who infects all those who threaten his dishonestly-acquired "reputation", whose primary motivation was ill-gotten greed. There is nothing wrong with Greed of course, as it is a motivating factor to achieve success, but one must take an ethical issue by which it is utilized in this case, a rotten opportunist taking credit for a true genius' efforts.

What I found most outstanding about this presentation is the deportment of the characters herein - exemplary in etiquette, aesthetics, and eloquence, when totalized civility was the rule of the day, which makes for a thoroughly entertaining and perspective-lending viewing.

This movie is a tale of paranoia and revenge. It begins all nice and sweet with piano virtuoso Anthony Lawrence (Ralph Morgan, who was a well-known character actor in his day; his biggest claim to fame is likely a star on the walk of fame in Hollywood) and his daughter Patricia Lawrence (Wanda McKay, who appeared in dozens of movies; her two biggest claims to fame: she was born Dorothy Quackenbush - sorry, I find that name to sound more fake than her stage name, and she was married to famous songwriter Hoagy Carmichael). Unfortunately for everyone concerned, whacko Dr. Igor Markoff (J. Carrol Naish, who has a Golden Globe and a star on the Hollywood walk of fame) spots Patricia and goes into stalker mode.

We soon discover that Dr. Igor Markoff is neither a doctor nor is he who he says he is; heady stuff! We also discover that Dr. Igor Markoff has a serum that induces acromegaly. Since this little review is not a treatise on acromegaly, I will just say that acromegaly causes enlargement of the extremities along with certain other portions of the body, eventually causing death. Usually acromegaly is caused by a tumor; sorry, no serum for acromegaly.

Acromegaly is important because Dr. Markoff decides to inject Anthony Lawrence with acromegaly to get his filthy paws on Patricia Lawrence. Soon Anthony Lawrence turns ugly with acromegaly and he can no longer play the piano, which yields the title "The Monster Maker."

I have to leave you with some surprises in this movie, so a quick summary of what you can expect next. The Lawrence's gain an unexpected ally. A gorilla goes ape, but he was just monkeying around because he doesn't hurt anyone. Dr. Igor Markoff probably gets some sort of justice just because characters like his usually do (but I ain't sayin'!).

On the other hand, what of poor Anthony Lawrence, who is suffering the eventually deadly ravages of acromegaly? What about beautiful Patricia Lawrence? Will she succumb to the evil Dr. Markoff? What about the gorilla? What about Rex, the Wonder Dog? Scratch that last; that was some other movie, I think (or a comic).

All things considered, this movie was okay. There is very little action, but the plot is interesting and contains some clever convolutions. I was impressed with the acromegaly makeup on Anthony Lawrence, which I thought looked quite good in black & white. Though the horror aspects of this movie are relatively muted, a horror fan might want to add this movie to his or her collection just because Sam Newfield did a nice job of directing this movie. Casual horror fans are likely to be disappointed because this movie is closer to being a thriller than a true horror movie.

Good luck!

The story begins with a piano concert. [Do those hands look too young for an older man?] One man in the audience stares at a younger woman, she reminds him of someone. "I shall be the judge of that." Dr. Igor Markoff enters to apologize to Patricia; she is the daughter of Anthony Lawrence the concert pianist. Igor sends her flowers, his attentions are unwelcome. Maxine is the trusted assistant of Igor. Another gorilla in a cage! [No mention of the smell.] Igor has an angry reaction. What chemical does he use on Anthony? Patricia is called to help her father. Igor tests a cure for acromegaly; we learn his secret. Maxine is threatened!

What happened to Anthony? He is full of energy now. But he has a problem with his fingers. Will he see Doctor Adams? The tests say acromegaly, a serious glandular disorder of the pituitary gland. This disease is progressive but not fatal. The world's expert is Dr. Igor Markoff! The disease has altered Anthony's face [bones start growing]. Maxine overhears the conversation between Igor and Anthony. She is tired of this life, and jealous. Will Igor open the cage of the gorilla? What will he do in Maxine's room? "No, really?" Maxine is sent on an errand to the pharmacy. Igor calls Patricia to tell her Anthony is there. Igor offers a deal: a cure if Patricia is "agreeable". Patricia is told what she should do by Igor. "How ghastly!"

There is a struggle between Anthony and Igor. A shot is fired, Igor is on the floor. Maxine is familiar with the serum, a cure restores Anthony to his previous condition. Life returns to normal. Another morality play that teaches about the dangers of power and fooling with nature.

A disorder of the pituitary gland causes growth in full-grown adults. Hands and fingers become enlarge, as do bones in the face. This reminds you of a monster. It is unusual to use a rare disease as the basis for a horror movie; this lowers the quality of this story.

Mad scientist, Dr. Markoff (J. Carrol Naish) becomes obsessed with a beautiful young girl who resembles his dead daughter. The girl's dad gets in the way, so Markoff bonks him in the noggin and injects him with acromegaly (hyper-growth of the extremities disease) serum. Along the way, we learn the sinister secrets of Markoff's past. MM was much better than I thought it would be. Definitely one of PRC's finer moments! You even get Glenn Strange as Markoff's henchman! Worth a watch...

Hollywood generally produced two varieties of horror films during the 1940s. RKO took the lead with the subtle creations of producer Val Lewton, who specialized in creating a mounting sense of unease through implication instead of specification. Universal, which had been so innovative earlier, generally recycled its earlier creations in a series of sequels, rehashes, and "monster rally" movies that saw every creature from Frankenstein's monster to the wolf man to Dracula under the same roof. And then there was Production Releasing Corporation, commonly known as PRC.

Although it occasionally turned out a real ringer, PRC was a "poverty row" studio that specialized in short films that fell just below the "B" movie standards of the major studios. The studio had particular success with low-budget adventure, crime, and horror films, with Ulmer's famous DETOUR and Bela Lugosi's infamous THE DEVIL BAT cases in point. For the 1944 THE MONSTER MAKER, PRC essentially combined the delicacy of RKO's Lewton and the familarity of Universal's stories--and the result was one of the studios better films.

In terms of style, THE MONSTER MAKER leans heavily on Lewton's sense of discretion; in terms of plot, it is a riff on two earlier Universal films that had starred Bela Lugosi: THE RAVEN and MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. J. Carrol Naish plays the very Lugosi-like Dr. Markoff, a fraudlent research scientist who has actually made good in finding a cure for a rare glandular disorder that causes its victims to undergo a nasty physical change into lumpy-looking horrors. That's all to the good, but Markoff is obsessed with his dead wife. When meets Patricia Lawrence (Wanda McKay), who looks just like the late Mrs. Markoff, he is determined to get her--even if it means infecting her father (Ralph Morgan) with the disease and using his ability to cure it as leverage to force the unwilling Patricia into marriage.

The premise is quite clever, and in this particular instance PRC has an expert cast. Naish, Morgan and Glenn Strange were well respected character actors, and while players Wanda McKay, Terry Frost, and Tala Birell were hardly household names they were competent players with solid careers. What the film doesn't have, unfortunately, is a good script, and director Sam Newfield sure as hell wasn't any Val Lewton or James Whale. The result is a well-acted but clunky and clumsy film that is really more interesting for what it might have been than for what it actually is.

When all is said and done, THE MONSTER MAKER is really most interesting as a comparison to what RKO and Universal were doing with horror films at the time. It will never stand up against the likes of CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, or THE WOLF MAN, but film fans interested in horror movies of the period will find it worth the effort.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Given the law of averages, even PRC, the poorest of the poverty row studios, was bound to make a decent picture. And this is one of them.

"The Monster Maker" is helped by a good story ( loose theft from the Lugosi/Karloff thriller, "The Raven") and the casting of such veterans as J. Carroll Naish and Ralph Morgan (brother of Frank, who was best known as the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz") as the leads.

Here's the plot: We open with a concert by famed virtuoso Anthony Lawrence (Morgan). In attendance at the concert is Dr. Igor Markoff (Naish). During the course of the concert Markoff happens to espy Lawrence's daughter, Patricia (Wanda McKay), who just happens to resemble Markoff's deceased wife. Naturally, Markoff is smitten and vows to marry Patricia. One obstacle, though - she can't stand the sight of him, and she's already engaged to Bob (Terry Frost). Of course, Markoff can't take a hint, and so Patricia is forced to ask her father to tell the Doc off. Dad tells her he'd be glad to and visits Markoff at his day job, which is working on a cure for acromegaly. During the course of their discussion, Markoff knocks Lawrence cold and injects him with acromegaly, causing Morgan to slowly take on the symptoms. This, in turn, forces Lawrence's daughter to seek Markoff' help is curing her father. Suffice it to say everything comes out all right at the end, and Markoff gets his.

The acting and the chemistry (no pun intended) between the stars save the movie. The make up for Ralph Morgan by Maurice Seiderman is excellent. (Seiderman also did the makeup for "Citizen Kane, but not to worry, he later redeemed himself by being the makeup artist for "Bride of the Monster.") The video picture is clear and the sound quality is passable. All in all, worth your time, especially if you are a horror fan.