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The Indestructible Man
Background Information: The Indestructible Man Hollywood just couldnt get enough of clumsy, oafish, neo-Frankenstein monsters in the 1950s, as this movie demonstrates quite well. Lon Chaney, Jr., looking like a cross between Babe Ruth & Walter Matthau, plays Charles Butcher Benton, a death row inmate who swears revenge on his partners in crime for turning states evidence & helping earn him a date with the gas chamber. Im not sure why they call him the Butcher, though; as far as we are told, all he did was help hold up an armored car, steal 600 grand, & hide it where no one, especially his partners, would ever find it - looking back, the whole hiding all the money thing may have a lot to do with his partners selling him out to the cops, but you just explaining that to Butcher yourself. One must assume he killed someone during the heist - either that, or he was a meat butcher before he turned to a life of crime. He swears he will kill the guys who ratted him out, a threat that his three former partners scoff at for the logical reason that the Butcher is a day away from being executed. What they dont know is that the Butcher has a plan; in a brilliant move, he allows himself to be killed, fully confident that, against all the odds in the world, some crazy doctor will bribe some morgue attendant into selling him his corpse, at which point the doctor will, in looking for a cure for cancer, accidentally bring the Butcher back to life with several hundred thousand volts of electricity & give him superhuman strength & a skin that even Ginzu knives cannot penetrate. This is exactly what happens. Granted a second lease on life, missing only the ability to speak due to the debilitating effect massive volts of electricity have on the human vocal cords, he decides its about time to start earning that nickname he loves so dearly. While all of this is happening, a bland police detective named Dick Chasen remains committed to finding the stolen money & implicating the three spineless hoods who helped Butcher carry out the heist, although it is entirely possible that he is just using this as an excuse for him to begin putting the moves on the Butchers old burlesque dancer girlfriend. Eventually, all of these characters & plot points come together for as satisfying an end as you might expect , but in the meantime Lon Chaney Jr. stumbles around like a drunk man with one wooden leg, occasionally scrunching his face up into what is supposed to be a fierce expression as the camera zooms in for a close-up. As far as urban Frankeinstein-esque movies go, Indestructible Man isnt that bad; the decision to have Chaney utter no lines whatsoever after his execution & resurrection seems like a wise move, but then you think about how many additional lines this threw Max Showalters way. Realizing you cant win either way, you immediately begin to forget everything about this rather dull sort-of-monster movie. Lon Chaney, Jr. was an American character actor, well-known mainly for his roles in monster movies & as the son of his better-known father, Lon Chaney. He was born Creighton Tull Chaney & was first credited as Lon Chaney, Jr. in 1935, as a studio marketing ploy. Chaney was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma & died in San Clemente, California. Chaney worked hard to avoid his fathers shadow. He worked menial jobs in order to make his own way. But he also studied makeup under his father. He did not take any movie roles until after his fathers death. His first movie was an uncredited role in the 1932 film Girl Crazy. He did not achieve stardom until the 1939 feature film version of Of Mice & Men, in which he played Lennie Small. In 1941 he starred in the title role of The Wolf Man, the characterization which would be his stereotypical role for the rest of his life. He maintained a strong career in horror movies, playing all four of the classic horror roles -- the Wolf Man, Frankenstein s monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy in The Mummys Tomb & Dracula in Son of Dracula.
Editors Choice: Dracula Vs Frankenstein, The Indestructible Man, Spider Baby, View DVDology
| Robert Shayne was an American actor. He was born Robert Shaen Dawe on October 4, 1900. He lived to be 92 years old, passing away on November 29, 1992. He played many character roles in movies & television, but he is best remembered for his portrayal of the recurring character Police Inspector William Bill Henderson, on the 1950s TV series, The Adventures of Superman.
Editors Choice: The Indestructible Man, View DVDology
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