Friday, October 09, 2009

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 - Movie















Need a nap? Watch "The Mad Monster" (1942). This poorly made, repetitive, formulaic low, low budget quickie features insane scientist, George Zucco, and his plot to create an army of werewolves to use as soldiers, and as tools of revenge on the legitimate scientists who ridiculed him and his ideas. Glenn Strange gets to channel Lon Chaney Jr.'s two most celebrated roles, Lennie from "Of Mice and Men" (1939) and "The Wolf man" (1941) as the simpleton handyman on whom Zucco experiments. Transformed into a goofy looking werewolf in bib overalls, Strange plods around what are actually pretty nice swamp sets, as the world's slowest monster. There's also a subplot involving Zucco's daughter and an irritating reporter, but it adds nothing to the movie except running time on what is already an excruciating 77 minute long movie.

1 comment:

Stephen said...

I didn't realize that even back then, Strange was grooming himself to fill the boots of the icons of horror.