Man Made Monster (1941)
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38% of users liked it
(177 ratings)
Originally slated as a Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi vehicle, Man Made Monster emerged on screen as a tour de force for Lon Chaney Jr. (in his first horror-film starring role) and Lionel Atwill. Chaney plays Dynamo Dan the Electric Man, a sideshow performer whose talent for absorbing mass quantities of… More Originally slated as a Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi vehicle, Man Made Monster emerged on screen as a tour de force for Lon Chaney Jr. (in his first horror-film starring role) and Lionel Atwill. Chaney plays Dynamo Dan the Electric Man, a sideshow performer whose talent for absorbing mass quantities of electricity enables him to emerge virtually unscathed when a bus crashes into a pylon. Dan recuperates in the home of Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill), a demented scientist ("Mad? Of course I'm mad!") who hopes to create a race of electric-powered supermen. Using Dan as his unwitting guinea pig, Rigas zaps the poor man's energy even as he injects more and more electricity into his system. Suspecting something is amiss when rabbits and goldfish die suddenly at his touch, Dan nonetheless continues to submit to Rigas' treatment. When the doctor's colleague Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) figures out what's going on, he confronts Rigas with a "You're mad! I'm going to notify the police!"-whereupon Rigas picks up his cue by ordering the now-zombiefied Dan to kill Lawrence and confess to the murder. The unfortunate fellow is convicted and sentenced to the electric chair, much to the delight of Rigas, who can now put his theories to the ultimate test. Surviving the death-house jolt, Dan absorbs the entire electrical current and becomes a walking, glowing human power plant, killing the warden and the guards and escaping into the countryside. Slowly dying, Dan finally regains a shred of his humanity by rescuing heroine June Lawrence (Anne Nagel) from the clutches of Regas, then puts a permanent end to the mad doctor's evil designs before spectacularly expiring himself. A prime example of Universal's B-picture unit at its peak, Man Made Monster is among the finest of the studio's second-echelon horror product. The film was re-released in the late 1940s under the timely cognomen The Atomic Monster. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- George Waggner
- Genres
- Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror
- In Theaters
- Mar 28, 1941 Wide
- On DVD
- Aug 3, 1994
Critic Reviews
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Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Every aspect of Man Made Monster is perfect for what it sets out to be.
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Cast
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Lionel Atwill
as Dr. Rigas
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Lon Chaney Jr
as Dan McCormick
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Anne Nagel
as June Lawrence
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Frank Albertson
as Mark Adams
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Samuel S. Hinds
as Dr. Lawrence
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Ben Taggart
as Detective Sergeant
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Ivan Miller
as Doctor
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Chester Gan
as Chinese Boy
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John Dilson
as Medical Examiner
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Byron Foulger
as 2nd Alienist
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Russell Hicks
as Warden
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Constance Bergen
as Nurse
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William B. Davidson
as District Attorney
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Douglas Evans
as Allen
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George Meader
as Dr. Bruno
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Frank O'Connor
as Detective