Man Made Monster

Man-Made Monster

So this is one of my collection that I haven't seen the full movie for, and I haven't actually watch the digest either. I got a big collection awhile back but haven't gotten around to checking them all out.

That being said, with a title like 'Man-Made Monster', I suspect they were trying to make it sound more Frankenstein-esque. according to the Opening credits, It was based on a story called the Electric Man, which is more descriptive, and I think just as cool. But Frankenstein was the most popular movie monster of the time, so whatever.  It stars Lon Cheney Jr, and is Directed by George WaGGner. These two worked together on the "Wolfman" so I figure that makes them the DiNiro-Scoressee of the Universal Horror set.

So the Movie:
It starts with a bus crash where Lon is the only survivor, the others dying of electrocution since the bus hit some electric poles. Coincidentally, Lon is Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man, a side show performer who does simple electricity tricks. some old scientist hires him for some experiments with another scientist. oh, and there's a dog.

So Mad scientist 2 without old mad scientist type 1, straps Lon to a table and zaps him with some large number of Volt and Lon starts to Glow. Lon is also under the Mad Scientist control. how electrocution and Hypnosis are related, I have no Idea.

So Old Scientist shows up and is horrified. Apparently being a mad scientist type doesn't make you a mad scientist, but live and learn. So mad scientist tells Lon to stop Old Scientist from calling the police. and Mad scientist is horrified when Lon kills Old Scientist. What the Hell was Mad Scientist thinking was going to happen. You electrocute a guy and expect him to be delicate. And isn't being a Mad scientist mean you don't mind who gets killed if it stands in the way of your evil plan? Seems like they let anyone be a mad scientist back in those days. pickings must have been pretty slim.

Back to the story, Mad Scientist runs out the door, but because he's holding on to the metal door knob, Lon kills him by grabbing the other side.

And all this time, like 4 or 5 times, they cut to a dog scratching on a door trying to get in. not only does this not drive the story forward, but Old Doc came in one door, Mad Scientist left out another door, Where the hell is this dog? How many doors does this laboratory have?

Anyway, Lon gets out and attacks some folks apparently on a hay ride. the driver gets electrocuted when he hits Lon with a leather horse whip.  Yeah, Scientific laws have already been thrown out the window, so why not just go for broke. the Carriage with all the people goes running out of control and is on fire. OK, that was pretty cool.

And the great climax when the police show up. What heroic action do they do to stop the monster? They stand around and watch him randomly get caught up in a barbwire fence and die. And then the F*ing dog show up. what the hell? there are movies about dogs that don't have that much dog in it.

And another thing. Where were the chicks? were there any in the full movie? These movie always have some chick, Daughter of the mad scientist, Fiance, Plucky reporter, anything. and when there is, we usually see them at some point in the digest. this one, nothing.

Lon was definitely the one hit wonder who kept cranking out albums. Kind on like Vanilla Ice.

Ultimately, these were some wussy mad scientists.

Well, until next movie. and hopefully, that one won't have a dog.

Have Badge, Will Chase

So just finished watching my first film of this project, "Have Badge, Will Chase" with Abbott & Costello. 200'/ Standard 8

First a little background information. The reason I chose this one first is because "Have Badge, Will Chase" is like the cartridge COMBAT to the Atari 2600. It's the film that came with the projector back in the day.

And I should also run down my preference hierarchy for the old comedy teams. The Marx Brothers are at the top, followed by the Three Stooges, who were incredibly good at what they did. Then we get down to Abbott & Costello. Maybe they were good for the time, and they do have some strong bits, but they really do nothing for me, and finally Laurel & Hardy, who I just have a hard time believing anyone found funny ever. ( I have some films of  L & H, I'll get to those in weeks to come.)

On to the Movie:

I don't know if this was a short, or part of a bigger movie, but at least I was able to follow the story, what there was of it. A & C were actors dressed as cops, who walked in on a real robbery. It was all just a throwback to the Keystone Kops and was just, as you could probably figure from the title, just a big chase scene. One of the weird thing is that A & C weren't even on the main vehicle doing the chasing. While the Paddy-wagon chased the villains in Keystone fashion, A & C were chasing behind on a motorcycle.

I'm not sure when the movie was made, so it's hard to say how far from the original Keystone Kops they were, but I do know A & C were way past Keystone Kops time.

Other interesting things to note is in the beginning,  Lou just standing there watching the one of the thieves sneaking up behind Bud. Didn't even try to act distracted or anything. And Lou adjusted his hat while unconsciously falling down.

Intro

I am a collector of 8mm films. These are the cartoons, comedy shorts, and feature film digests that were the only way to watch the things you wanted in the 50s, 60s and 70s. I have about 200 titles, and have decided that I'm going to watch every one of them and post my thoughts on them on this blog. I should be able to get through about 3 or 4 a week.

I have purposely acquired a pretty varied selection, trying to get films from all types of genres. I'm a typical Sci-Fi nerd, so I skew pretty heavy that way, but I have made an effort to get a bunch of styles.

These are all silent and nearly all black and white. I have both super-8 and standard 8, but I try to stick with super-8.

Not all of these films are good. In fact, for most of the Feature film digests, if you haven't seen the full movie, these digests are near incomprehensible. You see, These reels of film last only 8 to 12 Minutes. If it's a cartoon or comedy short, that's not that big a deal, but try cutting War & Peace down to 10 minutes, and if you don't know the story, Good luck figuring out what's what.

I'm going to try and do them in no particular order. I mean, to some extent I will. I won't try watching Conquest of the Planet of the Apes before watching Beneath the Planet of the Apes, I might even make a week of all 5 movies, but I'm not going to burn one genre out before another.

So, I prepare for this endeavor and will be starting tomorrow with Abbott & Costello in "Have Badge, Will Chase".