Review of Man Made Monster

This has been one of the most elusive of the Universal Horrors for me – a fellow member here in particular knows that for a fact; having caught up with it finally via ulterior sources, I still had to go through a variety of hassles as my copy froze no less than three times during its brief 60-minute duration and pixellated twice besides! Anyway, while I cannot say that MAN MADE MONSTER scales the heights of the best the studio had to offer in its heyday, this is as good a B-movie as they turned out (especially coming from their second phase). Of course, it introduced Lon Chaney Jr. into the fold of Universal horror stars: "The Electric Man" (an alternate title for the film itself) – a sideshow performer who survived both a bus crash and electrocution – proves a nice antecedent (going from vigor to sheepishness and from wild-eyed disbelief to self-destruction) to his signature role of Lawrence "The Wolf Man" Talbot; actually, he supports Lionel Atwill – who is in top (that is to say, over-the-top) "Mad Doctor" form here, especially relishing those scenes in which he tries to persuade others to his radical credo (basically constituting megalomania). Interestingly, the film was originally intended as yet another pairing of Universal's two reigning genre icons – Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi – and, in point of fact, it does play quite a bit like THE RAVEN (1935)! The rest of the cast includes Samuel S. Hinds, who made his fair share of films in this vein, as Atwill's eminent superior and the first to take interest in Chaney's case (also, cluelessly – but hilariously – suggesting to Atwill that he drop the experiments and 'help himself to some cheese and beer' instead!) and the obligatory romantic couple i.e. pretty Anne Nagel (as Hinds' niece/secretary, who is sympathetic to Chaney) and Frank Albertson (as – conveniently – a reporter who, for love of the heroine, is in two minds about what to do with the scoop of his life). As expected, the film particularly scores in the make-up (Chaney's constant 'treatments' lend him an effectively sickly, even aged, countenance) and special effects (his imposing glowing automaton comes courtesy of a master, John P. Fulton) departments. And while MAN MADE MONSTER is kind of short on action during its first three-quarters, it more than makes up for this with a terrific climax which sees Chaney being tried, convicted and executed for Hinds' murder – but, since he is impervious to electricity, he breaks free to exact well-deserved retribution upon the man who ruined his life; arriving just in time to save Nagel from Atwill's clutches, typically for a Universal Studios monster, he then makes off with her into the countryside (chased by the authorities and Albertson) towards his doom. There are, however, a couple of unexpected touches as well – its stance against capital punishment (the heavy heart evident in the people assigned the grim task) and the pained reaction of Chaney's devoted mutt at his demise.