Man Made Monster

Before leaving this digression through the "mad doctors" of the 1940s, it's worth going back a bit and taking a look at Universal's Man Made Monster (MMM). It was released in March 1941, just a month after the fourth of Columbia's Karloff "mad doctor" films. Universal Pictures wasn't going to cede the "mad doctor" market without a peep. After all, they built that market with Frankenstein. MMM was Lon Chaney Jr's first "horror" film with Universal. He would go on to greater fame as Universal's Wolfman, but he started here. The director, George Waggner would also direct The Wolfman. MMM is, at it's heart, a Frankenstein story. It co-stars Lionel Atwill, who also played in several of Universal's Frankenstein films.

Quick Plot Synopsis
On a dark and stormy night, a bus skids off the road, crashing into a high-voltage powerline. Everyone is electrocuted except for Dan McCormick. His job as Dynamo Dan in a carnival midway had somehow provided some immunity to electricity. Dr. Lawrence wants to study Dan to find out how that works, so Dan comes to Lawrence's mansion (complete with mega-high-voltage lab!) Dan is big lovable oaf of a man, who endears himself to Lawrence's niece June and their dog Corky. Lawrence's associate, Dr. Rigas (Atwill) has some theories about electricity as a life force. He begins secretly experimenting on Dan, giving him higher and higher voltages. Dan begins to change. He doesn't eat, but draws strength from the voltage. Lawrence walks in on Rigas giving extreme voltage. Dan glows and is under Rigas' power. Lawrence and Rigas argue ethics and supermen. When Lawrence tries to call the police, Rigas orders Dan to kill Lawrence. He does. Rigas orders him to repeat. "I killed him." Dan is arrested, deemed sane, and tried for murder. They try to execute him in the electric chair (naturally). Dan doesn't die, but absorbs three times the usual voltage. Now very strong, Dan breaks out of prison and is loose in the foggy woods. Each step drains off a bit of his power, so he steals a pair of rubber boots. He trudges to Lawrence's lab. Meanwhile, in that lab, Rigas has caught June looking for evidence to incriminate Rigas. He straps her to his tilting table and is about to zap her, when Dan bursts in. He electrocutes Rigas with a touch. Dan puts on the full-body rubber suit so he can carry the fainted June off to safety, back out into the foggy woods. (?) The police pursue, but only watch for fear of harming June. Dan puts her down when gets tangled in a barbed wire fence. The barbs cut through the rubber, grounding him. The electric life-force drains from his body. He falls down dead. Corky comes up and lays his head on dead Dan's chest. June's fiance, Mark (a reporter) thinks Rigas' notebook would make a Pulitzer story, but June thinks it would only create another Dan. Mark tosses it in the fire. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Seeing the basics of the Frankenstein story retold with variations has appeal to Frankenstein fans. Lon Chaney does a credible enough job as Lunk turned Monster. Atwill does a better job as the maniacal "mad doctor." The many sparky things that buzz and spark in the lab are SO Frankenstein that they're fun.

Cultural Connection
The Frankenstein formula had more audience appeal than Frankenstein franchise could satisfy. Universal tried a variation on the theme. They didn't think quite enough of the story to build in a sequel, though. Both the "monster" and the evil doctor die, and his notebook is destroyed. The trope of a scientifically-created invincible (or very powerful) man would show up many more times in the ranks of B-movies.

Notes
Pre-Nuclear Power -- Atomic radiation became the magic pixie dust of 50s sci-fi .It could do almost anything -- shrink something, grow something, give power, take power, make invisible, make liquid, etc. Before nuclear pixie-dust, there was electricity. In the 30s and 40s, electricity was the pixie-dust. It could do all the magical things a writer might desire. Curiously, when radiation took over as the new Olympian, electricity stayed on as a Titan. It took on the role, typically, as that of savior. So often, the monsters were electrocuted to stop them.

Evil Science -- Lionel Atwill does a great job of playing the flagrantly "mad" doctor with out admixture of kindness or qualms, as Karloff's "mad" doctors usually did. Atwill would continue this character in his Dr. Bohmer in Ghost of Frankenstein ('42)

Pre-Talbot -- One can see in the Dan McCormick character a preview of the Lawrence Talbot of the Wolfman movies to come. Lon Chaney as the affable/sympathetic joe with his powerful, impersonal alter ego.

Hint o' Nazi -- Of course, being shot in 1941, the specter of Hitler's Nazi dogma was never far from the writers' minds, nor their audiences. Rigas justifies his work on Dan by saying, "I have conquered destiny. Think of an army of such creatures, doing the work of the world. Fighting its battles. Look at him, the worker of the future, controlled by a superior intelligence." Viewers had no doubts that Rigas' army of glowing minions would be conquering, not cooking and cleaning.

The Tyranny of Utility -- Rigas also sounds like a frustrated socialist. His electronic men would less of a burden for a central (superior) agency to manage than mankind has been proving. " You know as well as I do that more than half the people of the world are doomed to a life of mediocrity - born to be nonentities, millstones around the neck of progress, men who have to be fed, watched, looked over, and taken care of by a superior intelligence. My theory is to make these people of more use to the world." In that nazi dogma of utility, a person must be useful to those "superior intelligences" to justify existing.

Bottom line? MMM is a well paced film that doesn't bog down in talky exposition. The formula may not be especially new, but the performances are clean. It's not a great movie, but it's entertaining and well shot. Well worth an hour of your life.

The Devil Commands

The fourth of Columbia's "mad doctor" films with Boris Karloff is The Devil Commands. (TDC) There are many similarities with the prior three, yet just as many differences. Like the others, TDC is a horror/sci-fi hybrid with the science part in a secondary role. Nick Grinde did not direct this one. Instead, Edward Dmytryk directed. (he would later gain fame with The Caine Mutiny ('54)) One of the screenwriters, Robert Andrews, worked on the third film, Before I Hang.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Julian Blair is a well respected scientist at Midland University. His work regards the power of thought being captured, recorded or transmitted. His machine records "brain waves" of his assistant, then of his wife Helen. All is happy and congratulatory. On the way home, Helen is killed when a truck hits her car. Distraught, Blair seeks distraction in his lab. When he turns on his sparking machines, the needle moves again, repeating Helen's pattern. He is convinced that Helen's consciousness survives beyond the grave and is trying to speak to him. His scientist cohorts think he's lost his mind. His simple-minded helper, Karl, takes him to a "spirit medium," Mrs. Walters, to contact the dead. Blair sees through her parlor tricks, but senses Walters has a receptive brain. Walters senses great fortune if Blair is successful. Ann suggests he get away to some remote New England town and work in private. He does, but the townsfolk don't like it. Bodies go missing from graves. Blair's housekeeper, Mrs. Marcy dies when she accidentally turns on the sparky machines. Walters fakes her death as having fallen off the cliff between the house and town, but her husband is convinced that Blair killed her. The missing bodies are in Blair's lab, all seated at a techno-seance table, wearing metal hazmat suits with neon tubes and wires sticking out of them. The added brain-receiver power works. With full sparky power on, a tornado appears in the center of the table. The needle plots Helen's pattern. Blair hears a raspy "Julian…" He turns up the power to get a better connection, but it kills Walters. Ann and Richard arrive at the Sheriff's behest. Blair is convinced that Helen communicates when Ann is around. Richard won't allow her to be hooked up, so Blair has Karl lock him away. Blair does hook up Ann. The sparky things spark. "Julian….Julian…." The last time, it was clearly Helen's normal voice. Blair cranks it up more, but it causes the house to start breaking up. His own safety strap breaks loose and he's swept into the tornado. The angry mob storms the house with clubs and torches, but flee when the house starts to break up. Ann narrates that they never found her father. Some say his spirit still lives in that house. Human beings are not supposed to know what lies beyond the grave. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
As always, Karloff's acting is the major plus of the film. Even though it is a low-budget affair, he brings a sincerity to the role that lifts the film from the dross of typical B-movies. For one's inner 12-year-old, all the sparky machines and Man-In-The-Iron-Mask helmets with neon ear cones, have gadget appeal.

Cultural Connection
Each of the four films dealt with death. As war raged in Europe (Pearl Harbor had not happened yet when TDC was in theaters), death was more of a front-and-center issue. Nor was death as neatly pasteurized as it has since become. Back then, there was more of a personal connection.

Notes
Sad Scientist -- Karloff's Dr. Blair is more of a tragic figure than his prior "mad doctor" roles. Dr. Laurience in The Man Who Lived Again ('36) was obsessed, cold-hearted and a little bit lustful. Dr. Savaard in The Man They Could Not Hang ('40) started out altruistic, but turns to deadly vengeance. Dr. Garth in Before I Hang is a well-meaning man, but the blood of a killer in his serum turns him into an unwitting murderer. Dr. Blair is driven by hope (and grief) over his lost wife. Deaths happen, but more by accident than malice. The more palpable evil in TDC comes from Mrs. Walters.

Mrs. Mephisto -- The Mrs. Walters character is Blair's Mephistopholes. Blair (like Faust) seeks knowledge beyond the mortal world. Walters, coldly driven by the prospect of immense power and wealth, helps Blair and pushes him on when he has qualms. She withheld Ann's letters from Blain so he thought she didn't care about him anymore. She had a cold enough heart to rob graves, though it is never stated how the bodies came to the lab. She rather coldly deals with the accidental death of Mrs. Marcy, and chastises Blair for fretting over lying to the Sheriff. Mrs. Walters may well be the "Devil" cited in the title. She gets her just desserts, though.

A Hint of Occult -- While still a horror/sci-fi pictures, TDC suggests that something of Helen's consciousness did continue after her death. She becomes an almost literal Ghost in the Machine, though little conjecture is made over just what's going on. Beyond the graph plots, there was little corroboration that Helen was trying to communicate with Julian. In fact, he may have imagined the voices. His dangerous electric devices managed to damage Karl's brain, kill Mrs. Marcy and Mrs. Walters -- maybe even himself, but TDC treads lightly on the ghosts aspect.

Based on the Book -- The kernel of the story comes from a novel written by William Sloane in 1937, "The Edge of Running Water." Reviews of the book give it middling marks. While the movie follows the basics of the novel, the movie is apparently more cohesive and better paced. Sloane only wrote two novels. The other was "To Walk the Night" which was also made into a movie in 1963 called "Unearthly Stranger."

Bottom line? TDC is a watchable enough film, even if one isn't a Karloff fan. It moves along, avoiding slow talky parts . The characters all read quickly enough without laggy development. The sparky machines and metal helmets are steampunk cool. As sci-fi, it's a bit thin, but it's still fun to watch.