Man Made Monster

Plot

A tragic accident occurs when a bus hits a high power line. The incident has claimed the lives of all on board, except for one Dan McCormick (Lon Chaney, Jr.), who survives because he is, surprisingly, immune to the deadly electricity. McCormick does a sideshow exhibit as Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man and is taken in by Dr. John Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds), who wants to study him. Dr. Lawrence's colleague, mad scientist Dr. Paul Rigas (Lionel Atwill) has something else in mind, though. He wants to create an army of electrobiologically-driven zombies. He gives McCormick progressively higher doses of electricity until his mind is ruined and left dependent on the addicting electrical charges. This temporarily gives McCormick the touch of death, making him capable of killing anyone he touches by electrocution. After accidentally killing Lawrence, Rigas insures McCormick's conviction to see what will happen if he is sent to the electric chair. McCormick survives, and with a super charge in his glowing body he kills several people, including Rigas, before running out of electricity and dying.

Production

Back in 1936, Boris Karloff was originally selected to play the role of Dan McCormick with Bela Lugosi to appear as Dr. Rigas. This earlier version of the film, which was titled The Electric Man, ended up being scrapped by the studio because the concept was too similar to another Karloff/Lugosi movie, The Invisible Ray. The script was then shelved for the next four years before being revived in 1940 under new management at Universal.

When Man-Made Monster finally went into production, it was considered by the studio to be a quick, low-budget affair. Shot in three weeks and with an estimated budget of only $86,000, it was one of the cheapest films made by Universal of that year. However, despite these limitations, the filmmakers were still able to achieve some impressive effects, including one that made Lon Chaney appear to glow in the dark.

Reception

Even though it was only a minor box office success, Man-Made Monster proved to be instrumental for Lon Chaney's career, as his performance in the lead role helped him win a contract with Universal. While promoting their new star, Universal's publicity department hinted that history was possibly repeating itself, noting that Chaney's first major horror movie role was shot on the same set that was used for his father's well-known production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Distribution

In the 1950s, Realart Pictures re-released the film, changing the title to The Atomic Monster in order to take advantage of the latest craze in science fiction and atomic age story lines. This new title, according to writer-producer Alex Gordon, was taken from a spec script he submitted to Realart which had the same name. He sent his attorney Samuel Z. Arkoff to meet the Realart representative James H. Nicholson to discuss the matter. The meeting netted Gordon a quick $1,000 settlement for copyright infringement, but more importantly, the meeting led Gordon, Arkoff, and Nicholson to form their own film company that eventually became American International Pictures.