Créateur de monstres

"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.

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.

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

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!

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.