How to Make a Monster (1958).

Review #2274: How to Make a Monster.

Cast: 

Robert H. Harris (Pete Dumond), Gary Conway (Tony Mantell / the Teenage Frankenstein), Gary Clarke (Larry Drake / the Teenage Werewolf), Paul Brinegar (Rivero), Malcolm Atterbury (Security Guard Richards), Dennis Cross (Security Guard Monahan), Morris Ankrum (Police Capt. Hancock), Walter Reed (Detective Thompson), and Paul Maxwell (Jeffrey Clayton) Directed by Herbert L. Strock (#2097 - Blood of Dracula and #2098 - I Was a Teenage Frankenstein)

Review: 

It is pretty interesting to get to a film that is technically related to other movies. 1957 had seen the release of a handful of features dedicated to teenagers and monsters. It started with I Was a Teenage Werewolf, which came out in the summer before the release of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula as a double feature in November 1957. Each one saw a teen turned into a monster due to the efforts of adults for some sort of weird purpose. Now, with this film (released in July of 1958) we have another film about monsters and nefarious purposes as directed by Herbert L. Strock, who had directed two of those aforementioned films. As was before with the other films, the screenplay was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel while Cohen served as a producer. Supposedly, as claimed by Ed Wood, the film was a rip-off of a script he had sent to AIP (involving a killer actor), although the idea of Wood crying foul at a rip-off of his stuff is actually amusing to me. Strock would direct just three more features after this one, spending most of his time doing television along with editing and producing. The last couple of minutes, as one might have already seen from promotional stuff, does show some masks in color (the same trick as done in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein), which were designed by Paul Blaisdell for previous films such as It Conquered the World (1956), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), and The She-Creature (1956). Conway, who had played the title threat in the Frankenstein film, is the one other link to the films here, as done by American International Pictures.

Really this is just a backstage murder procedural that happens to have a lead-in that you'll get to see a few masks. One wonders just if Jack Pierce came to mind when it comes to the script or the performance of Harris for an underappreciated effects man as the lead character. It is the kind of movie that has a clear appreciation for cheap horror and the people who obsessed over the craft. It is amusing to see a justification of John Ashley (a sometimes regular at AIP) do a song as part of "the times changing", because AIP ended up doing their own music-themed films to go with chasing other trends. Anyway, here's a movie involving special makeup cream that can leave one to the power of suggestion while people are dressed up and you have a guy calling his masks his "children". Honestly, I dug it, particularly from Harris, who seems to be having quite the time in fruitful obsession that believes going from fired to murder is totally normal, and he sure sells that nuttiness on point. It is the portrait of a man in delusion of the starkest kind: their craft. Conway and Clarke might not get much to do beside be in makeup, but they make worthy puppets to sell the idea of being ready for suggestion. It is a bit funny to see the ones who get wrapped up as targets for the monsters, because one of them gets the boot mostly because they are too savvy in crime cliches. Trhe climax works out well for those who like to gawk for curiosity at masks and silly souped-up resolutions (the AIP way). In general, this is about on par for decent AIP entertainment in giving you what you expect: silly young folks, a few decent makeup shots, and a neat little climax. It exceeds those "Teenage" films on the basis of having the commitment to have a lead performance worth writing more than two bits about for solid average fare. 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.

Review #2098: I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.

Cast: 

Whit Bissell (Professor Frankenstein), Phyllis Coates (Margaret), Robert Burton (Dr. Karlton), Gary Conway (the teenage Frankenstein monster/Bob), George Lynn (Sergeant Burns), John Cliff (Sergeant McAfee), and Marshall Bradford (Dr. Randolph) Directed by Herbert L. Strock.

Review: 

...Well, you already know that Aben Kandel and Herman Cohen wrote the film, because what better way to do a double feature of teenage monsters for the circuit than to have the same writers and director for both films? To be fair to Strock, he had a handful of experience in being efficient with the job required, whether that involved serving in the U.S. Army Ordnance Motion Picture Division or directing television in the 1950s (imagine going from directing Fox Newsreel footage to directing for AIP). How to Make a Monster would be directed by Strock with scripting by Kandel and Cohen that featured the return of the werewolf and Frankenstein makeup that dealt with youth actors (such as Conway) being hypnotized into being tools to kill. Unlike before, we have a film that lessens the teen angst present in the previous two films, because it ventures more into the familiar grounds of eccentric scientists, complete with lines that talk about one having a civil tongue to speak if only because they sewed it themselves and alligator pits. Yes, I am serious. There is a sequence of roughly over a minute in the final moments to show the monster in color after, well, the climax has already happened in a flash. Cohen sure loved his formula of a weary world where teenagers are beaten down in life by adults with cynical motivations of manipulation.

In some ways this serves as the better film of the three teenage monster films, if only because it is too lurid for words in the bold idea of just re-using Bissell in another wonky scientist role that he already did for the aforementioned Werewolf film. Technically speaking, it probably intends just as much interesting sympathy for its begotten teenage monster, mostly because it doesn't have much of a face for all but a fraction of its 74-minute runtime. And yet, the result is the same in another mediocre movie that is not nearly as interesting as it thinks it is when it comes to the horror of monsters in youth because it never passes the line beyond camp to actually generate useful interest for "good" moments. Both Blood of Dracula and this film are rushed, and it shows, but there were other AIP films of past and future that ended up being better than "mediocre" despite being a patch job, so why does this one not pass mustard? Well, I think it is because the film lacks general tension to do anything other than be stuck in one room, and the fact that The Curse of Frankenstein was released by Hammer (in full color!) in the same year this film was released doesn't particularly help its case. At least Bissell is interesting for such a run-over role of trying to sell you on the idea that progress is all that matters when it comes to the human process. Coates is almost amusing in just how much she is devoted to such a flake like Bissell, right up until she meets a dubious end before the climax even gets to happen. Burton wanders in and out and does exactly nothing as an accomplice, go figure. Conway is barely worth mentioning as the monster, mostly because he seems more of a pouting dolt more than anything. I wonder what would have been happened if one had tried to make a film about, say, raising a young Frankenstein with a normal face and weird psychological problems rather than the whole "hiding in the basement" thing. The death scenes in setup are probably the most interesting parts of the film. As a whole, if you've seen Werewolf, you haven't really missed much here besides having more of a goofy scientist rather than the monster. But hey, if you like the AIP circuit, you might find something to go with for a bit.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Blood of Dracula.

Review #2097: Blood of Dracula.

Cast: 

Sandra Harrison (Nancy Perkins), Louise Lewis (Miss Branding), Gail Ganley (Myra), Jerry Blaine (Tab), Heather Ames (Nola), Mary Adams (Mrs. Thorndyke), Edna Holland (Miss Rivers), Thomas B. Henry (Mr. Paul Perkins), Jeanne Dean (Mrs. Doris Perkins), Don Devlin (Eddie), Malcolm Atterbury (Lt. Dunlap), and Richard Devon (Det. Sgt. Stewart) Directed by Herbert L. Strock.

Review: 

It did not take long for American International Pictures to come up with another teenager film involving monsters. I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) was released in June before two further films involving teenage-infused monsters came as a double-feature in November: this film and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. The films were spearheaded by Herman Cohen when it came to production. The Detroit native had worked his way up from a janitor at a movie theater when he was 12 to running it by the time he was 18 in Detroit. He became an indie producer in the 1950s with a share of mainstream stuff coming with Crime of Passion (1957). The failure of the film, combined with the invitation of James H. Nicholson from AIP, saw him work there as producer. This went hand in hand with Cohen's new-found theory that over 70% of the audience was around the ages of 12-26, which obviously meant that a cast of teenage characters or monsters would maximize the potential for box office dollars. Not surprisingly, Cohen co-wrote the film with Aben Kandel, as was the case with Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. I'm not particularly sure how the title of the film seemed that much better than calling it "Teenage Vampire", because, well, the film isn't about Dracula or talking about blood, but in the United Kingdom it was called "Blood is My Heritage". Scientist-headed films involving the lightest of relations to the usual vampire myth were familiar to those who saw The Vampire earlier in 1957.

I'm sure you can see the similarities to the Werewolf film: a teenager with angst is used by an eccentric scientist that wants to change the world with their experiment (in this case, her idea of finding the evil in us) that ends up being used as a tool to become a monster, for which the ending sees the monster rebel against the scientist to see them both perish. Oh, and both films feature someone talking about the "Carpathians" (here it is a cop who knew an exchange student there) and feature an ending line about "messing with God". At least one thing can be sure of a film that has women for the lead character and villain, one can make a crappy film of any gender, particularly one that thinks a sequence dedicated to the song "Puppy Love" is anything short than ill-advised. It snoozes through the opportunities that could have come with making a film about someone who must confront themselves a growing youth when it comes to uncertainty about who they really are. Instead, it is just a mild and all-together bland experience that only gets good once it actually gets to the nitty gritty of silly effects with a monster. This is the only film appearance for Harrison, who appeared in a handful of one-episode appearances on TV until the 1960s. Probably the only noteworthy thing to say about her performance is that I cannot imagine that the time spent being under the makeup of fangs (and what have you) was any more fun than the paycheck. At least Lewis and her funky motivation to bring about the end of the atomic experimentation (no, seriously, she thinks writing a thesis of the beast in man being shown will do it) seems about on edge for loony confidence, even if her only "power" is being really good at hypnotism (or maybe she is so alluring in manipulation that it worked on the teacher's pet who told her about the new kid in the first place). At least the dialogue is a bit amusing at first with the new kid being grouchy at the people around her, until she becomes inhabited by the joys of monsterhood where she isn't really there, yadda yadda you get the idea. Somehow, I doubt killing teenagers in the school you work in is going to be looked upon favorably for a thesis, but whatever. In conclusion, the fact that the cops don't even realize just who is going around picking students off at the school is probably the most amusing quality of the film, unless characters getting killed by a random piece of furniture isn't up your alley. That alone says all that is needed to say about a film best sat through for those who need the horror fix that looks old enough to run for the season with vague name value that ultimately will prove incredibly average to those who sift through this, or I Was a Teenage Frankenstein...

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.