The Mad Monster (1942)

Truly Dreadful Film

A Disappointing Continuation

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Taking a look at a Mill Creek box set that a fellow IMDber has kindly sent me,I spotted that the set contained 2 George Zucco movies,which led to me getting ready to find out how mad the monster could be.The plot:Wanting to prove all the scientists who have called him mad wrong, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron decides to use his servant Tom Gregory as a test case,by crossing his DNA with wolves in order to create a wolf army (as you do!) Taking Cameron's injection,Gregory transforms into a werewolf.Wanting to get his revenge on those who doubted him,Cameron sends werewolf Gregory out on revenge attacks.As fear spreads across the town of a monster who is half beast and half man,a local reporter begins to suspect that Cameron may somehow be involved.View on the film:Running at an epic (for Poverty Row) 77 minutes,the screenplay by Fred Myton does very well at stopping the movie from running out of steam,by crossing the mad scientist with the creature feature and murder mystery. Daringly killing a child,Myton gives the werewolf an extra bite by making the hunt for the unknown killer be one that increases the viciousness of the werewolf.Sending Gregory/the wolf out for the kill,director Sam Newfield displays a surprisingly subtle touch for the murders,with the killing of a girl being perfectly delivered in a chilling manner.Slithering across the screen, George Zucco gives a delightful performance as Cameron,who is so slippery that Zucco almost slides across the screen,whilst Johnny Downs gives Gregory dollops of charm,as Gregory's aw-shucks are replaced by murderous howls.

This movie is NOTHING like Universal's "Wolf Man" starring Lon Chaney, Jr. So if you are looking for something similar to the Universal class then this film is not for you. The ONLY similarity between this film and Universal's classic is the fact both werewolves appear to have hypertrichosis with a wild wolf instinct - that's it. The stories are quite different. The wolfman Petro's story is NOTHING like Larry Talbot's story."Mad Monster" is about a scientist that found a way to inject his subject with a serum that turns him into a werewolf. He sends the werewolf Petro to kill for him as revenge.Honestly "Mad Monster" is not a horrible werewolf film - it's a must see if you do like werewolves just to say 'I've seen that werewolf film' lol. Again, it's NOTHING like Universal's "Wolf Man" - but it's a totally different story all together.5.5/10

I really enjoyed this movie,, not quite sure why but I just did. A scientist is badly disgraced by his employers because his theories and experiments are not conventional, so abruptly he is dismissed from the company,, he decides to carry on his work in a dilapidated mansion that is out of sight, he uses his gardener as a guinea pig for all of his experiments, the experiment sort of a blood transfusion, to turn the gardener into a werewolf.. the scientist's daughter becomes suspicious of her father,, and her boyfriend happens to be a reporter, so she tells him what she thinks her father is up to ,, and the reporter starts to snoop around and gather up some information,, meanwhile our mad scientist is making plans for a serum to use against his former employers to get revenge on them for dismissing him from the company,, very decent "b" movie.

"Low budget" doesn't always mean "low entertainment value." (Horror fans, in particular, have gotten used to slogging through the Grand Guignol ghetto in search of something to write home about. It ain't always pretty, God knows, but, then, beggars can't be choosers...) THE MAD MONSTER happens to be one of those no-budget gems that makes all the searching worth the effort. Zucco is as delusional as his predecessor, DR. MABUSE (he even talks to folks who ain't on hand, as did the not-so-good doctor), and (like Bruce Dern in THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT, to mention another) he picks the nearest hulking handyman to experiment on. His intentions are good (to create an army of werewolves to battle Derr Furor), but even good intentions are no guarantee things'll go as they should. (Note: see the episode of MONSTERQUEST that deals with some supposedly genuine experiments along these very lines- only with gorillas instead of wolves!) Like the later low-budget gem THE WEREWOLF (1956?), THE MAD MONSTER is definitely worth tracking down.