Movie Info
Movie Name: Indestructible Man
Studio: Allied Artists
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movie
Release Date(s): March 25, 1956
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Oh yeah…I’m comin’ to get you!
Charles “Butcher” Benton (Lon Chaney Jr.) is scheduled to die…but has vowed to destroy the men who put him on death row. When Butcher’s body is stolen in route to the morgue, it becomes the subject of an experiment to defeat death. Unfortunately, the experiment works, and Butcher is back and out for vengeance. As the Butcher hunts down his enemies, Dick Chasen (Max Showalter) and the Butcher’s former girlfriend Eva Martin (Marian Carr) must stop a man who cannot be killed.
Directed by Jack Pollexfen, Indestructible Man is a B-Movie that is in public domain. Many critics note similarities to Lon Chaney Jr.’s previous film Man Made Monster from 1941. It was originally released as a double-bill with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and was also featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K Season 5 Episode 9).
Yeah lady… they call me the “Indestructible Man”…try me out!
B-Movies are just that…B-Movies. It doesn’t mean that they are all bad, but it does often mean that they are half-baked. Indestructible Man feels a bit like a pale version of Frankenstein and it doesn’t really rise above it.
The story suffers from the bad voice over syndrome. The movie realizes that the plot seems pretty wishy-washy and needs direction…voiced by a monotone Dick Chasen who explains what is happening. It takes all the life out of a script that is already pretty lifeless. Add to the bad sci-fi story, you have a limp love story.
Lon Chaney Jr. is the same character in almost every movie. In this movie he rarely speaks and must emote his emotions from his face. He is pretty expressive, but he isn’t quite as expressive as he needs to be to carry the movie.
I wonder if that rather well placed sign could have any meaning…
For the most part the special effects are pretty awful and the movie appears very cheap. I say for the most part because I think the burn make-up at the end of the film is pretty good. He is supposed to be a character that cannot die but his character can still be maimed. The result is a pretty effective face-melt burn.
Indestructible Man isn’t so invincible. It is a rather lame story that seems more like a plot of an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits than a feature film (maybe that is why it is only 70 minutes long). The movie isn’t very good and it isn’t very fun…there is a reason it is often a bargain B-Movie.
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