Créateur de monstres

This is a fairly good entertaining film concerning a conceited mad scientist named Dr. Igor Markoff.

Dr. Igor falls for a woman named Patricia who resembles his dead wife. Patricia rejects the doctor's advances and enlists her father (Anthony) to help stop the doctor from coming on so strong to her. Dr. Igor insists that Patricia marries him and will stop at nothing for her to become his new bride. Surprisingly, the doctor is actually well respected in the medical community and hides his wicked ways well from others. Dr. Igor hides the fact he will inject his enemies with Acromegaly to get what he wants.

The movie is fun, a bit corny and has some fairly good horror moments in it. This is a good afternoon film - it's not the really good creepy horror film that is good for a late night viewing but it's fun to watch.

5/10

"The Monster Maker" was one of the better products produced by poverty row studio PRC in the 1940s. Directed by the "busiest director on poverty row", Sam Newfield, it benefits from the casting of veteran character actors J. Carroll Naish and Ralph Morgan in the leading roles.

Anthony Lawrence (Morgan) is a successful concert pianist whose daughter Patricia (Wanda McKay) just happens to resemble the deceased wife of Dr. Igor Markoff (Naish). Markoff sees Patricia, whom he vows to marry, while attending a Lawrence concert with his assistant Maxine (Tala Birtell), who of course is in love with him. The evil doctor has been working on a cure for the rare disease of acromeglia (I may have the spelling wrong), a dehabilitating disorder which causes extreme swelling of the feet, hands and face.

When Lawrence comes to see Markoff about his advances toward his daughter, Markoff knocks out the pianist and injects him with the aforementioned disease. Lawrence slowly develops the disease and takes on a grotesque appearance. This forces Patricia to come to the mad doctor for help.

Ralph Morgan's make up is very good for a "B" movie, in fact it was done by the same person (whose name escapes me) who "aged" Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane" (1941). Naish plays his mad scientist role with conviction and the under rated Morgan is excellent as the tragic Lawrence. Birell is better than her material as the scorned Maxine. McKay looks lovely as the heroine and Terry Frost has little to do as the token hero Bob Baker. Also in the cast is veteran heavy Glenn Strange as Naish's brutish assistant. There's also a gorilla and a faithful dog in the cast but they have little to do with the story.

One of the better "B" mad doctor films.

Sam Newfield had several parts in his long career: first part, the thirties, mostly grade Z westerns, all of them forgettable, with the exception of TERROR OF TINY TOWN; then he made horror films in the forties, his most interesting part for the movie buffs, little cult movies such as MONSTER MAKER, MAD MONSTER, NABONGA, DEAD MEN WALK, BLACK RAVEN, FLYING SERPENT. All very interesting cheap productions but very agreeable to watch, very well made for such a prolific grade Z director, the most famous, regarding of the quantity which most of the time neglected quality. But not here, as were MAD MONSTER and so on. Even some of his latest westerns, helped by bigger budgets, were worth the watch. Here J Caroll Naish is excellent as the mad scientist, better than a Bela Lugosi or a George Zucco. Sam Newfield also made good little crime films, don't forget it.

This is one of those films that's entertaining for its sheer audacity. It also has an unusually interesting cast for a small-studio B-picture. J. Carroll Naish (as the evil Dr. Markoff) and Ralph Morgan (as victim Anthony Lawrence) were veteran character actors who were always worth watching, and Glenn Strange (as Steve, Markoff's giant-size henchman) would be promoted that same year to playing the Frankenstein Monster in the first of three films for Universal.

This professional cast tries to lend believability to several ludicrous situations. At one point Markoff attempts to put his nervous female assistant under a Svengali-like hypnotic influence; when this fails, Markoff turns loose his pet gorilla (!) in the hope that the beast will kill the beauty, though all it does is overturn a table.

Some critics have found this film particularly distasteful since it deals with acromegaly, an actual disfiguring disease (see the bio for actor Rondo Hatton elsewhere on this data base). And the sight of the malformed Mr. Lawrence (when his daughter suddenly enters a darkened room) is certainly an unforgettable jolt.

The evil Dr. Markoff (J. Carrol Naish), is a scientist experimenting with a cure for the rare disfiguring disease acromegaly (which cult actor Rondo Hatton, "The Brute Man" suffered from in real life). At a concert by pianist Anthony Lawrence (Ralph Morgan) he sees a beautiful girl who reminds him of his late wife. Backstage he discovers that she is Lawrence's daughter Patricia (Wanda McKay). He sets out to woo her, but after she spurns his advances he deliberately infects her father with acromegaly with the plan of forcing him to "give" his daughter to him in return for a cure. I really enjoyed this nasty b-grade thriller. It was obviously made on a tiny budget, the script is pretty dumb and the acting is variable, but I got a kick out of how twisted the central premise was, and Naish was extremely entertaining as Markoff. McKay's cute, future Frankenstein's monster Glenn Strange is one of the supporting cast, AND there's a guy in a gorilla suit, always a sign of a silly but fun movie in my book. 'The Monster Maker' is recommended to fans of old school "bad" b-grade horror movies.