Man-Made Monster

Finally times to celebrate : 1st Review of the YEAR 

I did it, YES I DID IT!! The first review of the year finally comes up on Universal Monsters. Let me present to you the too often forgotten MAN-MADE MONSTER aka Atomic Monster starring the incredible and handsome Man of a Thousand Faces : Lon Chaney Jr

What you NEED to know bout' Man-Made Monster :

• Directed by George Waggner
• Produced by Jack Bernhard
• Written by Harry Essex, Sid Schwartz and Len Golos
• Release dates : March 28, 1941
• Distributed by Universal Studio
• Running time : 59 min

Man-Made Monster is NOT really a horror movie, its more like a science fiction movie for me.  You probably never heard of this movie but some of you should know this one because it's one of the first Sci-Fi/ Horror movie of Lon Chaney Jr.
We should notice that he appeared in Man-Made Monster (MMM) only few month prior the making his name as THE WOLF MAN (yes its him AGAIN !)
 In this movie the main character (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the only survior of a tragic bus accident at the totally beginning. In this scene we saw (with amazing visuals effects) that he is virtually immune to electricity : A kind of ELECTRIC MAN in fact !

(Btw you should find a  re-release of MMM under the name of Electric Man)

So, our Electric Man named Dn McCormick) sell himself in fairs as Dynamo Man like would do a tiger in a zoo. He seems all alone and depressed until 2 scientists in Electrobiology came to him to discuss of his "Power". As you can guess, one of them (Dr John Lawrence played by Samuel S hinds) is a GOOD doctor who only want to study the electricity and the other ( Dr Paul Rigas played by Lionel Atwill) is the MAD SCIENTIST who has bad thoughts of course !
The mad doctor want to study him in order to create an ARMY of electrobiologically driven zombie.(You could think that this army is not easy to command and direct but NO, for Him its seems natural to lead a zombie army ):  Dr Paul Rigas starts his experiences by giving higher and higher electric dose to McCormick until his mind explode is ruined. The poor Monster become addicted to electric doses... The charges give him THE TOUCH OF DEATH : He is capable of killing anyone he touchs by electrocution.

My favorite part is when the doctor find a brilliant idea to give more power to his subject : An ELECTRIC CHAIR !! That a fact, the electric chair give him  A LOT of power to kill A LOT of people, i wont spoil you anything about the rest of the story.

I really enjoyed the ambiance, dark and tensed all long the film. The characters are very interesting/complexes mostly McCormick and the mad Dr Rigas. The two actors show their best role in a horror/Sci-Fi  movie in my opinion. (yes, even if McCormick is so good in each movie and specially in THE WOLF MAN).

 I hope this little review give you an overwhelming desire to watch Man-Made Man by the end of 2014 !!