It's certainly ambitious. That's perhaps the best thing that can be said for this rather ... strange (as in Glenn Strange, who played the monster) movie. Apparently trying to cash in on the recent success of Lon Chaney's "The Wolf Man," this blends elements of that movie along with ideas from "Frankenstein" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" among others and turns out an inept but still somewhat amusing horror picture.
Strange played Petro, the simple-minded servant of Dr. Cameron (George Zucco). Cameron has stumbled upon a way of turning humans into ravenous, murderous beasts by injecting them with the blood of animals - in the belief that they could be used as an invincible army (remember that this was made during World War II.) In the midst of explaining what he was doing he claimed to have discovered the "secret of life." (How this was the secret of life was unclear to me.) For his efforts, Cameron is drummed out of the academic community, and continues his experiments on Petro. There's little surprise here. Cameron is able to transform Petro, but he can't control him, and eventually Petro starts to transform without the injections, leading up to a "Frankenstein-ish" style of ending inside a burning house.
Yes. It's ... ambitious. Not good - not by a long shot. Not original - not by a long shot. But ambitious as it tries to weave the various threads from different stories together. Not much effort was put into the makeup for Strange. His "werewolf" looked like a guy with bushy hair and a beard, and his fangs looked rubbery to me - they seemed to bend and twist at times. The setting of the old house surrounded by mysterious swampland constantly shrouded in fog and mist was moderately effective in creating a "spooky" environment. I liked the thought here, but it just wasn't carried out particularly well.
Strange played Petro, the simple-minded servant of Dr. Cameron (George Zucco). Cameron has stumbled upon a way of turning humans into ravenous, murderous beasts by injecting them with the blood of animals - in the belief that they could be used as an invincible army (remember that this was made during World War II.) In the midst of explaining what he was doing he claimed to have discovered the "secret of life." (How this was the secret of life was unclear to me.) For his efforts, Cameron is drummed out of the academic community, and continues his experiments on Petro. There's little surprise here. Cameron is able to transform Petro, but he can't control him, and eventually Petro starts to transform without the injections, leading up to a "Frankenstein-ish" style of ending inside a burning house.
Yes. It's ... ambitious. Not good - not by a long shot. Not original - not by a long shot. But ambitious as it tries to weave the various threads from different stories together. Not much effort was put into the makeup for Strange. His "werewolf" looked like a guy with bushy hair and a beard, and his fangs looked rubbery to me - they seemed to bend and twist at times. The setting of the old house surrounded by mysterious swampland constantly shrouded in fog and mist was moderately effective in creating a "spooky" environment. I liked the thought here, but it just wasn't carried out particularly well.