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| Man-Made Monster / Horror Island; March, 1941 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 29 2014, 08:33 AM (289 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Oct 29 2014, 08:33 AM Post #1 |
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![]() ![]() Man-Made Monster / Horror Island (1941) Dir. George Waggner ITB Shock Theatre #064 and 065 George Waggner was writing/directing Tailspin Tommy films and Frankie Darro/Mantan Moreland mysteries over at Monogram when he was hired by Universal and tossed an old, unfilmed Karloff/Lugosi script called The Electric Man to be done in the "Monogram style," three weeks and $86,000, and starring Lon Chaney, Jr. in his first horror film. When the studio big-wigs saw what Waggner came up with, they decided it could be an "A" picture and ordered up a two-week quickie to serve as the undercard, using two of the stars from the recent Universal hit The Mummy's Hand. Voila, a smash double-feature and today's Halloween week offering. In our first feature, a bus smashes into a power tower on a rainy night and everybody aboard is electrocuted except for Chaney, who has built up an immunity to electricity through his carnival act, in which he does tricks with static electricity. He's studied by Dr. Samuel S. Hinds, expert in, uh, something or other, which is fine, but he's MORE studied by Hinds' assistant, bizarre movie mad scientist Dr. Lionel Atwill, who believes (get this) that losers, miscreants, and retards can become productive members of society by shooting them so full of electricity they become walking high-powered light bulbs without souls who will do his every bidding. No, no, really, that's his plan. Pretty soon poor Lon is glowing like a firefly's butt, tromping around the countryside, scaring his dog, and frightening Anne Nagel and her boyfriend Frank Albertson. In a weird twist, Chaney's captured and executed by - D'oh! - the electric chair, and in the movie's best scene, he powers up, bursts from the chair, and kills three guards to escape. Um, well, we ASSUME that's the best scene; it happens off-screen and we just hear about it. There's your $86,000 budget at work, folks. On to Horror Island, shall we? Dick Foran has a small, dilapidated boat for fishing charters, but he and sidekick Fuzzy Knight (one of the lesser annoying comic reliefs in movies, although I may just think so because there's a second, more annoying, comic relief in the picture: Leo Carillo, the "Let's went!" guy) are broke and dodging creditors, hard to explain when Foran OWNS a small ISLAND that has a CASTLE on it that he INHERITED from his UNCLE. Anyway, what do you want in two weeks, Lawrence of Gosh-Darn Arabia??? Anyway, Carillo is a peg-legged pirate(!) who has a treasure map that shows that Cap'n Morgan's treasure (rum?) is hidden in the castle. Dickie boy doesn't think so, but he advertises a TREASURE HUNT and charges a bunch of B-level movie stars like Miss Moran, John Eldredge, Hobart Cavanaugh and the like $50 to boat over to the island and poke around. Fuzzy was supposed to set up some fake thrills and spooky stuff for 'em, but he's been beaten out by... THE PHANTOM! Not the guy in the jungle in the purple suit, no, this guy has a slouch hat and cape and lurks around trying to kill people and steal the treasure. And there's your movie, folks. Million-dollar Double-Feature Dialog: Dr. Atwill, after ticking off a list of great scientists once considered loonies: "Who KNOWS what tomorrow's madness may be?" Riches-seeker: "There's treasure in this room! I can feel it in my bones!" Leo: "That's your rheumatism." If you haven't seen Man-Made Monster in a while, check it out; it's way better than I recalled. Chaney is actually very good, a big doofus of a guy who becomes extremely frightening (under Jack Pierce makeup) when he starts glowing and stomping around the yard in a big rubber suit. Cinematographer Woody Bredell went on to shoot The Killers, The Inspector General, Tangiers, and Phantom Lady, amongst many others. The special effects (the Frankenstein equipment is back, augmented by actual stock footage from Bride of Frankenstein) are terrific. And there are some genuine shocks (sorry) and scares in the brief 59 min. running time. At this moment, I'm thinkin' this is Universal's best horror film since The Raven in 1935. As for Horror Island, well, I've seen worse. It's okay as these things go, elevated beyond what you usually find with this type of film thanks to higher Universal production values (it's not hard, really, when you think about it, to top Monogram production values, folks). Both of these films can be found (with three other Universal lesser-known horror films) in something called The Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive, released in 2007. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| The Batman | Oct 29 2014, 10:24 AM Post #2 |
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Charter Member
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Just re-watched both of these films just a couple of weeks ago, the whole set, in fact. I agree the other three are lesser entries, but MAN-MADE MONSTER is an exceptional Universal horror, filled with good performances, great make-up and special effects and a solid emotional turn by Lon Chaney Jr. As for HORROR ISLAND, I seemed to enjoy it more than you. No, it didn't reinvent the horror wheel, but it was fun, the cast engaging and the story breezed along. I even enjoyed the comic relief in this one. All in all, a good double bill for a good time. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Oct 29 2014, 10:30 AM Post #3 |
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I liked Horror Island - a film I never saw on TV - well enough, but having just seen The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers, both obviously similar, I found myself recognizing the undeniable fact that Peggy Moran is no Paulette Goddard. Oh, yeah, just in case some of you don't know this story: Realart acquired Man-Made Monster for re-release in the '50s, and retitled it The Atomic Monster, a title that had been copyrighted by producer Alex Gordon. Gordon, his lawyer Sam Arkoff, and Realart rep James Nicholson got together to hash out a settlement, and the three guys ended up creating what eventually became American-International Pictures. So you can thank Man-Made Monster for giving us, indirectly, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. If, y'know, you want to. Edited by Laughing Gravy, Oct 29 2014, 10:35 AM.
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| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| The Batman | Oct 29 2014, 10:38 AM Post #4 |
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Charter Member
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Or, we could forgive Man-Made Monster for giving us, indirectly, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
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| riddlerider | Oct 29 2014, 02:37 PM Post #5 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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A few notes on this double feature.... Old-timers I knew who saw these two on their 1941 theatrical go-round loved them. Loved them. Man-Made Monster was a real sleeper; it got favorable reviews across the board and was considered a model B picture then as now. One of the trade reviews — I forget which one — said the other studios should each get a print, study it, and use the film as a blueprint for their own future efforts along similar lines. Of course, none of them did that kind of movie better than Universal (especially in that budgetary class) and few tried. Man-Made Monster and Horror Island were equally popular on TV during the late Fifties and early Sixties when they were included in the Shock Theater package. As grade schoolers my friends and I enjoyed them more than early Thirties classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man, which seemed slow and creaky. (Obviously, we weren't very much older before the superior qualities of those movies became apparent to us.) And film-collector competition for 16mm prints of both was always keen. For three or four years Horror Island was one of the features I'd run at my annual Halloween film parties (before the video era, when 16mm at home on the big screen was a treat to most people). It was always good for a solid hour of laughs — intentional and otherwise — and some of my attendees habitually chanted along with the phantom: "Leeeeeeave the castle! Leeeeeeave the castle!" I probably saw Horror Island a dozen times before catching an outrageous oversight that slipped past everybody and got into the final print: During an early scene in the castle, as the cast follows somebody holding a candle, the camera tracks along and pans to the right — inadvertently revealing a grip who trains a hand spot on the candle and slinks backward to stay ahead of the advancing actors. Either he was too slow or the camera operator was too fast. Director of photography for both films was the great Woody Bredell, for my money the most stylish cinematographer of Universal Bs after Stanley Cortez. He never gets the credit I think he deserves for being one of the architects of film noir's visual style, an honor he would deserve if only for his magnificent work on Phantom Lady. |
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| The Batman | Oct 29 2014, 05:45 PM Post #6 |
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Charter Member
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Thanks for sharing that, RR, great info and insight (as always). Like I stated above, I really enjoyed both of these films. After seeing them, I am really surprised they are not included in the pantheon of great Universal horror movies, both deserve the mention. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
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| CliffClaven | Nov 3 2014, 09:07 PM Post #7 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I enjoyed "Horror Island": fast, silly and just slick enough to pass for a movie. If memory serves, at one point the treasure search requires putting a special coin in a slot directly beneath a large, obviously ready to fall ax. Of course the villain orders the others back -- HE wants to do it! |
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| riddlerider | Nov 4 2014, 05:49 PM Post #8 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Two words: Spoiler Alert. |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Nov 4 2014, 06:49 PM Post #9 |
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Mouth Breather
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Nice to see Woody Bredell get a little credit. Thanks, RR. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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