Man Made Monster was actually a script dusted off and updated from the early thirties. Originally called The Man In The Cab, it was to have starred Karloff and Lugosi. It was probably shelved as the premise was a little similiar to The Invisible Ray; so Universal waited a few years and revamped it as a sort of test vehicle for Lon Chaney Jr.
Chaney plays "Dynamo" Dan McCormick, solitary survivor of a bus crash that involved an electricity pylon. His resistence to electric charges has earned him a living as a side-show attraction; but now he falls in with researcher Dr. Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) and Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill). Rigas, of course, is up to no good, wishing to create a race of mindless slaves dependent on electricity for food. He overdoses Dan on the electrics, and soon gets his wish!
This is a watchable and likeable flick from Universal. Costing only around $80,000, Chaney does well in his first horror role and Lionel Atwill is at his evil best, menacing Anne Nagel and leering repeatedly at Chaney Jr and his female co-star. When the result proved successful Universal signed Chaney to a long-term contract and gave him the star treatment in The Wolf Man. If the Universal movies had descended by this point to the comic strip level after their early classics, it was at least a good comic strip level. This film was a nice early Halloween viewing for me.
Chaney plays "Dynamo" Dan McCormick, solitary survivor of a bus crash that involved an electricity pylon. His resistence to electric charges has earned him a living as a side-show attraction; but now he falls in with researcher Dr. Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) and Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill). Rigas, of course, is up to no good, wishing to create a race of mindless slaves dependent on electricity for food. He overdoses Dan on the electrics, and soon gets his wish!
This is a watchable and likeable flick from Universal. Costing only around $80,000, Chaney does well in his first horror role and Lionel Atwill is at his evil best, menacing Anne Nagel and leering repeatedly at Chaney Jr and his female co-star. When the result proved successful Universal signed Chaney to a long-term contract and gave him the star treatment in The Wolf Man. If the Universal movies had descended by this point to the comic strip level after their early classics, it was at least a good comic strip level. This film was a nice early Halloween viewing for me.