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Indestructible Man (1956)


Cast:

Lon " Pure of heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf" Chaney Jr. is Charles 'Butcher' Benton
Max Showalter is Police Lt. Richard 'Dick' Chasen
Marian Carr is Eva Martin
Ross Elliott is Paul Lowe, Attorney
Stuart Randall is Police Lt. John Lauder


What the box says:

Brought back to life by a scientist after being executed, a violent criminal hunts down his foes. Lone Chaney Jr. is the butcher - large, incxredibly strong, newly mute, and seriously angry.


Plot:


All newspaper headlines need to have death threats included...

The detective narration reveals about the Butcher Benton. Cutting to the prison, Butcher Benton accuses his lawyer, Paul Lowe, for setting him up. He vows revenge against his partners and the lawyer before being executed.

Lt. Chasen closes up the Butcher Benton case but suspects Paul Lowe in the case. He checks on Eva, a dancer who is a friend of Benton’s. Paul Rowe finds a hidden letter to Eva where the payroll is hidden.

Dr. Bradshaw is looking to research a cure for cancer. He is going to use Butcher Benton’s body for human experimentation. Let the science ensue.


Dr., that's incredibly how you put the bomp in the bomp-sh-bomp. But how will the ramm-lamm-ding-dong work?
Somehow, Benton’s cells are still alive. Benton wakes up and smacks Bradshaw around before heading out. Voltage has burnt out his vocal chords but given him super strength. Benton wants revenge. Bradshaw calms him down and realizes he’s now indestructible. Benton kills the doctor and his assistant before heading out.

Elsewhere, Chasen starts hitting on Eva. On a date, Chasen explains how he became a cop, and Eva explains how she started dating Benton.

Joe Marelli, Benton’s partner, goes to meet with Paul who needs him as a torch man for a “job.”

Butcher Benton starts walking to LA. He steals a car.

The police are in action montage ensues. The narration reveals they haven’t found the car thief, shot him to no avail. Benton kills a couple of cops.


Good thing, newspapers refuse to go for sensationalism...
Chasen reads the reports to catch the killer.

At the burlesque hall, Benton needs the map and to get revenge on his partners first. Eva sees him and learns his indestructibility.


I refuse to make noises. It's demeaning for me to growl...
He realizes that Paul has the map.

Eva leaves a note about Benton to Chasen. She heads out to warn Squeamy, another partner of Benton. Trying to warn him, he believes that Benton hired a killer to go after him.

Captain Lawder and Chasen examine the killer’s fingerprints which match Benton’s. Chasen finally gets Eva’s note.

Benton heads after Joe. Eva doesn’t get there in time. He runs into Squeamy and tosses him to his death. Now, Benton decides to go after Paul the attorney.

Chasen learns that Benton’s body was sold to Dr. Bradshaw’s assistant.

Paul hears about Joe’s death. He searches for Eva. At the police station, Paul demands protection. Slugging a cop to get thrown into jail. Chasen wants to use Paul as bait. Trying to bluff him into helping them, Paul tells how he hired Benton and his partners. Finding a map reveals that Benton is using the sewer system to avoid detection.

The police jump into another action montage. Chasen finds Bradshaw’s research that a flamethrower should be able to stop Benton. Let the police sewer search ensue.

Benton gets to where he hid the stashed payroll.

The cops find him and use a bazooka on him before the flamethrower arrives. Benton stumbles away and reaches a power station. Fumbling around the station, he accidentally electrocutes and blows himself up.

Later, Chasen closes the case.


Am I looking out into the great beyond enough for the picture?
Going off on a date, he proposes to Eva.


What I say:

While when one mentions the big names of horror actors, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, and Vincent Price will get mentioned. Lon Chaney Jr. frankly doesn't normally get the respect he deserves. However, when your father is one of the greatest of the horror movie actors off all time: The Man of a 1,000 Faces as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Phantom of the Opera, you can't quite expect things to go that easily...

Ever wonder how medical science always creates super-powered monsters from cadavers? Typically movies like that are in the Frankenstein vibe. However, this movie has Lon Chaney Jr. reanimated and have him roam around getting revenge. The re-animated criminal swearing vengeance may have been completely driven into the ground by now from Chucky in the Childs Play, Gingerdead Man, Jack Frost to Scarecrow and Scarecrow: Slayer. However, back in the 1950s, it wasn't such a worn out concept.

Have to admit, it was a little hard to keep track of Benton's partners: Squeamy and Joe. They seemed to be the same person but were 2 of them. One of them was killed heading to the other one's apartment. The only reason there were 2 is increase the body count. Though, the dummy being tossed was almost Buster-iffic from MythBusters.

Lon Chaney Jr has gained quite a bit of fame from the Wolfman movies of the 1940s. As Larry Talbolt, he was haunted by the actions he was forced to perform. In other roles he played the more typical type of monsters from Spider Baby to all the times he popped up as Frankenstein's Monster. In the Indestructible Man, he starts off as the guy swearing revenge and then becomes the unstoppable killing monster.

Most genre movies have to have the obligatory love interest for the hero. The police detective trying to uncover where the money was hidden. He spends most of his time continually questioning Butcher's girlfriend who seems to be less of a slight acquitance than someone who hands you a car insurance paid receipt. She is almost to the "plotting a future life together" by their first date. That could explain why she was perfectly fine with him getting her fired from her dancing job so she could spend more time as his wife.



3 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"You're a rotten liar, Lowe. You started railroading me from the beginning of the trial. And now you're still trying to throw me curves. "
"You stinkin' rotten mouthpiece."
"You've just made yourself a date, Lt. Dick."
"These reports sound like they come from a bunch of loonies."


Morals of the Story

All science labs require Van DeGraff generators.
Scientist typically engage in buying corpses from mortuaries.
Guys lifting a car by his own strength is common-place.
Sewers are roomy.
Police officers regularly carry bazookas.


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