Indestructible Man
| Indestructible Man | |
|---|---|
 A promotional film poster for "Indestructible Man." |
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| Directed by | Jack Pollexfen |
| Produced by | Jack Pollexfen |
| Written by | Vy Russell Sue Dwiggins |
| Starring | Lon Chaney Jr. Max Showalter Marian Carr |
| Music by | Albert Glasser |
| Cinematography | John L. Russell, ASC |
| Editing by | Fred R. Feitshans Jr. |
| Distributed by | Allied Artists |
| Release date(s) | 25 March 1956 |
| Running time | 70 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
Indestructible Man (1956) is an American black-and-white science fiction film, an original screenplay by Vy Russell and Sue Dwiggins for producer-director Jack Pollexfen and starring Lon Chaney, Jr.. It was produced independently, and picked up after completion for distribution in the United States by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. It is somewhat of a remake of Chaney's 1941 film, Man Made Monster and owes much to Frankenstein. It was later featured in the fourth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, alongside chapter two of the Ray "Crash" Corrigan Undersea Kingdom serial.
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[edit] Plot summary
Told in flashback by police dectective Dick Chasen (Showalter), the movie concerns a 72-hour period of horror for the main characters. Charles "Butcher" Benton (Chaney) was a double-crossed convicted robber and murderer who was executed in the gas chamber. His body is unlawfully sold to a a lone-wolf cancer researcher (Robert Shayne, moonlighting from the Inspector Henderson character featured in the Superman TV series of the time), who plans to move his testing to human subjects. The corpse is subjected to chemical injection and massive jolts of high-frequency electricity in order to study the effect on human tissues. But Benton's heart is restimulated and he completely revives (though rendered mute due to electrical damage to his vocal cords), immensely strong and with skin virtually impervious--even to bazooka shells. After killing the doctor and his assistant (Joe Flynn, pre-McHale's Navy), Benton sets out to avenge himself on his shyster lawyer and the lawyer's henchmen who, in collusion with his attorney, betrayed him in order to steal his loot. Benton left the location of his stash to his stripper-girlfriend (Carr) who has gone straight and begun dating the detective who brought Benton to justice after rejecting the lawyer.
The story then follows Benton' revenge on his enemies and the police who first learn of a wave of mysterious killing, then of Benton's reanimation, as well as the developing relationship between the detective and the stripper. Along the way is a fair mystery, some gruesome murders and just enough backstage visits at the burlesque theatre to please the target audience of the film.
[edit] Production background
- Chaney has almost no dialogue in the film.
- Angels Flight appears prominently in this film.
- The doctor's assistant is played by Joe Flynn who went on to bigger and better roles in Disney films and in the TV series McHale's Navy.
[edit] DVD releases
- The film has been released by numerous studios as a "bargain bin" disc.
- The MST3K version of the film has been released by Rhino Home Video as part of the Collection, Volume 11 box set.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Indestructible Man is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- Indestructible Man at the Internet Movie Database
- Indestructible Man at AllRovi
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