The Mad Monster

The Mad Monster

A promotional film poster for "The Mad Monster."
Directed by Sam Newfield
Produced by Sigmund Neufeld
Written by Fred Myton
Starring Johnny Downs
George Zucco
Anne Nagel
Reginald Barlow
Music by David Chudnow
Cinematography Jack Greenhalgh
Edited by Holbrook N. Todd
Distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation
Release dates
  • May 8, 1942 (1942-05-08)
Running time
 77 min
Country United States
Language English

The Mad Monster is an American horror film released in 1942 by P.R.C. (Producers Releasing Corporation), a Poverty Row studio. The film, a B-movie shot in black and white, features a mad scientist and a werewolf as the main characters. Directed by Sam Newfield and written by Fred Myton, the film—Poverty Row's only werewolf movie—stars George Zucco, Glenn Strange and Anne Nagel. Its running time is 77 minutes. It was featured in an episode of the cult classic TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" in 1989.


Plot

The plot involves a scientist who has been discredited by his peers. He attempts to kill them off after he develops a secret formula that transforms his gardener into a murderous wolfman.

The story begins on a fog-bound moonlight night in a swamp; a wolf howls. The scene shifts to the nearby laboratory of Dr. Lorenzo Cameron (George Zucco), who draws blood from a caged wolf. Secured to a table is Dr. Cameron's simpleminded but strong gardener, Petro (Glenn Strange), who is to be the doctor's subject in an experiment. Cameron injects a serum made from a wolf's blood into the cooperative Petro, who loses consciousness, grows fur and fangs and awakens after he has turned into a wolfman.

Cameron then turns to an empty table and visualizes his former colleagues sitting there—four professors who ridiculed his theory that transfusions of wolf blood could be used to give a human being wolf-like traits. He recalls how the scientific community, the press and the public joined in a resounding chorus of ridicule, which cost him his position at the university.

Addressing the spectral professors, Cameron declares, "Right now, we're at war. At war with an enemy that produces a horde that strikes with a ferocious fanaticism". Cameron proposes giving wolfman traits to the army to help with the war. When the professors scoff, Cameron says that his proposal doesn't really matter; he is now going to have his wolfman kill his former colleagues. He then administers an antidote to Petro that transforms him back into a human; Petro remembers nothing.

The following night, Cameron turns Petro into a wolf and sends him to the swamp. Before the night is over Petro has entered a nearby home and killed a little girl. When Cameron hears of the child's fate, he knows his formula works. He turns to his real priority, which is destroying the scientists who ruined his career. The rest of the film involves Cameron setting up elaborate scenarios in which Petro is alone with each scientist when he becomes a wolf. However, the more he does this, the more Petro's transformations into a wolfman become unpredictable.

Cameron's daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) is romantically involved with Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs), a newspaper reporter who is investigating the death of the little girl. As the professors are killed off one by one, Gregory begins to suspect that Cameron is behind the slayings.

The principals are in the Cameron home when a thunderstorm begins and a bolt of lightning sets Cameron's laboratory on fire. Lenora and Tom escape from the house after encountering Petro in wolf form. Petro turns on Cameron and kills him, just before the fire brings the house down on both of them.

Cast

Reception

In March 2015 the film held a 3.1/10 on the Internet Movie Database and a 3% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Other 1940s man-into-animal films

Man-into-animal stories were popular in the 1940s. They include Pinocchio (1940), which showed boys turning into donkeys, Cat People (1942), and Captive Wild Woman (1943). Werewolves were featured in several films that were released during the 1940s, such as The Wolf Man (1941), The Undying Monster (1942),The Return of the Vampire (1943), Cry of the Werewolf (1944) and She-Wolf of London (1946).

See also

References

External links

Mystery Science Theater 3000

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