Mediocre Universal horror film which paired director George Waggner and Lon Chaney Jr., a pair which would produce one of the best of the genre, The Wolf Man, later that same year. "Electrobiologist" Lionel Atwill doses patient Lon Chaney Jr. with larger and larger jolts of electricity until he becomes his murderous slave. When Chaney follows an order to dispose of Atwill's scientific partner, he is arrested and sentenced to death. Since Chaney is famous for surviving an electrical shock that killed four other people, you would think they would hang him or send him to the gas chamber. But no, they electrocute him, which, of course, gives him super powers and allows him to go on a classic movie monster rampage. The rampage is fun enough, and you've got to love the image of a glowing Lon Chaney Jr., but most of what comes before is rather boring. The script is quite poor. Late in the film, characters start knowing things that they were never around to learn in the first place. It has a couple of great howl-inducing lines, my favorite being "He stole some rubber boots! Now he won't die!" The title is also pretty stupid. It's based on a story called "The Electric Man". The original story's title was retained in the UK, and I don't understand why that was replaced with its much more generic title.
Review of Man Made Monster
