Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
While attending a concert for pianist Anthony Lawrence, Dr. Igor Markoff spies a young woman in the next box who reminds him of his dear departed wife. Visiting the musician backstage, Markoff discovers the woman is Patricia, Lawrence’s daughter. The doctor apologizes for staring, then takes his leave. Over the next few weeks, Markoff floods Patricia with flowers until she sends her father to see him and tell him his attentions are unwanted. Angered over Lawrence’s attitude, Dr. Markoff knocks him unconscious, then injects him with Acromagely, a disease which enlarges the extremities; the hands, feet, and portions of the head. This spells the death of a career for a concert pianist, but Dr. Markoff tells Lawrence he’ll cure him if he convinces Patricia to marry him.
Seems pretty cut and dried.
1944’s THE MONSTER MAKER really isn’t a bad movie. Sure it’s goofy and cheap. All the “classic” elements are there, rich eccentric doctor, rich good guy, pretty daughter with the handsome suitor, everyone lives in fancy mansions and is always dressed in suits and gowns with cigarettes at hand. The doctor’s wife is dead, while no mention of Lawrence’s wife is ever made, so we assume she is as well. Was there some kind of moratorium back in the day on showing wives in these movies, or what? The main characters are always men with daughters or nieces, but there’s never a wife or mother in sight.
I enjoyed this movie--for the most part. It had just enough cheesy elements to make it interesting to watch (for example, in his lab, Markoff has a caged ape. It’s obviously out of place in this tiny lab in the middle of the city, and when he unleashes the ape later in the movie so it can murder his assistant Maxine, we know that’s the only reason this element was ever introduced to the story in the first place, but it’s so damn funny and out of nowhere, we let it go), and the quiet moments were only quiet long enough for the exchange of whatever information was called for right then, and then we got right back to the action.
The dialogue was simple, almost too simple. People just don’t talk like that, unless they know there’s an audience watching and they want to convey plot information to them. And no one will ever accuse the actors here of being at the top of their game. But, like I said, the story’s just goofy enough to work.
One thing I thought was excellent here were the effects. Really it was just the one--Lawrence deformed from the effects of the disease--but considering I was expecting nothing more than a hunched shape in a dark room and got, instead, the full glory of his distorted head and hands, I was very pleased. I enjoyed this one much more than director Sam Newfield’s previous entry, DEAD MEN WALK. I was surprised to find his resume consisted mostly of westerns and not horror movies, but maybe that’s why this one was passable, and not great. Perhaps if I saw one of his westerns I might be blown away. Maybe not.
J. Carrol Naish played Dr. Markoff He was the epitome of stiff. He could recite his lines, his accent never wavered, but overall he was a wooden post with a mouth. Ralph Morgan was slightly better as Anthony Lawrence, while Wanda McKay tried to convey some emotional depth as Patricia, but for the most part she seemed about as emotive as all the other characters in these movies--that is to say, she’s the 1944 female equivalent of David Duchovny, only with better projection and enunciation.
Tala Birell as the assistant Maxine probably gave the best performance. From her first look of disapproval it was obvious she was in love with Markoff, and in every scene she seemed to bring an unspoken strength to her character. Too bad she didn’t get more screen time.
THE MONSTER MAKER certainly isn’t a great “classic horror”, there are many more popular and well-executed movies from the era. But taken on its own, it’s a pleasant way to spend an hour some evening, more interesting than THE VAMPIRE BAT or THE MAD MONSTER any old day. Good goofy stuff and recommended with the caveat that you don’t expect Oscar-worthy work or brilliant storytelling.
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