The Mad Doctor of Market Street

Mad scientist Lionel Atwill is at it again. This time he's run out of San Francisco for performing experiments that involve killing people so he can bring them back to life. He eventually makes his way to a tropical island where he uses his scientific abilities to fool the natives into thinking he has the power of resurrection. Minor Universal horror film is still enjoyable. Lionel Atwill is great as always. He's got some nice support from the likes of Noble Johnson, Claire Dodd, and John Eldredge. Nat Pendleton and cutie Una Merkel provide the comic relief. It's not a classic but any movie where Atwill plays a villain, especially a mad scientist, is worth checking out.

This one stars Lionel Atwill, and it probably won't come as much of a surprise to learn that he's the one playing the titular mad doctor. A self-appointed physician, Dr. Ralph Benson (Atwill) conducts an experiment on a man, the pseudo-scientist attempting to put his subject in suspended animation and them revive him. The man dies, and Benson flees, wanted for murder.

Benson changes his identity and books himself on a luxury cruise bound for New Zealand, but the ship catches fire and he is forced to get into a lifeboat with several other passengers and seek refuge on a nearby island. The natives of the island think that the white people are evil and plan to burn them alive, but Benson uses his medical knowledge to resuscitate a woman who they think has died (in reality, she has suffered a heart attack); the group is spared and Benson is declared a god.

Benson plans to stay on the island and continue his experiments, using the other passengers as guinea pigs, and so they decide to make a bid for freedom...

A routine B-movie elevated slightly above awful by Atwill, The Mad Doctor of Market Street offers very little to get excited about. The best scenes are of the panic-stricken passengers clambering over each other to get off the burning ship - almost everything that occurs on the island is predictable and dull low-budget nonsense using left-over jungle sets from other South Seas potboilers. At the end of the film, Atwill is roasted alive (off-screen) for being unable to revive a drowned native, while the other passengers are rescued by a search plane that spots them in the nick of time.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for Atwill.

As some of you may know, for the longest time I was only familiar with the more popular of the classic Universal horror/sci-fi films; recently, however, I managed to get my hands on a number of their lesser and/or non-monster outings – needless to say, few if any of these proved as rewarding in the long run…though they were never less than entertaining, something which the vintage Hollywood product could always be relied upon to deliver.

This, then, marks Lionel Atwill’s last starring role as a result of his fall from grace in a trial which exposed scandalous behavior in private – and which would subsequently relegate him to Poverty Row or virtually nothing parts in Universal chillers! In any case, he gives the titular role his all – in fact, I don’t think I’d seen Atwill being so arrogant (spouting lines such as “I’ll be the most important man to have ever walked the earth” with complete immodesty, as if it was second nature to him!) and wild-eyed since the delightfully Pre-Code MURDERS IN THE ZOO (1933). Incidentally, I may be attributing undue importance to the fact but I wonder whether the script intended to give his character’s ‘control’ over death a religious undertone – at one point, Atwill mentions that he’ll be able to bring back to life someone who’d been dead for three days (a reference to Jesus Christ?), while the unwilling ‘guinea pig’ hero is buried in the rocks and the entrance to the tomb covered by a huge stone (as we’re told in the Bible that Lazarus was)…!

Not knowing all that much about the film beforehand, I was surprised to see this turn out to be more of a jungle adventure (especially given the title) – following the opening moments set in the city and a brief stint on board ship which, pretty soon, ends up submerged and the only six survivors eventually land on a tropical isle. Atwill is a “pseudo-doctor” whose notorious experiments with suspended animation (recalling the Boris Karloff vehicle THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES [1940]) has landed him in professional disrepute, not to mention in hot water with the Law – I’m sure the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on the beleaguered actor!; anyway, he flees on a cruise-liner traveling all the way to New Zealand and, as I said, ends up ashore in uncharted territory with a bunch of other passengers. This doesn’t stop him from continuing his experiments (for one thing, finding the locals convenient and gullible subjects) – actually, he’d been traveling incognito but, when the native leader’s woman goes into a coma from a heart attack, he can’t resist impressing them with his life-giving ‘magic’…after which they name him “God Of Life” and, naturally, he appoints himself there and then supreme ruler of the island (these obvious Fascist attributes more than anything expose it as a product of the war years)!

The film falls into a category best described as comedy-horror or, if you like, horror comic; neither element is really all that successful – though the former (provided by Una Merkel, top-billed despite her character being clearly of secondary interest[!], and Nat Pendleton) isn’t overly intrusive, the latter is too familiar to generate much suspense…while the jungle setting eschews the fog-laden atmosphere usually representing the ‘in-house’ Universal style! The remaining members from the civilized world are a selfish ship’s officer who leaves the others behind when attempting to flee the isle in a canoe – only to be killed by a native, and the obligatory romantic couple (Merkel’s niece and another former crew member of the sunken liner) – typically, the two had gotten off on the wrong foot but are slowly drawn together…especially after Atwill is persuaded into taking a wife by the native woman he ‘resuscitated’ and, naturally, singles out the heroine for this role. By the way, the film’s biggest laugh is an unintentional one: during Atwill and Claire Dodd’s marriage, following the native custom, some doubt is deliberately thrown by his companions on the unethical activity he leads, which causes the celebrations to cease abruptly – at which, perplexed, Atwill asks the native leader to order his men to “dance…or something” (as delivered by the actor in his inimitable high-strung fashion, it not only shows all too clearly the character’s disdain of their lot but definitely edges the film into camp territory; I know I couldn’t stop giggling for a good five minutes afterwards!).

His status on the island takes further beating when the native who killed the escaping officer also turns up dead; the hero – belatedly introducing himself as being well versed in medicine himself (a plot point so contrived as to smack of lazy scripting!) – knows that Atwill’s miracles were performed on people who only had the semblance of death, so that he’ll never be able to reap results in this particular case (though, up until this time, it was never intimated that he could be a charlatan but rather came across as typically misguided but genuinely obsessed!) and the natives will turn on him as a result…which they do in a fiery climax that barely registers (incidentally, some rather important exposition in the fast-paced 61-minute film is entirely by-passed or taken for granted). Tying with my comments about the same director’s CRIMINALS WITHIN (1943), which I’ve also just watched, Lewis’ hand is apparent here via his choice of odd angles on a number of occasions (though the shot of an intense Atwill approaching the camera, holding a chloroformed cloth to subdue an intended victim, is unfortunately diluted through sheer repetition!). By the way, the music for the film – credited solely to “Musical Director” Hans J. Salter – includes recognizable cues from Frank Skinner’s classic SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) score (Universal shamelessly, and habitually, re-cycled these…as hardened genre fans are surely aware!).

A textbook example of Universal's streamlined approach to churning out quickie "horror" products in the early 1940s is The Mad Doctor of Market Street: backlot sets, truncated run time, a script that disintegrates upon scrutiny, familiar contract players, and recycled musical cues. It is also a wonderfully entertaining movie that merrily skips about disregarding logic while stitching together two popular topics of the day: mad scientists and South Seas jungle adventures. What separates the wheat from the chaff in this case is a delicious performance by Lionel Atwill, sometimes dubbed the "maddest doctor of them all", who provides one of his most flamboyant turns in this guise.

Dr. Ralph Benson (Atwill) is an unhinged medico who longs to perfect suspended animation as a means to prolong life indefinitely and establish himself before the world as a God-like being. Following uninterrupted success with animals his first attempt on a human fails forcing Benson to take it on the lam. He boards a passenger steamer for New Zealand but his bad luck continues: the ship suffers a fatal fire and sinks. Benson and a handful of survivors wind up on a pacific island inhabited by superstitious natives eager to burn them alive. Fate intervenes when Benson saves the life of Tanao (Rosina Galli), the wife of the chief Elon (Noble Johnson), and is proclaimed the "God of Life". Reveling in his celebrity status Benson plans on continuing his experiments using his fellow castaways as unwitting subjects.

The original screenplay is credited to Al Martin who provides Atwill with a plethora of scenery-chewing opportunities. The narrative glosses over obvious questions like how Benson eludes the city wide dragnet out to get him, how people know the Mad Doctor of Market Street is on the boat yet have no idea what he looks like, how Benson's group escapes the burning ship and arrives unscathed on a beautiful beach, and so on. Martin is content to focus on the crazed Doctor and expects viewers to do the same while ignoring the Flash Gordon aspects of the plot. Atwill enjoys several well-written speeches detailing his all-consuming mania to become immortal in the eyes of man while demonstrating how completely unhinged he is. Meanwhile the rest of the cast must grapple with inane dialogue, unfunny comedy bits, and, in the case of the natives, a particularly degrading portrayal.

Director Joseph H. Lewis keeps events moving at a rapid pace to compensate for the logistical potholes in the story. Clearly hamstrung by a limited budget he employs abundant stock footage to portray the burning ship at sea and the rescue planes hunting for survivors while saddled with a laughably obvious toy boat in a studio tank for establishing shots. He does avoid the pitfall of ersatz indoor studio jungle sets by filming outside which adds immeasurably to the suspension of disbelief (such as it is). The opening sequence in Benson's darkened office, detailing the setup for his first human experiment, is impressively done with low lighting and a film noirish atmosphere. Lionel Atwill benefits from a career's worth of tight closeups accentuating his eyes and devilish countenance while Lewis perhaps goes to the well too often with undeniably impressive subjective shots of Atwill menacingly holding out a chloroformed object as he slowly advances towards the camera lense. Lewis also makes wonderful use of HJ Salter's familiar musical cues from Son of Frankenstein and Black Friday to assist in putting over the melodramatics. Perhaps the most chilling moment in the film is a shot of Benson's test tubes that dissolves into a roaring fire indicating what is about to happen to the man when his luck runs out.

Mad Doctor affords Lionel Atwill a field day for his unique talents. Rarely one to restrain himself the actor swings for the fences with outrageously flamboyant line readings and vivid depiction of a man with an insatiable ego who only wants to benefit mankind so he can be exalted as a deity. Whether smooth talking test subjects, reveling in his God of Life title, puffing on a cigar while watching ship passengers make fools of themselves, nonchalantly dumping nosy private investigators overboard, or fiendishly enjoying succulent native fruits while contemplating his next unholy act Atwill thoroughly dominates the film. It is an absolute crime that Universal deprived him of top billing (for Una Merkel of all people) not to mention having the script take shots at his doughy physique. Such disrespect was usually reserved for Bela Lugosi but apparently the studio had plenty to go around. This film would be unwatchable today if not for Atwill's bombastic performance.

The rest of the cast struggles in vain to remain buoyant in Atwill's wake. Beautiful Claire Dodd looks especially gorgeous as the love interest and registers well with her emoting; unfortunately onscreen boyfriend Richard Davies is endlessly bland. As the purveyors of the alleged comedy relief the aforementioned Una Merkel grates on the nerves with her screechy voice while Nat Pendleton also strikes out as a dumbbell boxer. Reduced to a bit role is Anne Nagel, who costarred with Atwill in Man Made Monster and acquitted herself quite well less than a year earlier, as the weepy wife of Atwill's first victim. Finally there is Noble Johnson, once the chief of Skull Island in King Kong, reduced to the kingpin of this tropical destination who is all too eager to put trespassers into the fire (and after what the white folks did to Skull Island who can blame him?).

While it will never be confused with any of the more noteworthy Universal chillers from the War Years The Mad Doctor of Market Street is a harmless bit of fun with delightful illogic and a familiar feel from the studio. Most of all it has a superior turn by genre icon Lionel Atwill who appears to be enjoying the time of his life in a superbly written role. Definitely worth a watch for fans of both the actor and the studio.

Lionel Atwill plays Br Benson a scientist experimenting with suspended animation. Atwill has found a way of putting animals in to suspended animation, then curing their disease and then bringing them back to life. Unfortunately when he tries to move to people the good doctor finds that he can not revive his subjects thus provoking the police to look for the murderer. Fleeing he boards a ship and heads for the south seas. When the ship catches fire, Atwill and several other survivors end up on an island where Atwill uses his medical tricks to enslave the natives.

B movie or not this is a mess of a movie. The film starts okay, with Atwill trying his experiment on a man trying to get money for his family. The police burst in and he's forced to flee. After that comedy sets in and the film doesn't know what it wants to be. Once the ship sinks and the survivors end up on the island things become a mixed bag.

Its it suppose to be serious or a comedy? First billed Una Merkel makes me think it was a comedy. Merkel as a crazy woman going to New Zealand for the fifth time to find love would usually be in the background to Atwill's craziness, but here she's often front and center. The problem is that the comedy is very heavy handed and not very funny. As a drama it isn't much better. Its natives in sarongs bowing before the mad Atwill, who looks bored and distracted. It reminded me of some of the dreadful jungle monster pictures from the 1950's where the mad scientist goes to the jungle and sets some creature loose like in From Hell it Came, except those movies were fun.

I don't think that it helps that this film has something resembling a budget. Certainly the use of stock footage helped, but the fact that Universal spent probably twice what something like Republic, Monogram or a Poverty Row studio made me think that this would be something more than a really cheesy film. I know the reasonable look of the film made it hard to forgive the dopey script.

To be honest this is a hard film to really discuss. Its a light weight B movie that is not bad enough to make one want to spend time commenting on it. Its a bad movie that makes you want to forget it after you've seen it, with a "well that was a waste of an hour" before moving on to something else. Its a misfire and not worth saying anything bad about simply because the movie inflicts enough damage on itself.

Not worth bothering with except as a footnote in Lionel Atwill's career, his last starring role, and possibly his worst performance.