The Monster Maker

The Monster Maker
	Promotional release poster
Directed by	Sam Newfield
Produced by	Sigmund Neufeld
Written by	Lawrence Williams; Pierre Gendron; Martin Mooney
Starring	J. Carrol Naish; Ralph Morgan; Tala Birell
Music by	Albert Glasser
Cinematography	Sam Newfield
Edited by	Robert E. Cline
Distributed by	Producers Releasing Corporation
Release date	April 15, 1944;
Running time	62 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Monster Maker is a 1944 science-fiction horror film starring J. Carrol Naish and Ralph Morgan. Albert Glasser supplied the film score, his first, an assignment for which he was paid US$250.[1]

Plot

Dr. Markoff (J. Carrol Naish) has concocted a formula that spreads a hideous disease named acromegaly - which extends bones and distorts facial features. Markoff has no moral dilemma in experimenting on unsuspecting human subjects. His amoral behavior assumes monstrous dimensions when famed concert pianist Lawrence (Ralph Morgan) is injected with the doctor's disease-inducing serum. In return for an antidote, Markoff intends to exact more than his pound of flesh by extorting a fortune from Lawrence and demanding the hand of the musician's pretty daughter Patricia (Wanda McKay).[2]

Cast

J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Igor Markoff
Ralph Morgan as Anthony Lawrence
Tala Birell as Maxine
Wanda McKay as Patricia Lawrence
Terry Frost as Bob Blake
Glenn Strange as Giant / Steve
Alexander Pollard as Butler / Stack
Sam Flint as Dr. Adams
Ace the Wonder Dog as Ace

Production and reception

Lowly PRC hadn't released a horror picture in nearly 17 months, having spent most of 1943 substantially expanding their capabilities by purchasing the bankrupt Chadwick Studio (a poverty row operation that specialized in renting stages and production equipment to low-budget producers along Gower) for $305,000. While critics, what few that would review a PRC release, complained about the film's lack of action, production values were noted to be somewhat higher than earlier releases. The working title of this film was The Devil's Apprentice.[3]

The film holds an extremely low 3% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.7/10 on the Internet Movie Database.

gollark: I wouldn't be massively surprised if MS/some people in the government still had a way to bee those.

gollark: Which would be a neat terrorism idea actually.

gollark: e.g. some people at Microsoft could probably push an update which erases all Windows computers at a set time and bee everything.

gollark: I suppose certain people could negatively affect people a lot rapidly if they started trying to maximize evil, but that's more because they have direct control over high-speed processes than richness.

gollark: Ugh, BEE my wireless network connection right now to a significant degree.

References

Weaver, Tom (2006). Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s Through 1960s. McFarland. pp. 98–99. ISBN 0-7864-2857-0.
Erickson, Hal. "The Monster Maker". AllMovie. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
The Monster Maker TCM Notes

External links

The Monster Maker on IMDb
The Monster Maker is available for free download at the Internet Archive
The Monster Maker at AllMovie

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[1] Weaver, Tom (2006). Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s Through 1960s. McFarland. pp. 98–99. ISBN 0-7864-2857-0.

[2] Erickson, Hal. "The Monster Maker". AllMovie. Retrieved 2009-08-04.

[3] The Monster Maker TCM Notes