The Manster in the 46 years since I first saw it in theaters as the lower half of a double bill has become quite the cult item. It's that bad it would almost have to be.
On the slopes of Mount Fujiyama is the laboratory of Doctor Tetsu Nakamura who's conducting some kind of experiments in human evolution. Or possibly both since at one point in the film both events do occur. Anyway one fine day up pops wire service reporter Peter Dyneley who hears there might be a story. The doctor decides in a piece of sheer brilliance that a newspaper reporter is definitely not a guy who will be missed and he slips him an enzyme mickey during cocktails. The enzyme is something the good doctor developed to speed up the evolutionary process.
I think the doc got his formula mixed up because what we see here is a retrogression into something primeval. Not only that, Dyneley starts growing a second head. And he goes on a homicidal rampage.
Of course his strange behavior is worrying his wife Jane Hylton who just thinks maybe Pete's just playing around. Not to mention his reporter colleagues.
Peter Dyneley and Jane Hylton were husband and wife in real life as well and were British, but playing Americans with the proper accent. I'm always fascinated when I hear non-Americans try to talk with our accent. It's always interesting to hear what others think we sound like to them.
My guess is that Dyneley and Hylton signed on for The Manster to get a nice free Japanese trip. It certainly didn't do either of their careers any good.
I don't know about others, but I split a gut when I see Doctor Nakamura give Dyneley that last shot and then later on he splits like a paramecium reproducing. Watching it 46 years ago and now, I'm still not sure what the doctor was trying to accomplish.
What the producers accomplished was, tax write-off.
On the slopes of Mount Fujiyama is the laboratory of Doctor Tetsu Nakamura who's conducting some kind of experiments in human evolution. Or possibly both since at one point in the film both events do occur. Anyway one fine day up pops wire service reporter Peter Dyneley who hears there might be a story. The doctor decides in a piece of sheer brilliance that a newspaper reporter is definitely not a guy who will be missed and he slips him an enzyme mickey during cocktails. The enzyme is something the good doctor developed to speed up the evolutionary process.
I think the doc got his formula mixed up because what we see here is a retrogression into something primeval. Not only that, Dyneley starts growing a second head. And he goes on a homicidal rampage.
Of course his strange behavior is worrying his wife Jane Hylton who just thinks maybe Pete's just playing around. Not to mention his reporter colleagues.
Peter Dyneley and Jane Hylton were husband and wife in real life as well and were British, but playing Americans with the proper accent. I'm always fascinated when I hear non-Americans try to talk with our accent. It's always interesting to hear what others think we sound like to them.
My guess is that Dyneley and Hylton signed on for The Manster to get a nice free Japanese trip. It certainly didn't do either of their careers any good.
I don't know about others, but I split a gut when I see Doctor Nakamura give Dyneley that last shot and then later on he splits like a paramecium reproducing. Watching it 46 years ago and now, I'm still not sure what the doctor was trying to accomplish.
What the producers accomplished was, tax write-off.