THE MAD MONSTER (1942) Johnny Downs, George Zucco & Anne Nagel | Drama, Romance | B&W

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The Mad Monster is a 1942 American black and white horror film, produced and distributed by "Poverty Row" studio Producers Releasing Corporation. The film stars George Zucco, Glenn Strange, Johnny Downs, and Anne Nagel.

The film's storyline concerns a discredited mad scientist who plots to kill his colleagues one-by-one using a secret formula that transforms his simple-minded gardener into a murderous wolfman.

Synopsis

On a fog-bound moonlight night, a wolf howls in a swamp. In his nearby laboratory, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron draws blood from a caged wolf. Secured to a table is Dr. Cameron's simpleminded but strong gardener, Petro, who is to be the subject of the doctor's experiment. Cameron injects a serum made from a wolf's blood into the cooperative Petro, who loses consciousness, grows fur and fangs, and awakens after he has transformed into a wolfman.

Cameron turns to an empty table, visualizing his former colleagues sitting there; the four professors dismissed his theory that wolf blood transfusions could be used to give a human being wolf-like traits. He recalls how the scientific community, the press, and the public joined in a resounding chorus of ridicule that finally cost him his position at the university.

Addressing the four spectral professors, Cameron declares, "Right now, we're at war, at war with an enemy that produces a horde that strikes with a ferocious fanaticism". Cameron proposes giving wolfman traits to soldiers in order to help win the war. When the professors scoff, Cameron says to them that his proposal doesn't really matter; he is going to have his wolfman kill them one-by-one. For the time being, however, he administers an antidote that transforms Petro back to normal; Petro remembers nothing.

The following night, Cameron injects Petro again and sends him into the swamp. As a wolfman, he enters a nearby home and kills a little girl. Hearing about the child's death, Cameron knows his formulation works. Because of this, he proceeds to eliminate his former colleagues. He begins by setting up elaborate encounters in which Petro, left alone with each scientist, makes his wolfman transformation. The more times this happens, however, the more unpredictable Petro becomes while killing them.

Cameron's daughter Lenora is romantically involved with Tom Gregory, a newspaper reporter investigating the death of the little girl. As the professors are killed, Gregory begins to suspect that Cameron is behind the murders.

The principals arrive at the Cameron home as a large thunderstorm begins. A bolt of lightning suddenly strikes, setting Cameron's laboratory on fire. Lenora and Tom encounter an agitated Petro, now in his wolfman form, but are able to escape from the spreading fire. The transformed Petro suddenly turns on Cameron and kills him as the raging fire brings down the house on both of them.

Cast & Crew

Johnny Downs as Tom Gregory
George Zucco as Dr. Lorenzo Cameron
Anne Nagel as Lenora Cameron
Glenn Strange as Petro
Sarah Padden as Grandmother
Gordon De Main as Prof. Fitzgerald
Mae Busch as Susan
Reginald Barlow as Prof. Warwick
Robert Strange as Prof. Blaine
Henry Hall as Country Doctor
Ed Cassidy as Father
Eddie Holden as Jed Harper
John Elliott as Prof. Hatfield
Slim Whitaker as Policeman
Gil Patric as Lieutenant Detective

Directed by: Sam Newfield
Screenplay by: Fred Myton
Produced by: Sigmund Neufeld
Starring: Johnny Downs, George Zucco, Anne Nagel, Reginald Barlow
Cinematography: Jack Greenhalgh
Edited by: Holbrook N. Todd
Music by: David Chudnow
Production Company: Producers Releasing Corporation
Distributed by: Producers Releasing Corporation
Release Date: May 15, 1942
Running Time: 77 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English