ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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.

fwdixon For an obscure werewolf "B" movie, it's hard to beat PRC's 1942 epic, "The Mad Monster". George Zucco is a mad scientist extracting wolf DNA and injecting it into half-wit yokel Glenn Strange, thereby turning him into a werewolf. Strange makes a pretty good werewolf but when not in the throes of lycanthropy, he seems to think he's Lenny from "Of Mice and Men". Anyhow, Zucco uses Strange to bump off several scientists who had ridiculed him in the past and caused him to resign his position in disgrace. The movie moves along at a pretty brisk pace up to the end when Zucco gets strangled by Strange and Strange perishes in a conflagration cause by lightning. Typical PRC production standards except for the werewolf transition scene, which, while not up to Universal standards, ain't bad.

mark.waltz A scientist (George Zucco) wants to create wolf men out of American soldiers to fight the Nazis, but is branded as mad. He uses a simpleton gardener (Glenn Strange) to experiment on by mixing his blood with the blood of a wolf. Strange, constantly embedding his dialogue with the tones of Lon Chaney Jr. in "Of Mice and Men", has no idea what's going on, only that he sleepwalks. The victims begin to pile up (including a little girl, which modern viewers might find rather disturbing, and two of Zucco's rivals). There is some good dialogue on how man should not mess with nature (still prevalent today) and play God. Zucco's motives may be honorable, but his methods are most questionable. And then there is his daughter, Anne Nagel, who is sympathetically nice to Strange, yet has no idea of her father's deeds. Johnny Downs is a reporter who gets on Zucco's bad side by questioning him, but wins Nagel's heart, thus creating the usual and always dull romantic subplot in classic horror films. At 77 minutes, this is about 15 minutes longer than usual for a horror film of the early 40's (particularly one out of PRC, who released this one), so the romantic story could have been trimmed for costs and to speed things up a bit. Zucco, fortunately, is never hammy; He left that to Bela Lugosi (who always hammed in a deliciously theatrical manner which endeared him to audiences) and England's Todd Slaughter. But try not to think of "Bride of the Monster's" laboratory while looking at the one Zucco works in, or some of Lugosi's dialogue in that now classic cult film. "Mad Monster" lacks a cult following more because it is not delightfully bad, just has dull pacing in more than a few spots. For PRC and Monogram lovers, I would recommend "The Corpse Vanishes" or "Fog Island" higher than this.

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