Terror Is a Man

It's yet another version of H.G. Wells' THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, shot as a Phillippine-American co-production. Francis Lederer is the mad doctor who is trying to evolve animals faster than nature can; Greta Thyssen is his hot blonde wife, because when a mad scientist marries, it's always a hot chick, so that the rugged hero, here Richard Derr, can tempt her. That is, I suppose, because people don't care what happens to animals unless it involves gene-splicing, but the hot wife considering cheating on her husband with a hunky stranger.... yowza!

Although the 'monster' here is a transmuted panther, who winds up looking like a buff furry in mummy wrappings, isn't given much screen time, but there is an air of humanism in the story, a sense that animals should be treated better, and that's a good thing. Also, the photography is excellent, barring a mismatched day-for-night sequence near the end. Credit Emmanuel I. Rojas, who worked in a lot of Phillippine co-productions from 1951 through his death at age 57 in 1968.