Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Silly Fun, October 22, 2005
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ALPHA DVD VERSION, October 29, 2006
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!!!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will a silver bullet kill a "synthetic" werewolf?!?, August 14, 2008
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!")
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