The Mad Ghoul

Another Universal pleasure, spinning out a horror framework behind a story of three men in love with the same woman. Evelyn Ankers is the beauteous object of affection, playing a concert singer engaged to a handsome college student (David Bruce), but she's fallen for her pianist (Turhan Bey), while the student's mad scientist mentor (George Zucco) is hopelessly smitten. The scientist achieves a "living death' syndrome to his unwilling student, eventually using it as a tool to rid the pianist. The stars are great, earnest and engaging, particularly Bruce and Zucco. Grand soundtrack and fog-shrouded, shadowy scenes abound. A fun, time-capsule flick from the masters.

"The Mad Ghoul" deserves to be as well known as the majority of Universal genre product of its time. Granted, it IS a little light on horror elements, but its mad scientist, played by the incomparable George Zucco, is right up there with the maddest of the bunch. On the way to the big finale, we get repeated scenes of grave robbing, and a mad scientist lab full of equipment.

Zucco plays Dr. Morris, an ambitious professor / scientist who's managed to replicate the poison gas used by an ancient culture (just which culture that is, is never explained). He uses it to manipulate his impressionable student / guinea pig Ted Allison (David Bruce) into a career of, well, ghoulish activities. Also, the fiendish Dr. Morris wants Teds' girlfriend Isabel Lewis (gorgeous Evelyn Ankers), a successful singer, all to himself. This, despite the fact that Isabel has actually fallen out of love with Ted and is involved with her piano accompanist Eric Iverson (Turhan Bey).

"The Mad Ghoul" is devilish fun, in large part thanks to this great cast (also including Robert Armstrong of "King Kong" fame as an aggressive reporter, Milburn Stone, Andrew Tombes, Rose Hobart, Addison Richards, and a young Charles McGraw). Zucco is just a deliciously evil bad guy, spurring his unfortunate assistant to action; Ted is a young man who's as much a victim as other characters in the story. The film is not as thickly atmospheric as the best films in the Universal catalogue, but it does have decent graveyard scenes.

Bruce is a sympathetic instrument of destruction, covered in typically good - but not overdone - makeup by that master of Universal horror effects, Jack P. Pierce. And Ankers is a luminous leading lady. (She would have liked to do her own singing, but producer Ben Pivar dubbed her with old recordings by Lillian Cornell.)

Worth a look for fans of this studios' famed genre output.

Seven out of 10.

Lovely concert singer Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers) is engaged to marry medical student Ted Allison (David Bruce.) When she unexpectedly falls in love with her pianist Eric Iverson (a very suave Turhan Bey), she turns to Ted's laboratory boss Dr. Morris (George Zucco.) But it happens that Dr. Morris is in love with Isabel himself, and he decides to get rid of his assistant by subjecting him to ancient Mayan gas! Unfortunately for Ted, this gas is of a particularly nasty sort: it transforms him into a zombie-like creature. Under the control of Dr. Morris, Ted then participates in gathering the human hearts he must have for injections that allow him to return, temporarily, to normal.

The idea for this story seems to arise from a number of sources, most particularly the silent classic THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, the various versions of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, and THE RETURN OF DR. X--the latter a particularly peculiar B-flick featuring an unexpected Humphrey Bogart as a lab-created vampire of sorts. It other hands, the concept might have worked quite well, but although the cast is accomplished and the production values are generally quite good, the make-up effects are hardly up to the Universal standard, the pace is slow, and the script is quite dire.

The film makes no effort to create any sort of "transformation" when actor David Bruce goes from golly-gee lab assistant to shambling zombie; it is a straight cut-away, cut-back-to shot, and the latter finds him in uninspired make-up and with very untidy hair. Director James P. Hogan maintains a pace every bit as leaden-footed as the zombie, and as for the script... well, it is probably this sort of script that Evelyn Ankers, the studio's "Scream Queen" of the 1940s, had in mind when she walked away from Universal a year later. Given the talents of the cast and the overall look of the film, which (make-up effects aside) is handsomely mounted, I find it difficult to give this film less than three stars. All the same, I greatly doubt that THE MAD GHOUL will have any appeal for those outside the circle die-hard Universal horror fans.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

George Zucco plays University professor Dr. Alfred Morris, who has discovered an ancient Mayan gas that was used to control the human sacrifices made in their rituals. David Bruce plays his student Ted Allison, who is recruited to be his assistant for the summer. Unfortunately for Ted, his professor is quite ruthless, and uses him as an experiment to try his recreation of the Mayan gas on. He succeeds, but Ted turns into the "mad ghoul" who helps the doctor rifle graves to cut out their hearts for more experiments in overcoming the gas, though this won't do poor Ted much good... Evelyn Ankers has a small role as his girlfriend. Good "ghoulish" premise, but film is strangely meandering and unconvincing, not to mention overly talky and dull. Good cast makes it semi-watchable, but film still fails, though does have a poetic final fade-out.

During the 1940s, George Zucco made a ton of horror films--most of them for crappy little studios and with microscopic budgets. However, occasionally he'd appear in a decent film--one with higher production values and plots which made a bit more sense. This is the case with "The Mad Ghoul", as Zucco appeared in a film by Universal--a studio that made horror films just a bit better than everyone else.

Ted is in love with Isabel. He apparently can look past her annoying singing (it's very operatic and you either like it or hate it--most folks today would hate it). However, Ted doesn't know that the professor he's working for, Dr. Morris (Zucco), is a maniac who will do anything to possess Isabel. Eventually, Morris uses a gas he's created to turn Ted into a maniac who will do whatever the doctor tells him---including kill. What's next? See the film.

The acting is a tiny bit better than the usual B and the plot, though a bit silly, quite enjoyable if you like this sort of thing. Worth seeing.