John Carradine plays a scientist, Drury, who has perfected an invisible serum, though it has no relation to the work that the Griffin family was working on in previous films. We are introduced to him when an escaped psychotic murderer, Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) – no relation escapes to the U.K. It seems that he’s…
Tag: mad scientist
The Venom Business (1969) – Michael Crichton
I dove into Michael Crichton’s next book, The Venom Business, as I work through his bibliography. This one took me a while to actually get into. There’s a bit of a convoluted plot for the first half of the book inundated with the parties and happenings of a swinging London where everyone, apparently, is over-sexed,…
The Jungle Captive (1945) -Harold Young
The next title in DK Canada’s brilliantly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies, is a sequel to the last film I watched from the book, Captive Wild Woman. Once again a mad scientist, Stendahl (Otto Kruger) experiments on a monstrous ape (the name of the chapter I’m in, and supposedly is the same creature from Captive…
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) – Robert Florey
Bela Lugosi, with the horrible addition of a unibrow, terrorises unsuspecting Paris in the next stop in the Monstrous Apes chapter of DK Canada’s brilliant Monsters in the Movies book. Based on the classic short story by Edgar Allen Poe, the tale focuses on an evolution obsessed mad scientist, Dr. Mirakle (Lugosi) and the object…
Revenge of the Zombies (1943) – Steve Sekely
Not all zombie movies are going to be winners, and I realize that as I continue to explore the dark recesses of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book, and its chapter on zombies. This feature from 1943 is too short (and still feels too long) and doesn’t have a lot going for it, despite…
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) – John S. Robertson
No visit to DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book chapter on mad scientists would be complete without renewing one’s acquaintance with one of the other men of science who fell to their studies, the infamous Dr. Jekyll. This silent film, using Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novel to inspire its tale, features John Barrymore in…
Frankenstein (1910) – J. Searle Dawley
The mad scientist chapter of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book would be remiss if it didn’t cite one of the most deranged men of science ever created, Frankenstein. And what better way to celebrate than look at the first filmed version of the story created by Edison Studios back in 1910. Using Mary…
Splice (2009) – Vincenzo Natali
The next title in DK Canada’s Minsters in the Movies book, as I continue my way through the chapter on mad scientists is Splice, starring Adrien Brody and the always exemplary Sarah Polley. This film is very much the mad scientist take on parenting with all the mistakes and the oedipal complexes taken to a…
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) – Joe Dante
Is the mad scientist behind the camera or in front of it in this, the next film to be recommended by DK Canada’s highly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book? Joe Dante, the film’s director has always seemed wonderfully mad, his love of Looney Tune cartoons, and wacky humor always makes his films enjoyable from…
Altered States (1980) – Ken Russell
William Hurt is on the search for the purest truth, and that, in this case, places him squarely in the mad scientist chapter of DK Canada’s very enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Eddie Jessup (Hurt) is a scientist seeking the ultimate truth, and finds himself experimenting with isolation chambers and a ritualistic, possibly hallucinogenic…
The Mind Reels 