The Mad Ghoul

1943's "The Mad Ghoul" remains a sadly neglected entry during a year in which horror was in short supply at Universal, positioned at the bottom of a double bill with Lon Chaney's "Son of Dracula." Lionel Atwill had scored as mad scientists in both "Man Made Monster" and "The Mad Doctor of Market Street," but since then only John Carradine carried on the tradition with "Captive Wild Woman," spawning two sequels in its wake, "Jungle Woman" and "The Jungle Captive." On just this one occasion George Zucco received the call to star as Dr. Alfred Morris, whose experiments result in tragedy as delusions of unrequited love are not reciprocated. Dr. Morris is teaching classes at University City, selecting skilled surgeon Ted Allison (David Bruce) to become his prize pupil, after discovering the secret behind the Mayan technique of human sacrifice, cutting out the hearts of living donors not to appease their gods but to restore life to victims of a deadly gas that leaves the subject in a fearful state of 'death in life,' feted to die without treatment. The doctor has been able to recreate the gas and indoctrinated a monkey as a guinea pig, requiring Ted to perform a cardiectomy on another monkey for the heart substance, when mixed with certain herbs serving as a cure for the zombie-like condition. The little creature seems totally unaffected by its ordeal and all goes well, Dr. Morris also rejoicing in Ted's relationship with concert singer Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers), as he secretly covets the young lovely for himself. Once Morris becomes aware of Ted's intention to marry Isobel he sets a trap for his naïve assistant, who becomes a human victim of the Mayan gas, a slave to the will of his master. Unfortunately, the happy go lucky monkey soon falls back into his living death state, the cure merely a temporary one, too late for Dr. Morris to make amends so he and Ted follow Isobel's singing tour from town to town, every relapse requiring a desecration of the recently interred for heart substance. More grim than the usual Ben Pivar production, the extensive gruesomeness is kept off screen, but as one caretaker supplies a fresh heart, so too does a (too) clever reporter (Robert Armstrong) pretending to be a corpse lying in a coffin, his accurate hunch proving to be a fatal one. George Zucco only received star billing at Poverty Row's PRC in titles like "The Mad Monster," "Dead Men Walk," "The Black Raven," "Fog Island," and "The Flying Serpent," so to essay a more nuanced villain at Universal was a nice change, though he does indulge his bulging eyes toward the end of the film when confessing his indiscretion to Ted (we reveled in Atwill's madness but never felt sympathy for him). His previous mad scientists at Paramount ("The Monster and the Girl") or Fox ("Dr. Renault's Secret") were smaller roles rather than the lead, an established supporting fixture at Universal in "The Mummy's Hand," "Dark Streets of Cairo," "The Mummy's Tomb," "The Mummy's Ghost," and "House of Frankenstein," so at least here he's allowed to effortlessly carry a star vehicle for a major studio. Top billed David Bruce only had one other genre credit opposite Lon Chaney in "Calling Dr. Death,," wearing a close facsimile of Boris Karloff's makeup as Ardath Bey in "The Mummy," later worn by Chaney himself in "Man Made Monster," a Jack Pierce application meant to show the character's gradual disintegration into a dessicated corpse.

With the best will in the world, this film (originally developed as 'The Mystery of the Mad Ghoul') is a workmanlike production from Universal, and a far cry from the inventive, carefully made horror films that were made in the '30s. It features their repertoire of reliably wonderful actors like Turhan Bey, Evelyn Ankers and George Zucco and gives them exactly the kind of roles they are known for playing. Instead of Karloff, Lugosi or Chaney as the main monster, we have lesser-known David Bruce playing the titular Ted Allison, a ghoulish henchman whose mission it is to retrieve the hearts of the living. Luckily the wise-cracking cops and journos typical of this period are kept in check. At a brisk 65-minute runtime, there isn't time for anything much other than the storyline, which doesn't seek to break any new ground. Not unenjoyable, this is the kind of formulaic fare that demonstrated a lack of interest in the dwindling horror genre by this time. I'm sure it was successful enough to justify its modest budget, but it would have been wonderful to have seen the kind of innovation present that pioneers such as James Whale or Karl Freund featured in their earlier, celebrated productions. My score is 5 out of 10.

"The Mad Ghoul" deserves to be as well known as the majority of Universal genre product of its time. Granted, it IS a little light on horror elements, but its mad scientist, played by the incomparable George Zucco, is right up there with the maddest of the bunch. On the way to the big finale, we get repeated scenes of grave robbing, and a mad scientist lab full of equipment. Zucco plays Dr. Morris, an ambitious professor / scientist who's managed to replicate the poison gas used by an ancient culture (just which culture that is, is never explained). He uses it to manipulate his impressionable student / guinea pig Ted Allison (David Bruce) into a career of, well, ghoulish activities. Also, the fiendish Dr. Morris wants Teds' girlfriend Isabel Lewis (gorgeous Evelyn Ankers), a successful singer, all to himself. This, despite the fact that Isabel has actually fallen out of love with Ted and is involved with her piano accompanist Eric Iverson (Turhan Bey). "The Mad Ghoul" is devilish fun, in large part thanks to this great cast (also including Robert Armstrong of "King Kong" fame as an aggressive reporter, Milburn Stone, Andrew Tombes, Rose Hobart, Addison Richards, and a young Charles McGraw). Zucco is just a deliciously evil bad guy, spurring his unfortunate assistant to action; Ted is a young man who's as much a victim as other characters in the story. The film is not as thickly atmospheric as the best films in the Universal catalogue, but it does have decent graveyard scenes. Bruce is a sympathetic instrument of destruction, covered in typically good - but not overdone - makeup by that master of Universal horror effects, Jack P. Pierce. And Ankers is a luminous leading lady. (She would have liked to do her own singing, but producer Ben Pivar dubbed her with old recordings by Lillian Cornell.) Worth a look for fans of this studios' famed genre output. Seven out of 10.

It's a shame that Universal, well used to churing out monster sequels by the bucketload, chose to only make one Mad Ghoul entry (there were early plans to feature him in House of Frankenstein which were nixed). George Zucco and Evelyn Ankers had by this time plenty of horror movie experience behind them, and both are are top form for this lean horror-thriller. Zucco plays a college professor who discovers the Mayans used a deadly gas in their sacrificial ceremonies, restoring their supplicants to life with heart transfusions. Evil Ol' George, with his eye on the much younger Evelyn, a concert performer, dupes her fiancee and his assistant (David Bruce) into exposing himself to the gas, creating an undead horror totally obidient to his commands. His intent is to free Isabel up for himself, but he soon discovers that to keep his dupe alive he needs a frequent supply of fresh hearts... Really enjoyed this morbidly quirky movie. Nice to see Robert (King Kong) Armstrong and Rose (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) Hobart in supporting roles, and it's such a shame no sequels were forthcoming. A very good addition to the Universal Horrors.

source: The Mad Ghoul

As Universal's B unit horror films became cheesier and campier, their go-to guys for boogie men skipped past Karloff and Lugosi and went straight to either the junior Chaney, Lionel Atwill or George Zucco. Here, Georgie boy gets the job, and he's subtle in his performance as a seemingly devoted scientist professor who falls for pretty concert singer Evelyn Ankers and uses her boyfriend David Bruce and another admirer (Turhan Bey) in his scientific experiments to get rid of each other. Bruce ends up the ghoul man of the title (as does Bey later), but tough reporter Rose Hobart smells a good story and steps in to get the dirt. Both Bruce and Bey as ghoul men get to look like zombies, but it's Zucco who gets the meat to chew up from the script. Ankers doesn't get the screams of her other B Universal horror films, and pretty much gets to look lovely as she reacts to the confusion around her or sing as Bey plays the piano. There are a couple of very intense moments, but for the most part, the film just lays there with little going on. That makes this quite a disappointment among the catalogue of Universal thrillers although there's a nice twist at the end. Painless time filler that also gives a good role to veteran actor Robert Armstrong.

Evil professor George Zucco has the hots for singer Evelyn Ankers. He's also been experimenting on animals with an ancient Mayan gas! Zucco decides to clear a path to Ankers by using the gas on her boyfriend (David Bruce). This turns Bruce into a murderous ghoul who needs human hearts to survive. Little does Zucco know Ankers was already planning on dumping Bruce for Turhan Bey. As Homer Simpson would say: "D'oh!" Fun, lively Universal B horror movie with a nice cast and an interesting plot. George Zucco is awesome. I would watch this classy actor in anything. Evelyn Ankers is lovely as she always was in her Universal films. David Bruce, an actor I'm not overly familiar with, gives a sympathetic performance here. Turhan Bey has little to do. Robert Armstrong plays the obligatory wise-cracking reporter. If you're a fan of Universal horror films or George Zucco, you'll enjoy this a lot. It's not one of Universal's best but it's pretty good.

This movie could have been much more effective with less of the Evelyn Ankers concert scenes to slow things down, but the morbid parts ,showing Zucco and Bruce robbing graves, are very unsettling. The movie has plenty of atmosphere, if one can sit patiently through the dull musical interludes. George Zucco gives what is certainly one of his best performances. He plays the sinister professor with a low key, almost amiable quality, suggesting a good man gone bad, rather than a totally evil, cartoon mad scientist. His scene with Evelyn Ankers at the piano, as he subtly insinuates things that she completely fails to pick up on, is a measure of the genuine talent he possessed, so often wasted in forgettable B chillers. David Bruce is pretty bland and uninteresting as the hapless hero, but his character is meant to be the dupe of the professor, and not much of a strong personality. Turhan Bey basically does nothing but smile and play the piano, with just one good line, when he walks in to a room to find Zucco putting the moves on Ankers, and jokingly says, " Men have been shot for less than holding hands, Professor" and all three laugh at the idea that Zucco could be romantically interested in the younger woman, when we know it to be exactly the case.

George Zucco plays University professor Dr. Alfred Morris, who has discovered an ancient Mayan gas that was used to control the human sacrifices made in their rituals. David Bruce plays his student Ted Allison, who is recruited to be his assistant for the summer. Unfortunately for Ted, his professor is quite ruthless, and uses him as an experiment to try his recreation of the Mayan gas on. He succeeds, but Ted turns into the "mad ghoul" who helps the doctor rifle graves to cut out their hearts for more experiments in overcoming the gas, though this won't do poor Ted much good... Evelyn Ankers has a small role as his girlfriend. Good "ghoulish" premise, but film is strangely meandering and unconvincing, not to mention overly talky and dull. Good cast makes it semi-watchable, but film still fails, though does have a poetic final fade-out.

"You mean to say that your girl and my ghoul are playing the same circuit?!" Professor of chemistry, Dr. Alfred Morris(George Zucco), has perfected a type of poison gas derived from a native Mayan culture who used such methods to not only kill but to use the victims after death as slaves for their own diabolical reasons. He includes a student in his research, Ted Allison (David Bruce), a wunderkind with a scalpel, with tragic results for the pupil because of the insidious acts of the professor. Both men adore a popular soloist, Isabel Lewis( Evelyn Ankers), on the verge of her first country-wide tour and this motivates him to use Ted as a weapon to potentially kill the man she secretly loves, her pianist, Eric Iverson (the debonair Turhan Bey). While following Isabel on tour, Dr. Morris desecrates graves, forcing Ted, a zombie under his hypnotic spell, to despoil corpses for their hearts! The story is truly depraved if you think about it. I just delight in how fiendish Zucco is. I mean Zucco was just a wiz at depicting sociopathic mad scientists willing to use their brains to terrorize. It's the classic example of using your smarts for malicious intentions instead of contributing to society in a more beneficial manner. The reprehensible actions of Morris certainly adds emphasis on Ted's unfortunate fate as he must obey when induced in the zombie state, which often occurs when he is under extreme duress. One scene has a reporter, "Scoop" McClure(Robert Armstrong, given the "determined and wisecracking newsman" role), working the ghoul grave desecrations (the story truly heats up when a cemetery guard is killed by a crushing blow to the skull by Morris who, in turn, has Ted mutilate the fresh corpse with the surgical knife, extracting the heart), with a bright idea—working in concert with a funeral owner—of hiding in a coffin inside a funeral parlor hoping that the culprit will show up so he can catch him in the act, not knowing that Morris had an accomplice, resulting in a grisly demise (not only is the surgical knife used to incapacitate him, but Morris then strangles him!). The film utilizes the *puppet-puppeteer* angle where Dr. Morris uses Ted for his own twisted purposes, a gifted scientist, abusing his genius in a sordid fashion to, or as he would believe, have Isabel all to himself (an obsessive, delusional desire for a woman who respects him, but doesn't have a single, solitary clue that this well-renowned scientist is the madman behind the grave mutilations). Evelyn Ackers, a Universal beauty used in a lot of the B-movies for the studio, as always, is the woman of interest for all three male stars, her impressive figure once again costumed by those fabulous Vera West dresses. This movie uses the terrific sets Universal Studios always provided, such as foggy graveyards, Morris' laboratory, and lavish apartments (including the noisy newsroom where McClure works). This movie is all about Zucco; he just had a knack for portraying the cunning, menacing, cerebral maniac, who appears gentlemanly, polite, and cultured, masking a savage, homicidal mind without the moral compass or conscience needed to prevent the events which transpire in THE MAD GHOUL. Bruce effectively convinces as a victim who not only loses the love of his life to a friend (Ted introduced Eric to Isabel), but is unknowingly helping a man he trusts defile the dead of their hearts. The reason for the desecrations is that Morris uses ingredients the heart provides to return Ted to a more human state after each zombie attack.