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Indestructible Man, The
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| Year: |
1956
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Director: |
Jack Pollexfen
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| Stars: |
Lon Chaney Jr, Max Showalter, Marian Carr, Ross Elliott, Robert Shayne, Ken Terrell, Marvin Ellis, Stuart Randall
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| Genre: |
Thriller, Trash, Science Fiction |
| Rating: |
  4 (from 2 votes) |
| Review: |
Killer and robber Butcher Benton (Lon Chaney Jr) is put to death for his crimes, and is then revived by a professor's experiment only to continue with his wicked ways, tracking down and killing his criminal associates while hunting for his stolen loot...
This endearingly rubbish science fiction thriller was scripted by Vy Russell and Sue Bradford. It's basically a low budget gangster movie with the novelty of featuring an indestructible man as its main villain. There's even a Dragnet-style narration throughout.
Chaney wasn't in great shape by the time he was appearing in cheap movies like this, but there's something oddly entertaining in seeing him shambling through this film, even if he looks as if he would have trouble opening a door in the traditional way, never mind battering it down with his bare hands. We're treated to frequent close-ups of his puffy, perspiring face and he doesn't even have any lines after the first scene (the experiment fried his vocal chords, for some reason).
There are many moments of lunacy: the map to the stolen money has no landmarks or writing on it, save for a big "X"; the professor's assistant apparently drives Chaney's freshly-executed corpse home in the back of his car; Chaney's stripper girlfriend eagerly agrees to go out with the lieutenant tracking him down when the detective reveals his first name is "Dick" (!).
The dialogue contains every cliché in the book except "God save the Queen" and "Please wash your hands before leaving". Was the ending inspired by The Third Man? Um, probably not. It's funny, I'd rather watch a low budget sci-fi movie from the 50's than one from the 90's or the 00's... Music by Albert Glasser.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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