1941’s MAN-MADE MONSTER,
directed by George Waggner, makes better use of Lon Chaney, Jr. than the
attempts to shoehorn him into non-Werewolf roles in DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN and
MUMMY sequels.
This time out Chaney
stars as a sideshow performer who is immune to electricity and uses this in his
act. After surviving a bus crash into a power line, he comes to the attention
of a mad scientist (Lionel Atwill) who subjects him to more and more intense
exposures to electricity in an attempt to create an electrobiologically powered
human slave. After all, if he can make one, he can make an army, and… I dunno.
Rule the world?
I say Chaney’s put to
better use here because he’s at his best when he’s played for sympathy. In his
roles as Dracula, The Mummy and the Frankenstein Monster, he’s just a
heavy-handed thug. As Larry Talbot, The Wolf Man, you feel bad for his
predicament, and he’s forced to kill against his will. That’s sort of how it is
here: he seems like an otherwise nice guy, and this fact makes an otherwise
bland horror movie a little more interesting because it adds a level of tragedy
to the proceedings, played out most poignantly in his relationship with a pet
dog.
The title is a
head-scratcher, though. Lots of Universal horrors feature man-made monsters.
Hell, the most famous one, Frankenstein, is a man-made monster. That’s the
whole point of the movie. So, why is it now so special that it deserves a
mention in the title? Universal may have eventually wondered this themselves,
as they renamed the movie THE ATOMIC MONSTER, which is a little more exciting
but a less accurate description of the monster in question – he’s powered by
electricity, guys, remember?
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