utgard14 Mad scientist Lionel Atwill is at it again. This time he's run out of San Francisco for performing experiments that involve killing people so he can bring them back to life. He eventually makes his way to a tropical island where he uses his scientific abilities to fool the natives into thinking he has the power of resurrection. Minor Universal horror film is still enjoyable. Lionel Atwill is great as always. He's got some nice support from the likes of Noble Johnson, Claire Dodd, and John Eldredge. Nat Pendleton and cutie Una Merkel provide the comic relief. It's not a classic but any movie where Atwill plays a villain, especially a mad scientist, is worth checking out.

Scarecrow-88 THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET sadly marks the end to Lionel Atwill as a major star in Universal horror(and film in general)due to a sex scandal. I won't dwell on those details, instead focusing on his attributes as they pertain to THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET. He's the whole show in this rather mediocre island mad scientist thriller as the diabolical antics of Atwill's crazed, narcissistic Dr. Ralph Benson put the lives of stranded passengers in danger as the restless, superstitious natives consider him a "god of life" when he heals one of their own, a woman who had a heart attack. Benson pretends he brought this woman back from the dead and is heralded by the jungle natives who grant him all the amenities he so desires, living it up as a king, his own hut, and the ability to command the other passengers out of the village until he wishes to experiment on them in regards to suspended animation. Benson was a fugitive on the lam(his experiment led to the death of a human guinea pig), having boarded a cruise for another country. Benson causes a fire on the liner, resulting in everyone on board having to leave the ship. He boards a canoe with Aunt Margaret(Una Merkel), who expected to marry a wealthy man in Australia, her niece, Patricia(Claire Dodd), a boxer preparing for a big fight(Nat Pendleton, playing his character as if he had been hit in the head a few too many times in the ring), and two members of the cruise's crew, Jim(Richard Davies)and Dwight(John Eldridge). They must determine how to get off the island as Benson has become power mad, with designs on marriage with Patricia and experimenting on the men of the group. Atwill was always adept at portraying crazy-eyed scientists who besmirched anyone that attempted to defy him, taking advantage of the weak and vulnerable, as was the case in this film as he promised to pay his subject 1000 dollars to the man's family in exchange for his willingness to volunteer for his suspended animation experiment. The title is a bit misleading as I imagine many, like I was, will enter the film expecting a mad scientist performing his experiments on innocents in and around his laboratory on Market Street. Then the movie's plot moves to the luxury liner where we are led to believe that Benson may prey on passengers while on the cruise. And finally the film shifts to the island paradise where Benson uses the backwards customs and beliefs of natives to his advantage, later paying the price when Jim finds a dead primitive, orchestrating a revolt if the mad doctor can not revive him. It's a shame that Atwill's career, like so many other treasures icons of Universal horror, would end so badly, but we can always return to his films time and again, relishing his colorful madmen, scientists, and village policemen. His presence, no matter how small the part, always caught my attentiom, as I imagine it did to many of his other fans as well.

Prichards12345 This B pic from Universal is not really a horror film, has only a brief opening sequence in Market Street (by far the best part of the movie), and is virtually carried by Lionel Atwill across the finishing line. He's the only thing worth watching in this rather nonsensical film that went out as support to The Wolf Man.Atwill plays Dr. Ralph Benson, who bribes a struggling family man into submitting to a suspended animation experiment, only for the police to burst in to discover the patient dead, and the Mad Doctor (helpfully named as such by a radio announcer!) absconded though an open window, a somewhat remarkable feat for the portly Lionel! Such is the clumsiness of the movie that we're not really sure if the patient could have been revived, or if he has been murdered by Benson - particularly as later on Benson seems to be able to make his process work.Escaping the police, our Mad Doc flees the country in a luxury liner, finding time to push a police agent hunting him over the side! He's no lottery winner that's for sure, as the ship promptly catches fire forcing him to make for the lifeboats. He and some of his fellow passengers - including the compulsory love interests and comic relief types - wash up on a tropical island inhabited by some very peculiar 1940s natives.Atwill quickly takes charge of the situation, posing as The God Of Life by reviving a heart attack victim with an adrenalin shot! The islanders now his willing slaves, he decides to proceed with his dastardly experiments...Apart from the opening scene in Market Street this is a film with little atmosphere, even the familiar Son Of Frankenstein music, used countless times by Universal in the 40s, fails to enliven the proceedings. A few location stock shots are complimented by a fair number of back-projection scenes on the island. The natives all look like they wandered in from Mutiny On The Bounty.In all honesty this isn't a very good movie even by B standards. The comic relief is irritating in the form of Una Merkle and Nat Pendleton and the rest of the characters are briefly sketched stereotypes - even Benson is a bit of a poor specimen of a mad scientist. Lionel Atwill makes the most of it, however, resulting in a performance that's a delight to watch. This is a film that's rarely revived though, and is really for Atwill completists only. It might pass a slow hour on a Sunday afternoon.

MARIO GAUCI As some of you may know, for the longest time I was only familiar with the more popular of the classic Universal horror/sci-fi films; recently, however, I managed to get my hands on a number of their lesser and/or non-monster outings – needless to say, few if any of these proved as rewarding in the long run…though they were never less than entertaining, something which the vintage Hollywood product could always be relied upon to deliver.This, then, marks Lionel Atwill’s last starring role as a result of his fall from grace in a trial which exposed scandalous behavior in private – and which would subsequently relegate him to Poverty Row or virtually nothing parts in Universal chillers! In any case, he gives the titular role his all – in fact, I don’t think I’d seen Atwill being so arrogant (spouting lines such as “I’ll be the most important man to have ever walked the earth” with complete immodesty, as if it was second nature to him!) and wild-eyed since the delightfully Pre-Code MURDERS IN THE ZOO (1933). Incidentally, I may be attributing undue importance to the fact but I wonder whether the script intended to give his character’s ‘control’ over death a religious undertone – at one point, Atwill mentions that he’ll be able to bring back to life someone who’d been dead for three days (a reference to Jesus Christ?), while the unwilling ‘guinea pig’ hero is buried in the rocks and the entrance to the tomb covered by a huge stone (as we’re told in the Bible that Lazarus was)…!Not knowing all that much about the film beforehand, I was surprised to see this turn out to be more of a jungle adventure (especially given the title) – following the opening moments set in the city and a brief stint on board ship which, pretty soon, ends up submerged and the only six survivors eventually land on a tropical isle. Atwill is a “pseudo-doctor” whose notorious experiments with suspended animation (recalling the Boris Karloff vehicle THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES [1940]) has landed him in professional disrepute, not to mention in hot water with the Law – I’m sure the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on the beleaguered actor!; anyway, he flees on a cruise-liner traveling all the way to New Zealand and, as I said, ends up ashore in uncharted territory with a bunch of other passengers. This doesn’t stop him from continuing his experiments (for one thing, finding the locals convenient and gullible subjects) – actually, he’d been traveling incognito but, when the native leader’s woman goes into a coma from a heart attack, he can’t resist impressing them with his life-giving ‘magic’…after which they name him “God Of Life” and, naturally, he appoints himself there and then supreme ruler of the island (these obvious Fascist attributes more than anything expose it as a product of the war years)! The film falls into a category best described as comedy-horror or, if you like, horror comic; neither element is really all that successful – though the former (provided by Una Merkel, top-billed despite her character being clearly of secondary interest[!], and Nat Pendleton) isn’t overly intrusive, the latter is too familiar to generate much suspense…while the jungle setting eschews the fog-laden atmosphere usually representing the ‘in-house’ Universal style! The remaining members from the civilized world are a selfish ship’s officer who leaves the others behind when attempting to flee the isle in a canoe – only to be killed by a native, and the obligatory romantic couple (Merkel’s niece and another former crew member of the sunken liner) – typically, the two had gotten off on the wrong foot but are slowly drawn together…especially after Atwill is persuaded into taking a wife by the native woman he ‘resuscitated’ and, naturally, singles out the heroine for this role. By the way, the film’s biggest laugh is an unintentional one: during Atwill and Claire Dodd’s marriage, following the native custom, some doubt is deliberately thrown by his companions on the unethical activity he leads, which causes the celebrations to cease abruptly – at which, perplexed, Atwill asks the native leader to order his men to “dance…or something” (as delivered by the actor in his inimitable high-strung fashion, it not only shows all too clearly the character’s disdain of their lot but definitely edges the film into camp territory; I know I couldn’t stop giggling for a good five minutes afterwards!).His status on the island takes further beating when the native who killed the escaping officer also turns up dead; the hero – belatedly introducing himself as being well versed in medicine himself (a plot point so contrived as to smack of lazy scripting!) – knows that Atwill’s miracles were performed on people who only had the semblance of death, so that he’ll never be able to reap results in this particular case (though, up until this time, it was never intimated that he could be a charlatan but rather came across as typically misguided but genuinely obsessed!) and the natives will turn on him as a result…which they do in a fiery climax that barely registers (incidentally, some rather important exposition in the fast-paced 61-minute film is entirely by-passed or taken for granted). Tying with my comments about the same director’s CRIMINALS WITHIN (1943), which I’ve also just watched, Lewis’ hand is apparent here via his choice of odd angles on a number of occasions (though the shot of an intense Atwill approaching the camera, holding a chloroformed cloth to subdue an intended victim, is unfortunately diluted through sheer repetition!). By the way, the music for the film – credited solely to “Musical Director” Hans J. Salter – includes recognizable cues from Frank Skinner’s classic SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) score (Universal shamelessly, and habitually, re-cycled these…as hardened genre fans are surely aware!).