Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
HottWwjdIam
There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
Michelle Ridley
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
bkoganbing
Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the title role in Man Made Monster, a man who through
electricity is turned into a killer. The doer of this evil deed is Lionel Atwill playing
the part of the mad scientist with the usual relish he brings to these kind of roles.It all starts out when Chaney is the sole survivor of a bus crash which hit a power
line. All the other passengers are electrocuted when the downed power lines
hit the bus. But Chaney emerges with a few cuts and bruises.Turns out he has a carnival act of sorts in which controlled amounts of electricity pass through his body and it's given him a certain tolerance level.
Chaney agress to live with Dr. Samuel Hinds and his niece Anne Nagel to be
a human guinea pig for some relatively benign experiments. But Hinds's
associate Atwill has other ideas and his experiments turn Chaney into a
walking dynamo who can electrocute at a touch and needs those jolts of
electricity from Atwill to stay alive.As I said before Atwill is the real star of this film. He must have chewed two
living room sets of furniture in Man Made Monster, but it all works beautifully
for his performance. Frank Albertson is also around as a wisecracking reporter and love interest for Nagel.Chaney seems always cast as the good, but doomed soul, a part played well
in Of Mice And Men and the original Wolfman movie. In Man Made Monster
he's not simple minded like Lennie Small, but he's a happy go lucky sort when
we first meet him. He does change and horribly.In the end its not humans who do him in, but rather the properties of electricity itself. Watch this good horror flick from Universal to see what I
mean.
Michael O'Keefe
A Universal Pictures 59 minute quickie that turned into a classic science fiction flick. Dan McCormick (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the lone survivor of a bus crashing into a high power line. It seems he is immune to electricity. After seen as a sideshow exhibit, Dan is taken in my Dr. John Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds), who wants to study him. A colleague, Dr. Paul Rigis (Lionel Atwill) , has other ideas. He wants to use Dan in an experiment to create an army of zombies. McCormick accidentally is given too much voltage making him able to kill anyone with one touch.Other players: Anne Nagel, Ben Taggart, Frank Albertson and John Dilson. This film is directed by George Waggner and contains a very memorable soundtrack created by Hans J. Salter. Worth watching over and over again. May be too intense for the very young, who might want to sneak a look.
Rainey Dawn
'Dynamo' Dan McCormick (Chaney) was in a wreck that electrically killed 5 other people but Dan survived it. Dr. John Lawrence (Hinds) and his assistant Dr. Paul Rigas (Atwill) become intrigued by Dan and starts to conduct experiments on him that may help the human race to survive electrocution as Dan did. But Dr. Rigas has a secrect sinister experiment that he is conducting on Dan that turns him into a walking zombified strongman glowing with electricity. Everything and everyone that Dan touches in this state gets a jolt of electricity. Dr. Lawrence finds out about this, tries to stop Dr. Rigas but Dan is being controlled by Dr. Rigas... this proves deadly for Dr. Lawrence and a death sentence for Dan by law.This is a pretty good sci-fi horror of the 1940s. I enjoyed the film but I was not pleased with the decision made by June Lawrence and Mark Adams at the very end of the film... I wish they would have done the right thing and turned Dr. Rigas' diary into the police so everyone knew what really happened to Dan.All in all is an enjoyable movie.9/10
AaronCapenBanner
Lon Chaney Jr. plays Dan McCormack, an amiable carnival worker who can withstand electrical shocks. When the bus he's on crashes into a power line, killing the other passengers, Dan becomes front page news as the sole survivor. Dr. John Lawrence(played by Samuel Hinds) offers Dan a job in order so that he can be studied to see why he is immune. Dan starts to fall for the doctor's niece June(played by Anne Nagel) but reporter Mark Adams, who covered Dan's story, has also. Sadly. Dr. Rigas(played by Lionel Atwill), who is also there studying Dan, has evil designs on exploiting Dan to reap power, but when Dr. Lawrence gets wind of this, he orders Dan(who is now being controlled through electric charge) to kill him, causing Dan to be tried, convicted, and executed for his murder, but putting him in the electric chair only makes things worse...Interesting yarn is far-fetched but engaging, with good performances and an effective sense of tragedy surrounding poor Dan, especially at the end with the dog.
