THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN
US, 1956, 71 minutes, Black-and-white.
Lon Chaney, Casey Adams, Marian Carr, Ross Elliott, Stuart Randall, Ken Terrell, Robert Shayne, Joe Flynn.
Directed by Jack Polexfen.
The title suggests a science-fiction film with touches of horror, popular titles at this time including invisible, transparent… And, in fact it is partly science-fiction, a killer condemned to execution, with the name Butcher Benton, is taken, in body snatcher 1950s style, by a scientist and his assistant who are experimenting with corpses, the electric charge bringing the dead man to life again, more powerful than he was, and killing the two scientists. He is impervious to guns and bullets. He then goes on a rampage to murder his lawyer and the two associates who turned state evidence against him.
All this is placed in the context of a familiar police investigation and pursuit. In fact, overall, despite the title, this is a fairly routine police story.
What makes it strong and, as some have said, despite its hyperbole with the neo-Frankenstein story and the routine of police procedures, it is a guilty pleasure, is the presence of Lon Chaney. Later in his career. His performance is a variation on his Lenny in the 1939 Of Mice and Men. (Chaney had already portrayed The Wolf Man, Son of Dracula, The Mummy, the Ghost of Frankenstein.) Is a giant presence, menace, many close-ups of his tormented eyes, and his being unable to speak after the electrocution procedure.
The film relies on a quite extensive voice-over, rather intrusive to modern tastes, spoken by the chief detective, played by Max Showalter with his screen name of Casey Adams. There is also a young woman, again the familiar story, from a country town, no family, screen test, not employed, responding to the advertisement for a burlesque show. Unintentionally, she becomes involved with The Butcher who leaves her a note as to where the money from a robbery was stowed, in the Los Angeles sewers. The note is taken by the crooked lawyer who sets up his associates to recoup the money.
However, the Butcher is on the loose, stealing a car, killing two police at a roadblock, tracking down the two associates and killing them, pursuing the lawyer who, in fear, tries to get himself arrested so that he would not be killed. In fear, he confesses everything to the police who then pursue the Butcher through the sewers, his exit which leads him to a huge power plant where, as we might expect, he is electrocuted and dies.
The action was filmed on location in Los Angeles, in the city streets, at the Angel Flight cable car, in old hotels with elaborate elevators.
For audiences who enjoy old B-budget films, a guilty pleasure.
