Créateur de monstres

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.

I've seen The Monster Maker a couple of times and found it quite enjoyable, despite reading bad reviews about it.

A mad scientist falls in love with a pianist's daughter when he sees her at one of her dad's concerts. After he goes round to the scientist's home one night to tell him to stop sending her flowers, he knocks him out and injects him with a fluid that will give him a disease of the glands and turn him into a monster. He gradually turns over a period of time and goes back to this mad scientist after his doctor recommend him as he has a cure for this disease. Back at the scientist's home, the scientist straps him to a bed and will only give him a cure if his daughter agrees to marry him. The pianist's daughter's lover turns up and kills the mad scientist and the pianist is given the fluid that will cure him by the scientist's assistant and makes a full recovery.

In the mad scientist's laboratory, we get to see a pig that he has been experimenting on, a dog and, best of all, a gorilla (a man in a gorilla suit), which tries to kill the scientist's assistant.

There several familiar faces in the cast in this movie: J Carrol Naish (House of Frankenstein), Ralph Morgan (Night Monster) and Glenn Strange (House of Dracula). Also in the cast are Wanda McKay, Tala Birell and Terry Frost.

The Monster Maker is a must for all sci-fi/horror fans. Great fun.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

"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.

Very cheap but hugely enjoyable 40's horror with above-average acting performances and a surprisingly well-written script. In case you too are a fan of those typically 40's low budget flicks revolving on mad scientists, you have to see "The Monster Maker" as J. Carrol Naish portrays one of the most dangerously insane men of science ever!! Well, maybe along with George Zucco in "The Mad Monster"… Naish, obviously imitating Bela Lugosi, is a doctor who enjoys infecting people with the acromegaly-disease (which makes them look kind of like "The Elephant Man"), simply because he's the only one who found a cure for it. He really goes out of his mind when he contaminates the eminent pianist Anthony Lawrence in order to get close to his beautiful doctor, Patricia. Is it just my impression, or are all mad scientists actually sad romanticists? The structure and plot are fairly standard but this film especially gets itself noticed because of the brutality! There are a couple of shocking images (the revelation of Lawrence's horribly deformed face) and Naish character is a really evil and relentless man! Considering the time it was made, "The Monster Maker" is quite a nasty horror film that shamelessly tries to outdo the famous Universal monster-classics. Oh, the guy inside the hilariously fake gorilla suit is a blast!

Considering the pedigree and title, the flick's not all that bad. In fact, it's well-mounted for it's type. There's good attention to set detail though lighting doesn't emphasize the dark mood. Seems poor Dr. Markoff is trying to find a cure for acromegaly which causes head and hand deformities that killed his beloved wife. Trouble is he needs a patient to research on. So he infects concert pianist Lawrence with the disease so he can both experiment with him and get next to the pianist's attractive daughter Patricia who strongly resembles his dead wife. Needless to say, complications ensue.

Except for the hokey gorilla sequences, the storyline manages to be fairly plausible for its kind. After all, Markoff is driven by understandable desires even though he victimizes Lawrence in the process. Naish is quite good as Markoff, along with Birell as his unrequited but loyal nurse Maxine. Together, they, rather than the good guys, establish the story's emotional center. Anyway, it's a better-than-average horror programmer from lowly PRC.