HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958)

Director: Herbert L. Strock

Writers: Herman Cohen, Aben Kandel (as Kenneth Langtry)

Producer: Herman Cohen

Cast: Robert H. Harris, Paul Brinegar, Gary Clarke, Gary Conway, Paul Maxwell, Eddie Marr, Dennis Cross, Malcolm Atterbury, Morris Ankrum, Walter Reed, John Phillips, Robert Shayne, Heather Ames, Pauline Myers, John Ashley (as himself), Rod Dana, Joan Chandler, Jacqueline Ebeier, Thomas B. Henry, Herman Cohen (uncredited) 

When the new owners of American International Studios decide that the “horror cycle” is over, they layoff Pete Dumond (Robert H. Harris), the film studio’s monster makeup artist. After 25 years of loyal and profitable service for the company, Dumond is bitter and wants to strike back. Using a special drug-laced foundation cream of his own invention, Dumond can bring two actors he is making up as the Werewolf and Frankenstein under his hypnotic control. Ironically, Dumond uses monsters that he creates with his makeup to enact his murderous revenge. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Once again producer Herman Cohen and writer Aben Kandel have a middle-aged genius turn youths into monsters in How to Make a Monster. They had used this plot template three times before in 1957’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and Blood of Dracula. They would employ this story device again in 1959’s Horrors of the Black Museum. Teen angst and terror seemed to be a winning combination. Cohen and Kandel knew that their teenage audience would appreciate young characters as sympathetic monsters exploited by the older generation.

Despite this proven formula in How to Make a Monster, I find myself rooting for the fanatically dedicated makeup artist Pete Dumond. Of all the Cohen/Kandel evil crackpots, his motivation is the most relatable. The very interesting dynamic in this story is that Pete Dumond’s well-being is being threatened by others’ career advancement. Unlike the other villains in the earlier Cohen/Kandel films, Pete Dumond is not trying to prove a scientific theory or achieve academic glory. The poor guy just wants to keep his job. While I have always thought that one should work to live and not live to work, if someone cut off my source of income I would be itching for some payback. In Pete Dumond’s case, those incurring his wrath are such smug bastards that they are practically begging to be butchered.

The most unique aspect of this film is its incorporation of the two previous Cohen/Kandel hits I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein into this story as past films produced at this movie’s film studio setting. We see the Werewolf and Frankenstein characters as film actors in this story that are turned into assassins when made up as monsters by the mad makeup artist. This movie’s film company setting of American International Studios is a fictionalized version of How to Make a Monster’s actual production company American International Pictures. The film studio tour guide in the story even announces that they will visit the set of Cohen and Kandel’s next production, Horrors of the Black Museum. Here is an innovative example of the meta-story in horror films that long predates director Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) and Scream (1996). 

As Pete Dumond, Robert H. Harris is not only the villain and center of the whole film, he the most sympathetic character in it. While the two young subjects in Dumond’s makeup chair are turned into his hypnotized hitmen, they are oblivious to their acts of murder and only mildly confused afterwards. Unlike the exploited teens in the earlier Cohen/Kandel horror films, we don’t spend a lot of time here with Larry (Gary Clarke) and Tony (Gary Conway), the Werewolf and Frankenstein actors, respectively. Old Pete Dumond is the character we spend the most time with and whose grievances really provide the story’s motivation and sympathy. Sure, he’s the bad guy, but he only becomes evil after being shit on by assholes.

At the top of Pete Dumond’s shit list are the film studio’s new moguls Jeffrey Clayton (Paul Maxwell) and John Nixon (Eddie Marr). They offer the dejected 25-year veteran makeup artist a measly week’s severance pay. The smug Clayton says that telling Pete in person that he is getting canned is “the human way.” Then Clayton is judgmental when Pete angrily refuses to accept the paltry kiss-off check and Clayton tells him that maybe he has been spending too much time with monsters. I can’t think of another horror film victim more deserving of their fate. 

Monahan (Dennis Cross), the movie lot security guard, is nearly as deserving of an untimely demise. After murder in the film studio, Monahan marches into Pete’s makeup room brandishing his “little black book.” He brags about all of the arrival and departure times of studio staff he has been jotting down. He also hints about other notes he thinks are incriminating and all but accuses Pete of murder. Then the anal asshole has the gall to boast to Pete that his undisclosed knowledge will be taken to the police and Monahan thinks it will result in his promotion to the head of security on the movie lot. Sure, this rent-a-cop is doing a thorough job, but the ambitious blowhard is getting off on this petty opportunity to intimidate the very person he implies that he can implicate. This dick must die!

 

Michael Landon, the original Teenage Werewolf, was not available for this flick. Gary Clarke plays the Werewolf actor Larry. However, the original Teenage Frankenstein himself Gary Conway returns to play Frankenstein actor Tony. It is fun to see these two in the makeup chair while old Pete is prepping them to be turned into his murdering monsters. Our actors-turned-teenage monsters are actually almost minor characters in this story. While they do come in handy for some of the rough stuff, old Pete is not afraid to get his hands dirty with more than makeup. 

Another AIP studio reference would be the filming of a musical number featuring John Ashley. He plays himself and was under contract to AIP at the time. He would star in other AIP films and had actually auditioned for the lead role in I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Ashley also starred this same year in the independent production Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958). 

Continuing the meta-story gimmicks, when the film switches from black-and-white to color, we see our mad makeup artist’s home shrine of his creations. Pete Dumond’s private museum is filled with masks of many monsters that horror buffs will recognize from other AIP films. Many of these were Paul Blaisdell creations while the actual creator of the teenage monsters in the previous films and in this one was Phillip Scheer. I must say that Scheer’s Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein are two of my favorite movie monsters. 

On a final note, I not only empathize with the villain of How to Make a Monster, but I wonder if Universal Pictures’ dismissal of Jack Pierce, their makeup genius in the '30s and '40s, played any part in the inspiration for this flick. Like this film’s Pete Dumond, Jack Pierce’s innovative designs not only helped create big profits for his studio, he also created characters that are still horror icons. I suppose if Pierce had ever seen How to Make a Monster, he would have rooted for old Pete even more than I do.

FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (1958)

Director: Richard Cunha

Writer: H.E. Barrie

Producers: George Foley, Marc Frederic

Cast: John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, Harold Lloyd, Jr., Felix Locher, Wolfe Barzell, John Zaremba, Robert Dix, Harry Wilson, Voltaire Perkins, Charlotte Portney, Bill Coontz, George Barrows, Page Cavanaugh and His Trio (the band as themselves)

In the suburban residence of elderly Dr. Carter Morton (Felix Locher), his assistant Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) is conducting secret experiments in Morton’s home laboratory. Frank is actually a descendant of the legendary Frankenstein family that created life from the dead. He tests a serum on Morton’s niece Trudy (Sandra Knight) that temporarily disfigures and deranges her. He soon creates an even more horrible being.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Another entry in the teenage monster genre, Frankenstein’s Daughter is as outrageous as any of them. This flick never gets any respect, but I thoroughly enjoy it. Its juxtaposition of idyllic 1950s suburbia with mad science and monsters keeps me fixated. I hope all of you realize that anyone who uses the word “juxtaposition” in a review must really know what the hell he is talking about. Therefore, if I like this film that must mean all who dismiss it are utter fools.

There are plenty of cockeyed elements here to appreciate:

• There are trigger-happy police immediately blasting away at anyone ugly enough to be a monster. 

• Then the same cops being conveniently blind enough to run right past the fence that the monster girl and Oliver Frank are barely hiding behind.  

• Elsu (Wolfe Barzell), the crusty old gardener in the Morton household, is treated like some lower form of life by both Dr. Morton and his niece, though they both seem to be otherwise decent people. 

• Elsu inexplicably thinks Trudy is “sweet,” though we never see her show him any emotion except obvious discomfort.  Of course, Elsu is assisting Oliver Frank in his vile experiments, so maybe he just exudes some kind of creep factor. 

• You have got to hand it to that slick operator Oliver Frank/Frankenstein managing to get the assistant to his father’s experiments placed in the Morton household with him. 

• When Oliver Frank puts the female brain of his murder victim into his creation, he assumes it will be obedient and not bear him any grudge. 

• The female brain in a very ugly male body is a new spin on mad science. 

• A monster that would take an hour to walk around the block manages to leave the Morton house and commit a murder at a nearby warehouse and make it back the next evening without being seen. 

• The monster has damaged the front door when leaving, but the next night the door is undamaged. It is just possible for it to have been repaired the next day, or it is also possible that it is a continuity error. Surely, even if the Mortons were not aware of a monster in their house, they would be concerned about what appears to be a break in. Trudy does ask Oliver Frank if he knows who did this, as he is acting very strangely, but no more is made of it. 

• There is the pool party barbecue and jam session going on at the Morton place while Frankenstein’s latest creation is chained up in the attic.  

• As the film ends, the horrendous events of the story have just made the local headlines and the surviving main characters are full of fun and joy, regardless of the people they were close to that did not survive. I guess Johnny Bruder (John Ashley) must have gotten that promotion to assistant manager; that surely makes everything come up roses.

It may seem like I am bashing Frankenstein’s Daughter, but that’s not the case at all. I like these reckless and absurd elements. I also enjoy the almost constant conflict between characters in this movie. Even when there is no “horror stuff” going on, there are interesting and often-uncomfortable situations happening, and Oliver Frank is usually at the center of them.

There’s never a dull moment with Oliver Frank around.  He is contentious and insubordinate with his employer Dr. Morton. When he’s not doping her fruit punch with experimental drugs, Oliver Frank sexually harasses Morton’s niece Trudy. Oliver Frank has the audacity to be building a monster in his spare time in his employer’s home lab and storing the results in an unused wine cellar with no one the wiser. He nearly date-rapes Trudy’s friend Suzie (Sally Todd). When she spurns him, Oliver Frank really shifts his villainy into high gear. Oliver Frank decides to try and strangle old Dr. Morton in his own home to get the run of his lab. Within minutes of the police knocking on the Morton household door and interrupting his attempted murder of the “nutty old man,” Frank manages to get the police to arrest Dr. Morton and suggest that he is senile. Oliver Frank/Frankenstein is frankly one of the greatest and most enjoyable jerks in movie history.

Donald Murphy as Oliver Frank/Frankenstein really takes the acting honors in Frankenstein’s Daughter. His character is an absolute sociopath and egomaniac, and Murphy certainly must have had the most fun of all the cast in the film.

The other principals in the cast play the material sincerely and for what it’s worth. John Ashley and Sandra Knight make a likable couple. They are the two we are supposed to be rooting for and they never become cloying or obnoxious. Sally Todd is fun as the hard-to-get tease Suzie Lawler. She and Murphy share the best scene in the film when their necking session in a lover’s lane takes a really nasty turn. The tension builds, as we know that Oliver Frank is going from horny to homicidal. I actually feel sorry for Suzie in that moment.

Director Richard Cunha cranked out three other horror and sci-fi films the same year as this one. His She Demons (1958) is much wackier than Frankenstein’s Daughter, and I highly recommend it to all vintage schlock cinema fans.

One of the things I always appreciate in Frankenstein movies is the new look that will be given the featured monsters. After Universal’s classic monster design for Boris Karloff and other actors in their films of the '30s and '40s, it was mandatory that other filmmakers not imitate Jack Pierce’s work, or risk legal action. Make-up man Harry Thomas’ monster designs are certainly distinctive. In a six-day shoot that was only budgeted at about $65,000, Thomas has complained that he was always rushed and often not given clear direction about just what the director needed. After he had created his stitched-together creature, he was mortified to learn that it was supposed to have the head of a female. All he could do was smear lipstick on it. Thankfully, his suggestion to put a blonde wig on this monster was not allowed. During the film’s climax, Thomas’ hurry-up-and-get-it-done acid burn makeup is very effective and a gruesome highlight.

Frankenstein’s Daughter works for me due to the extremes of behavior and horror happening in the midst of a cozy suburb; those contrasts create interest. The appealing and accessible world everything takes place in allows me to invest much more involvement in the crazy yarn unfolding. The absurd and the horrific presented sincerely may be one person’s trash or this flashback fanatic’s treasure.