 "Will a silver bullet kill a "synthetic" werewolf?!?" | 2008-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By ospidillo |
First I must confess to being George Zucco's greatest fan, ergo the five stars. But truthfully, this is a fine old horror film with a unique twist in the story: This werewolf is created via a syringe-full of chemicals (supposedly from wolf-blood but it's a COYOTE in the lab cage!) concocted by the greatest mad scientist of all time: George Zucco, who portrays Dr. Lorenzo Cameron here.
Zucco has an innocent daughter in this one ("Lenora," played by Anne Nagel), a common denominator in Zucco formula horror flicks. She's in love with an investigative reporter by the name of Tom Gregory who suspects Zucco of being connected to the death of a child and others.
Zucco rents an old mansion (VERY good atmosphere!) where he conducts his heinous experiments upon his house man, "Pedro" (played by the original Frankenstein monster, the great Glenn Strange). Zucco's vision in all this is to generate an entire army of these werewolf-type monsters, but we don't exactly ever discover who might be the ultimate beneficiary of commanding this invincible force. The situation does go a bit awry for Zucco when, during his "tests," he wreaks revenge on former collegues with his monster and, at one point, Pedro reverts on his own into a werewolf without an injection!
One wise old crone of a woman tells the local vigilante leader that his shotguns and rifles are of no avail without a silver bullet. But, you know, I personally assert that a silver bullet is risky business when one is dealing with a synthetically-created werewolf. But, not to reveal the ending, we never get to find out anyway.
Zucco travels back and forth between his rural lab and the city (where he knocks off his former peers) and it takes the young and aggressive reporter, Tom Gregory, to put two and two together.
I really enjoyed this 1942 film as I did yet another great old Zucco/Strange film team effort: The Black Raven. It's also interesting to note that the British censors didn't like all the blood in this film and thus they banned the showing of it throughout the United Kingdom until 1952 when a compomise was finally reached to run a disclaimer regarding the blood transfusions!
My copy of Mad Monster, The was released by Alpha Video (about 5 bucks plus shipping), produced by Pictures Releasing Corporation (PRC), is in black-and-white, runs for 77 minutes, and the aspect is full-frame. The film was artfully directed by Sam Newfield. The soundtrack was composed by David Chudnow and sounds just like the one in The Flying Serpent, another superb Zucco entry! The special effects represent the work of Gene Stone and are also well-done.
My highest recommendation for fans of older horror films. (Also, see my "Listmania" list here on Amazon: "George Zucco... almost live!") |
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 "The Monster Is Mad Because He Is in this Movie" | 2007-10-06 |
| - Reviewed By dr_strange |
Before huge budgets and fickle audiences caused movie production to extend into years, movies could be scripted, cast and filmed in weeks or even days. Imitation was guaranteed after the success of "The Wolf Man" in 1941, leading the release of this bizarre knock-off the following year.
George Zucco, who was a regular in low-budget films for much of his career, plays mad Dr. Lorenzo Cameron. This doctor is really crazy, because his fixation is using wolf blood to turn people into wolf soldiers. While it is hard to argue with success - after all, he did manage to create a wolf man - there are problems with the doctor's experimental approach, not to mention his ethics.
Probably the biggest problem the doctor has is that the "wolf" looks a lot more like a coyote. I think the monster may also be mad because he would rather have been a wolf man and ended up a coyote man. I also think the doctor is mad because he sees and talks to people who are not there.
The doctor started out with a goal that seemed to have some merit, creating hard-to-stop soldiers, but that goal quickly gets set aside as the doctor focuses on a shorter term goal of revenge. Dr. Cameron sets Petro the coyote man, played by character actor Glenn Strange, off to kill and exact his revenge on the people who laughed at his ideas. The fools! The doctor will show them! Hahahahahahahahaha... Sorry. I got carried away.
Once the plot is set up things become formulaic. There is the obligatory female relative, in this case daughter Lenora, played by beautiful and tragic actor Anne Nagel. There is good guy Tom Gregory, played by Johny Downs, whose mission is to protect Lenora. Then there are the local townspeople who have to become vigilantes and track down the evildoers, including the coyote man. Quite frankly, it is a howl. Did I say that?
A brief word about the sound and picture. I thought the sound was fair, with periods where the sound seemed to drop out a little. I did back up the DVD a little a couple of times to be sure I understood what was being said. The picture was worse. Many of the scenes were darker than I liked. The dark may have helped hide the low budget set. It was a cheaply produced film and I suspect a lot of the blame for current quality can be blamed on the original production rather than the current reproduction.
This ripoff of "The Wolf Man" was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation, often shortened to PRC. This studio and a number of others that produced low-budget movies and were not associated with the major studios were collectively known as Poverty Row. This movie is about average for movies of this type, which means that you spend a lot of time wondering why the movie was made, and how anyone could possibly believe the plot. The acting is often weak, or bad, and though the movie tries hard to be serious, it is frequently funny. Imagine a supposed wolf man in gardener's overalls. If you have to have every wolf man movie made, or are a big fan of George Zucco, Glenn Strange, Anne Nagel or any of the other character actors in this movie, who have starred in hundreds of movies, then this movie could be for you. Everyone else should take their lesson from the monster. He was mad because he was in this movie, and your satisfaction will likely be no greater than his.
Good Luck!
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 "ALPHA DVD VERSION" | 2006-10-30 |
| - Reviewed By tawgort2 |
THIS ONE WASTES NO TIME. WE'RE ONLY MINUTES INTO MAD MONSTER & WE GET TO SEE THE WEREWOLF TRANSFORMATION!!! GEORGE ZUCCO IS OVER THE TOP RAVING MAD IN HIS QUEST TO CREATE AN ARMY OF WEREWOLVES TO BATTLE NAZIS. THOSE WHO SCOFF & RIDICULE HIM ARE MARKED FOR DEATH. GLENN STRANGE PLAYS THE DIM-WIT TURNED WEREWOLF. HE'S GREAT FUN AS BOTH. SOME PRETTY NASTY POVERTY ROW STUFF HERE IN WHICH A CHILD IS MURDERED BY THE WEREWOLF...STILL, ALL IN ALL, THIS IS ONE LOW BUDGET CLASSIC & AN ENJOYABLE ROMP DOWN MONSTER LANE...RECOMMENDED.
THE ALPHA DVD VERSION IS PRETTY POOR THOUGH VISUALLY QUITE CLEAR. THE PROBLEM IS IN THE AUDIO, AN ANNOYING HUMMMM....ON THE SOUNDTRACK THAT DISTRACTS FROM THE OVERALL ENJOYMENT...STILL, FOR THE BARGAIN BASEMENT PRICE I'M GLAD I BOUGHT THIS GEM. IT'S MY FAVORITE ZUCCO PERFORMANCE & FOR THAT ALONE A MUST!!! |
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| "Silly Fun" | 2005-10-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: AQOWRBCNYM3Y7 |
If you're a fan of the sillier monster movies that Universal cranked out during the '40s, you'll probably enjoy this. I'm not sure what studio released it, as I got the Alpha Video edition, which doesn't provide that info. But it was released in 1942, and very obviously a cash-in on the previous year's "Wolf Man".
Here's the skinny: The makeup is very silly, but you do get the chance to see a werewolf in overalls, just like you've always dreamed. The acting is, in my opinion, rather charmingly bad. The misty swampland setting provides for some nice atmosphere. And the ending is pretty exciting.
Also, we get the chance to see two of the more recognizable faces from the latter days of Universal's classic monster movie cycle: Glenn Strange in a non-Frankenstein, speaking role (the first I've seen), and George Zucco, who played the obligatory "high priest of Arkam" in a couple of the "Mummy" sequels. Zucco is a pretty perfunctory mad scientist here, but Strange, although no Lawrence Olivier, is likeable as the hulking halfwit subjected to Zucco's werewolf experiments.
As for the Alpha DVD, it's just this side of "watchable"--something I can't say for some other Alpha releases I've seen. Alpha is always a crapshoot, but at six bucks a pop, sometimes I can't resist. Critically speaking, the movie looks about as good as it deserves to. But speaking as a lifelong lover of silly monster movies from the '40s, "The Mad Monster" is a fun surprise.
One more thing: The dialogue during the first reel is a little low. I'm guessing this is the movie's bad and not Alpha's. It does become clearer for the rest of the movie. |
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| "Coyote Ugly..." | 2005-04-07 |
| - Reviewed By bigfootsalienbaby |
| Dr. Cameron (George Zucco) is a scientist experimenting on his handyman, Petro (Glenn "don't call me Lon" Strange), by injecting him with a serum that turns him into a ravenous werewolf by night! Cameron's been using wolf's blood (which is funny since the animal in the laboratory cage is clearly a coyote) to make his serum. Petro thinks he's been doing some harmless sleepwalking, when all along he's been on a murderous rampage! You see, he's Dr. Cameron's test subject, to both convince and slaughter the other scientists who mocked his revolutionary idea of creating an army of werewolves (!) to help in the war effort. Strange does his best to keep his dignity intact under the poofy wig and dime-store make-up he's forced to wear. MAD MONSTER is certainly not a classic wolfman movie, but it's worth a look or two... |
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 "I found this dvd, despite poor quality, a lot of fun" | 2003-08-21 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| "The Mad Monster" is a bad movie. George Zucco hams it up a lot. But it is a lot of fun, and is atmospheric despite the usual trappings (i.e. old dark house on sawmp). The second bonus feature "The Black Raven" is another fun little PRC flicker with Glenn Strange in comedy releif! Both of these films make a fitting double-bill. The bonus materials are cool also, including an excellent audio interveiw with Glenn Strange, and the original theatrical trailer for "The Mad Monster". Completely worth the buy. |
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| "Nice Idea, but rather poorly executed" | 2002-08-02 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I couldn't wait for the release of this George Zucco classic (The Mad Monster). I had recorded it off TV about 10 years ago and couldn't wait to see a good copy of the film. Retromedia bragged that it had combined two prints of the film for the best possible copy. Yikes! Putting together two poor copies still makes a poor copy. Alas, I was disappointed. In case you don't know the plot, Mad Scientist George Zucco has been shunned by the scientific world because of his theories of creating a great army of wolfmen. Now George is plotting his revenge by ... Zucco is priceless too as he weaves his revenge... But this film and sound quality of this version is not worth the [$$]. EXTRAS - This DVD does have some extras. It has an excellent copy of the trailer (from 35 mm). There is also an abbreviated audio interview with Glenn Strange. This is part of the same audio interview that appears on another DVD, but this one has been edited to include Strange's comments on his horror film performance. So, it is excellent. The last extra is the movie the Black Raven, an old Dark House mystery. The quality is much better than the Mad Monster, but still not great. It looks really good in comparison to the other film, but I suspect I would be complaining if I had watched it first. It's a fun little mystery and has some good comic effects by Glenn Strange. |
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 "Don't Buy This DVD - There Is A Glitch!" | 2002-07-26 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Please don't buy this DVD as at 8:32 into the movie the disc freezes. The only way to get past it is to skip to the next chapter and rewind to that point. Fast-forward will do no good, as it's doesn't work. I had two copies sent and they were both the same. By the way: The quality of the print is just awful. To be clear I want to explain that I'm talking about the more expensive Ventura Distribution edition. I doubt the less expensive disc freezes, but would bet the quality is even worse (if that's possible). If you buy it after reading this warning, remember I tried to say you some annoyance and you just didn't listen. |
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