magicshadows-90098 What is wrong with you people? The rating is in the 3's. One idiot says Glenn Strange rips off Lon Chaney Jr. and he can't even spell Chaney. OK we have a kids monster movie from the 1940's. A kids movie, no adult would be caught dead in a theatre watching this in 1942. Today we analyze the plot to infinity about whether this scene was believable etc.... It's a kids monster movie, not Citizen Kane. Suspend your current political correct state of mind and enter a 1940's kids movie. It's fun, trust me.What do we have? We have George Zucco, one of the best raving mad scientists of all time, playing a mad scientist. We have a werewolf unlike any other (that is a good thing). We have rural bumpkins getting torn to pieces. Great. We have Universal's scream queen Anne Nagel making a much appreciated appearance.The idiots who watch MST3K have ridiculed this movie so it must be bad, right? Wrong. Our current society watches endless superhero movies today and praises them as masterpieces. While old movies made for kids are ridiculed. Hmmm... a psychologist could have a field day with that.

bkoganbing Watching this awful film from PRC I kept thinking of Betty Hutton from Star Spangled Rhythm saying she was doing it all for defense in that all star wartime flag waver from Paramount. Though George Zucco's mad scientist is far from Betty Hutton, even mad scientists are entitled to be patriotic and contribute what they can to defeat the Axis.Zucco's idea is to create an army of werewolves and by injecting wolf's blood into his farm hand Glenn Strange and creating a prototype werewolf. As for Strange when he's not being a werewolf he's a simple soul, in fact a complete ripoff of Lon Chaney, Jr. in Of Mice And Men. All he needed was the rabbits.For those colleagues who called him mad Zucco is setting Strange on them when he's in werewolf mode. All this is disturbing to Zucco's daughter Anne Nagel and her boyfriend Johnny Downs who happens to be a reporter. Boy does he get the scoop of the year.Even Zucco who had these mad scientist roles down pat in these grade Z films couldn't summon enough energy for a real performance. He did chew the scenery a lot just to keep the audience awake.This sounds more like a scheme he could have sold the Nazis.

Prichards12345 George Zucco was a fine actor, often playing gimlet-eyed villains with a lascivious intensity. However even he couldn't save this dull and flat-footed B flick.Zucco plays the usual mad scientist, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, who believes that wolf's blood, injected into humans, can create an invincible army of wolf men who can win the World War II (go figure!) Experimenting on Pedro the handyman(Glenn Strange) Zucco creates a werewolf that looks rather like the ones Dave Allen used to play in his comedy sketches! Pedro is obviously based on Lennie from Of Mice And Men, and you almost keep expecting him to say "Duh, okay, George!" There's one startling moment when the werewolf kills a child by reaching in through the window and grabbing it, but for the most part this is a routine and pedestrian - very pedestrian - 77 minute tread through all the old clichés that are done far better in other movies.We also get the revenge motif from the Devil Bat worked in, in itself a borrowing from Son Of Frankenstein!Zucco is wasted, and you only have to see him in films such as Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, The Mummy's Hand and Dr. Renault's Secret to see how wasted. A few atmospheric swamp scenes are all it has to offer, really. And the scene where Zucco demonstrates his wolf-man technique to those who doubted him (again shades of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde) is unintentionally hilarious.Not one of the better 40s B movies.

wes-connors "Dr. Cameron, a discredited scientist succeeds with his experiment in creating serum the transforms men into wolf-like creatures. Originally developing this formula to help the world, the scientist decides to use his newly created subject to exact revenge upon the scientists who were responsible for his ouster from the scientific community. The scientist's daughter Lenora grows wary of her father's actions and shares her suspicions with a newspaper reporter. When the scientist loses control of his creature, it falls upon the scientist's daughter and the reporter to stop it," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Mad scientist George Zucco (as Lorenzo Cameron) creates his formula rather unimaginatively, by mixing human and wolf blood. This brings the beast out in hulking Glenn Strange (as Petro aka Pedro), who is directed to act like Lon Chaney Jr. in "Of Mice and Men". Johnny Downs (as Tom Gregory) and Anna Nagel (as Lenora Cameron) are a likable werewolf hunter and damsel in distress. Certainly, "The Mad Monster" is no substitute for "The Wolf Man"; but, it's a serviceable addendum. The grainy black-and-white photography enhances the foggy, cow-webbed atmosphere. "God" (uncredited) strikes up a well-done ending, too. Like Blaine (Robert Strange) said, "Mingling the blood of man and beast is downright sacrilege!" **** The Mad Monster (1942) Sam Newfield ~ George Zucco, Johnny Downs, Anna Nagel