The Mad Monster
| The Mad Monster | |
|---|---|
 A promotional film poster for "The Mad Monster." |
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| 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 |
| Editing by | Holbrook N. Todd |
| Distributed by | Producers Releasing Corporation |
| Release date(s) | 8 May 1942 |
| 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, Glen Strange and Anne Nagel. Its running time is 77 minutes and it was featured in an episode of the cult classic TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" in 1989.
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[edit] 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 wolf man.
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. Dr. 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 completely turned into a wolf man.
Dr. 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 Cameron 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 wolf man traits to the army to help with the war. When the professors scoff, Cameron says that his proposal matters no longer; he is now going to have his wolf man kill his former colleagues. Cameron 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. The more he does this the more Petro's transformations into a wolf man 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.
[edit] Setting
Cameron's reference to being at war against a fanatical adversary specifies no particular war and the subject is never mentioned again.
The story takes place in a non urban country area filled with fog, howling wolves, swamps and uneducated, superstitious country people who live in simple homes. Dr. Cameron lives and does his work in a house that is opulent and at the same time Gothic. The house has a retro Medieval look which includes large doors and a mason stonewalled secret room in which Cameron uses as a laboratory. Tom Gregory refers to the house as a "Haunted Castle". A nearby town in which one of the Cameron's intended victims lives is called Ashton. A conversation between Gregory and a police officer after the mans murder suggests that the town is not very near. No city is ever named and we never learn where in the country any of these places are.
The clothes, cars, and telephones suggest that the story takes place in the then present of the 1940s. The film does not make it clear exactly which year or any precise date in which the story takes place.
[edit] Description of the monster
Petro is a chemically mutated human who becomes a werewolf because of a process of blood transfusion and injection. Werewolf folklore is downplayed, and the word "werewolf" is mentioned in the film only by an old country woman. In one scene Cameron does refer to him as a wolf man and says Petro has wolf like traits from the transfusion. In another scene a still human Petro tells Lenora that voices from the swamp are telling him to do something terrible. In still another scene Petro seems to be bulletproof. These two seemingly supernatural events go unexplained.
In wolf form, Petro has a beetled brow and long neat hair. He has a beard but no mustache. Other physical traits include large fangs and hair on the back of his hands. Petro wears the same overalls he wears in human form.
[edit] Other 1940s man into animal films
Man into animal stories were popular in the 1940s. There were films such as Pinocchio, which showed boys turning into donkeys. In addition to The Mad Monster other films featuring the Werewolf that were released during the 1940s include The Undying Monster released in 1942. Cry of the Werewolf was the next werewolf themed motion picture to be released. Next, There was a werewolf in The Return of the Vampire. Both of these films were released in 1944. In 1946 there was the film She-Wolf of London. There were other human to animal transformation films released in the 1940s, such as Cat People and 1943's Captive Wild Woman. Of course there is still the classic film with Lon Chaney Jr. as the tormented human/animal in The Wolf man.
The reason for the popularity of such stories in that era is unclear. What is clear is that man into animal stories are a noted part of that era's popular culture. It is also clear that The Mad Monster was a typical product of its time.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
1.The Mad Monster DVD
2.The Encyclopedia of Monsters by Jeff Rovin. Published by Facts on file co 1989
3.The Monster Show, revised edition by David J.Skal.new edition co.2001
[edit] External links
- The Mad Monster at the Internet Movie Database
- The Mad Monster is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- The Mad Monster at AllRovi
- The Mad Monster at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video) Entire film located there.
- The Mad Monster Review
[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000
- "Mystery Science Theater 3000" The Mad Monster (TV episode 1989) at the Internet Movie Database
- Episode guide: 103- The Mad Monster (with short: Radar Men from the Moon, episode 2: Molten Terror)
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