Thursday, October 12, 2017

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 12: THE MAD GHOUL 1943 (UNIVERSAL)

George Zucco steals every scene he is in.

Zucco is Dr. Alfred Morris a college professor who has managed to duplicate an ancient Aztec drug that puts people into a living death state.

One of his students, Ted Allison (David Bruce)wants to work with the Prof. during the summer to help his grades so he can graduate and marry his fiancee Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers).

Morris immediately subjects Ted to the poison gas and changes him into a zombie. Why you ask? Because the daft Professor wants to prove he can reverse the process. The requires blood from fresh human hearts from living or dead people. Therefore the Prof. has a zombified Ted digging up dead bodies for their hearts.

In the end Zucco gets what's coming to him in a grisly way. It's a good shock ending for a film from the time period. This was a very successful film yet it was one of the few Universal films that never had a sequel.

All of the performers do a great job and the rest of the cast includes Milburn Stone, Turhan Bey, Robert Armstrong and Charles McGraw. A wonderful chiller that should be seen by every horror fan, and one that is perfect for the Halloween season.

No comments:

Post a Comment