Starring: George Zucco, Glenn Strange, Johnny Downs, Anne Nagel. Writer: Fred Myton. Producer: Sigmund Neufeld. Director: Sam Newfield. Released in 1942.
Commando Cody – Starring: George Wallace, Aline Towne, Roy Barcroft, William Bakewell. Writer: Ronald Davidson. Producer: Franklin Adreon. Director: Fred C. Bannon. Released in 1952.
Original air date: December 12, 1989
Mad scientists, nosy reporters and crimes against nature: these are themes that crop up constantly in the films Mystery Science Theater 3000 eviscerated on a weekly basis. Hollywood has cookie cutter formulas for all sorts of movies. Why should mad scientist and monster movies be any different? “The Mad Monster” begins the comedy show’s long tradition of dealing with these types of films. While this movie isn’t any better or worse than the others, it doesn’t get the royal treatment it deserves. Such is the case with the early episodes of MST3K. The writers continue to find their footing, although they come up with a few genuine zingers here.
Episode 103 also treats us to the second chapter in the “Commando Cody and the Radar Men from the Moon” saga. In keeping with the tradition that nothing really happens in the multi-chapter serial, our hero escapes certain doom only to be placed back into it just before the second chapter ends.
Like the previous installment in “The Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy,” Joel and his robot friends sit and watch, while commenting infrequently and making obvious statements, although I loved Tom Servo’s comment at the beginning of the serial. At the end of Chapter One, the evil Moon Man pointed a disintegrator gun at Cody (George Wallace), leaving us in “suspense.” When Chapter Two, “Molten Terror,” starts off, Cody nonchalantly kneels down to avoid the gun fire. Servo nails it on the head: “Oh, if they'd only shown him diving out of the way, I wouldn't have spent the week worrying about him!” he says sarcastically.
At the end of the chapter, Cody and his friend (dressed in the same pumpkin-head helmet) run from the rampaging Moon Men’s World War One tank (“That’s going to really come in handy when Alan Shepard gets to the Moon,” Crow says). The heroes hide in a Moon cave, only to be fired on by the Moon Men’s lava canyon. Suddenly the cave turns into the “molten terror,” and the chapter ends. Gee, I wonder if they’ll make it out...
“The Mad Monster” begins soon after and it’s immediately apparent this film is very, very old. Released in 1942, it’s more dull and dreary than the last episode. The sound pops and hisses, the audio track is barely audible (although it does get better), and the film itself is a little jumpy. The story is the same one told countless times in other mad scientist films: a scientist, Dr. Cameron (George Zucco) feels wronged by his peers and sets about to prove his theories that man can become beast. He turns his slow-witted gardener, Petro (Glenn Strange), into the experimental subject, injecting him with the blood of a wolf on a nightly basis, thus turning him into a wolf man. It’s probably a good time to mention the wolf the evil doctor uses looks suspiciously like a coyote, but whatever. A journalist (Johnny Downs), doing the work the police should be doing, investigates the death of a little girl by what some believe is a werewolf, which leads him to Dr. Cameron’s mansion. Of course, the evil doctor has a clueless daughter (Anne Nagel) who can’t help but fall for the dashing newsman. Trust me, as a writer and journalist, it never works like that.
I wonder if audiences were really scared by this film. Watching Petro turn into the wolf man is an interesting use of layered images, standard for the time period. The dark “jungle” set doesn’t hide the wolf man very well, especially since he’s dressed in overalls the whole time (“That's the most casually dressed monster I've ever seen,” Joel says). Were audiences laughing or screaming? Maybe both?
Certainly the performances aren’t noteworthy. Zucco plays his Dr. Cameron in the traditional mad scientist mold – with crazy eyes and a quirky grin. Strange, better known for his role as Sam the Bartender on “Gunsmoke,” just slows down his speech. And Downs as the reporter just runs around acting important.
The film establishes early on that Dr. Cameron has indeed lost his mind. In the beginning, we see him imagine a conversation with his fellow scientists. He argues with what appear to be figments of his imagination, and tells them he’ll prove his theories by having Petro kill all of them. Funny thing is that this imagined argument doesn’t really go his way; the figmented scientists continually shoot him down. “You'd think since it's his imagination he'd at least have them be afraid of him,” Servo says. Even in the earliest of episodes, Josh Weinstein as Servo has some of the most pointed and funny commentary so far.
The initial transformation scene also is quite humorous. As Petro slowly becomes the wolf man, gaining more hair and fangs, the three viewers launch into a look-alike spree. Fred Travalena, Abe Lincoln, Isaac Asimov, an Amish farmer, the Quaker Oats Man, and Dr. Cornelius all get a mention. It’s really funny.
There are other good moments sprinkled out. Joel and bots joke how the actress playing Dr. Cameron’s daughter desperately wants to be Judy Garland. After watching Glenn Strange’s performance as the slow-talking Petro, Servo asks, “Joel, is this ‘Of Mice and Men’ or ‘Flowers for Algernon?’” When one of Dr. Cameron’s former colleagues states, “Mingling the blood of man and beast is downright sacrilege!”, Joel responds, “Tell that to the NFL!”
Aside from a few other moments, that’s about it in the funny department. It’s a little better than the last dismal episode, but not much. But the show is slowly, but surely growing. The episode’s sketches are mildly amusing. Joel creates a “hell in a handbag” burning purse for his invention, and the Mads create a dangerous, fire-breathing kids toy, because children want realism when they play, Dr. Erhardt explains. Pretty clever. There’s also the sketch where Servo hits on a blender and Joel does his own mad scientist creation by switching the heads of Servo and Crow. These two scenes would fit well in future season episodes and probably be done a little snappier.
“The Mad Monster” is another one that justly doesn’t garner that much attention from fans, but there are few moments that show the great promise of what is to come.
Rating *1/2
Side note: “The Mad Monster” is available on Shout! Factory’s box set Volume XIV.
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