BaronBl00d Review of The Monster Maker

The Monster Maker (1944)

"There is a difference between Admiring and Ogling."

[8/10 · 25 January 2013]

Poverty Row production by PRC and directed by journeyman director Sam Newfield, The Monster Maker is very good when one considers what the director, actors, and crew had to deal with with regard to budget, etc... The major premise here is that a doctor/scientist goes to a concert to see a great pianist and instead falls in love with the maestro's daughter because she resembles his former wife. He leers at her throughout the concert and gives an introduction to meet the pianist later. Now, we then get this scientist not taking NO for an answer - so what does he do when Dad goes to tell him to leave his daughter alone...why he injects him with a serum that gives him acromegaly(this is what actor Rondo Hatton had). This disease quickly transforms the urbane feature of Ralph Morgan into a shuttered "monster" with a face full of giant bumps and lesions and growths. For it seems that Dr. Igor Markoff has a specialty in this field and knows that he will be the only person Morgan can go to for help...then he will ask for his daughter for the price of that help. The script, despite this film being roughly an hour, is amazingly crisp and interesting. The acting by J. Carrol Naish and Ralph Morgan is good as well. Naish plays one of the sickest, depraved mad scientists in this era. He even is made to look like the devil with his pointed beard! I thought his twisted Dr. Markoff was very enjoyable a performance to watch. The rest of the cast - Tala Birell as Dr. Markoff's assistant and idolizer is particularly good as is Wanda McKay the pretty blonde daughter and Terry Frost as her boyfriend. Glenn Strange is a servant for Naish and we do get Ray Corrigan dressed in a gorilla outfit and Ace - the Wonder Dog. The scene with the gorilla and dog was one of my favorites. But it really is Naish and Morgan doing the heavy lifting here. They both were good and Morgan's make-up was very credible. Though this is a low-budget film, it is definitely worth a look.