If you take out all of the padding in this film, it would run about 25 minutes. Probably long enough to be an episode of Twilight Zone, but Rod Serling would have had none of it.
Alex Marsh (John Agar) is a scientist working on an experiment where he is perfecting an aerosol paralysis drug for medical purposes. Robin William's dad - complete with suspenders - accidentally walks into the desert location where the experiment is taking place and collapses. Alex and his assistant revive him, and Alex goes immediately to his boss, Dr. Ramsey, and tells him they have a successful human trial. But wait! There's more! Alex wants to combine the anesthetic with a hypnotic drug to be used as a military weapon that will paralyze entire armies and populations so that they will not resist. He figures this will render nuclear weapons obsolete. His boss is interested. His girlfriend is horrified.
Well, things don't go well for Alex. In his haste and tireless efforts to find the right combination of the compound he seeks, he absorbs too much of the drug over time and then a lab accident causes him to inhale a great deal at once. The drug first causes him to hallucinate, then start to turn more and more tanned, and then - due to the limited budget I guess - he abruptly turns into a walking lump of charcoal. His face looks like a cross between a lizard person and a lump of charcoal. So what does he do? He decides to leave his boss' house, where several antidotes have been unsuccessful, and disguises himself with - a raincoat and a hat??? He still has a clearly visible face that looks like a overcooked lizard! He almost immediately wrecks the car he is driving and then just spends 20 minutes wandering the streets and then the beach with no discernable aim. Did I mention that one touch of his hand burns people to a crisp so that they look like charcoal lizard people too? Except they are dead.
So many bad decisions here. First of all Alex' lack of lab safety when dealing with deadly chemicals. Then when Alex realizes his touch kills - he accidentally kills his lab assistant - he decides to burn his lab to the ground, and escape to his boss' house. There his boss and Alex' girlfriend lie to the police when they call about the burned down lab building with the body inside and say they have no idea where Alex is.
So the padding consists of the first 15 minutes which is largely meaningless banter between Alex' girlfriend, Alex' boss, and Tom, who wants to replace Alex. By the end of the film I feel Tom's chances are looking up. Then there are the last 20 minutes with Alex wandering the streets. The humanist encounters between the Frankenstein monster and the German villagers this portion of the film is not. Since when did bongo music imply horror? Even in the 60s?
Very cheaply made, very short and yet too long, pedestrian dialogue, and ultimately boring. Heck, I don't know if they are even employing John Agar as Alex by the end of the film since the monster is rendered mute and unrecognizable. The rights for this were retained by 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney. Somehow I don't see this showing up on Disney+.
Alex Marsh (John Agar) is a scientist working on an experiment where he is perfecting an aerosol paralysis drug for medical purposes. Robin William's dad - complete with suspenders - accidentally walks into the desert location where the experiment is taking place and collapses. Alex and his assistant revive him, and Alex goes immediately to his boss, Dr. Ramsey, and tells him they have a successful human trial. But wait! There's more! Alex wants to combine the anesthetic with a hypnotic drug to be used as a military weapon that will paralyze entire armies and populations so that they will not resist. He figures this will render nuclear weapons obsolete. His boss is interested. His girlfriend is horrified.
Well, things don't go well for Alex. In his haste and tireless efforts to find the right combination of the compound he seeks, he absorbs too much of the drug over time and then a lab accident causes him to inhale a great deal at once. The drug first causes him to hallucinate, then start to turn more and more tanned, and then - due to the limited budget I guess - he abruptly turns into a walking lump of charcoal. His face looks like a cross between a lizard person and a lump of charcoal. So what does he do? He decides to leave his boss' house, where several antidotes have been unsuccessful, and disguises himself with - a raincoat and a hat??? He still has a clearly visible face that looks like a overcooked lizard! He almost immediately wrecks the car he is driving and then just spends 20 minutes wandering the streets and then the beach with no discernable aim. Did I mention that one touch of his hand burns people to a crisp so that they look like charcoal lizard people too? Except they are dead.
So many bad decisions here. First of all Alex' lack of lab safety when dealing with deadly chemicals. Then when Alex realizes his touch kills - he accidentally kills his lab assistant - he decides to burn his lab to the ground, and escape to his boss' house. There his boss and Alex' girlfriend lie to the police when they call about the burned down lab building with the body inside and say they have no idea where Alex is.
So the padding consists of the first 15 minutes which is largely meaningless banter between Alex' girlfriend, Alex' boss, and Tom, who wants to replace Alex. By the end of the film I feel Tom's chances are looking up. Then there are the last 20 minutes with Alex wandering the streets. The humanist encounters between the Frankenstein monster and the German villagers this portion of the film is not. Since when did bongo music imply horror? Even in the 60s?
Very cheaply made, very short and yet too long, pedestrian dialogue, and ultimately boring. Heck, I don't know if they are even employing John Agar as Alex by the end of the film since the monster is rendered mute and unrecognizable. The rights for this were retained by 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney. Somehow I don't see this showing up on Disney+.