HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER

US, 1958, 73 minutes, Colour/black and white.
Robert H. Harris, Paul Brinegar, Gary Conway, Gary Clarke, Malcolm Atterbury.
Directed by Herbert L. Strock.

How to Make a Monster was a follow-up at American International Pictures from their success with I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (posters of which appear in the film).

The idea is quite ingenious. The premise is that American International Pictures have sold to new buyers who want to get rid of the horror films and sack the makeup artist who has presided there for twenty-five years (since the days of Dracula and Frankenstein). He does not take this well – and finds a way to use a face makeup to change the mentality of two of the young actors who portray Frankenstein and the werewolf. They murder two of the executives – while the makeup artist himself kills a nosy policeman.

The film is interesting in its presentation of the makeup artist, a man who lives only for his work, dominating his assistant (played by Paul Brinegar). The film shows him perfecting the makeup for the monsters, devoted to the film-making, upset when he is asked to leave, going madder as he devises ways of killing the studio heads while keeping a cool exterior, answering the police investigations. Robert H. Harris is very good as the makeup artist.

The two young monsters are played by Gary Conway and Gary Clarke who had careers in television for several decades.

The film is humorous in its presentation of American International Pictures studios themselves, saving money from the budget. However, the film is a touch prophetic insofar as American International itself after this cycle of horror films moved into the kind of low-budget musicals and beach party films that this film predicts. (There is a pseudo-Elvis Presley dance sequence inserted to indicate to audiences of the time what the trends were.)

This was one of the films remade in the 1990s and early 21st century, a tribute to these small-budget American International classics. The new film, 2001, keeps something of the same plotline but it is set in a studio which makes video games and the monster comes alive from the computers themselves, wreaking vengeance on the players and creators.

1.The popularity of this kind of B-budget horror film in the 1950s? How well does it stand up today?

2.Black and white photography, the studio, the sets, the masks, the makeup? The studio for Pete Dumond? The musical score?

3.The premise of the plot: the studios in the 1950s selling out, new management from the east coming in, sacking people, changing the programs? The portraits of Jeffrey Clayton and John Nixon? Their handling of Pete’s sacking? Their watching the rushes, the Elvis-type musical? The monster film? Their being murdered by the young men with their monster masks?

4.The security guards, their role, the security guard who checked on the details, threatens Pete? His death? Security guard Richards and his collaboration with the police?

5.The character of Pete Dumond, devoting twenty-five years to his work, making up Larry, the teeth, the congratulations of the director? His reaction to being sacked? His madness? His face cream? Its effect, changing the minds of the young actors? The murders? Using the cream himself? Murdering the security guard? His domination of Rivero? Threatening him? His being interrogated by the police? The finding of some of the face cream, the analysis? His taking the young men home, wanting the celebration, wanting to kill them? Rivero and his confrontation, his death? The attempt to kill the young men, the accidental fire, his death in the fire?

6.Rivero, helping Pete, subservient? Afraid, the interrogations, his specious arguing with Pete? His death?

7.Tony and Larry, the young actors, their careers, their agent? Their friendship with Pete? Their films? The murders? Their girlfriends? Going to the house, discussing the issues, realising some of the truth? The attempt on their lives, the fire, their escape?

8.The police, the investigation, the interrogations?

9.The background of studio work? The popularity in the late 50s of the teenage horror films? The passing of an era?