The Man Who Turned to Stone

This 1957 movie from Columbia has an interesting premise...several scientists, who are over 200 years old, are running a girl's "reform school" so they can obtain energy from the young women to sustain their unnaturally long lives.

This is a typical low budget 1950's picture...cheap sets and no big name actors. William Hudson, most famous for playing the cheating husband in the class sci-fi thriller, "Attack of the 50 ft Woman", portrays Dr. Jess Rogers, who has been sent to the reform school to investigate several mysterious deaths of young women at the school. Charlotte Austin plays Carol Adams, an idealistic social worker at the school who starts to suspect foul play when so many healthy young woman suddenly die of "heart failure".

Several of the "girls" at the school look like they are being played by actresses who are way too long in the tooth to be teenagers or young woman. Despite this fact, the movie is interesting in it's premise. Victor Jory portrays the sinister head of the reformatory, Dr. Murdock. He is responsible for the "experiments" that end up with the murder of the girls at the school. When the 200 year old scientists are ready for a transfusion they start to turn to stone, hence the title of the movie. The make-up used to show the scientists turning to stone is not at all scary, actually it's laughable.

I liked this movie and thought it was fun. It's definitely not academy award winning material, but if you enjoy "b" movies from the 1950's you should enjoy this one.

Even though I don't often use the term, this 1950s B horror has become a favorite "guilty pleasure" of mine. It's has an enjoyably weird and sordid premise, even if it's loaded with plot holes and requires a heaping suspension of disbelief. A detention center for women is experiencing an unusually high rate of random heart attack deaths by healthy young female inmates. It turns out that the newest staff of eccentric middle-agers now running the prison are actually centuries-old people who kidnap the girls, and then drain their life forces in order to keep themselves from aging further. The problem is, if they miss their latest energy boosts, they start to turn into stone. A kindly social worker (Charlotte Austin, later in FRANKENSTEIN 1970) and psychiatrist William Hudson (the bad hubby of ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FT. WOMAN) investigate the strange occurrences. Victor Jory is suitably creepy as the head villain. This has some disturbing moments considering its era, and is just offbeat enough to remain consistently interesting. **1/2 out of ****

While "The Man Who Turned to Stone" may at first look like just another schlocky horror film, it turns out to be highly original and well worth watching! Sure it is a bit schlocky...but most enjoyably so!

The story is set at a women's reformatory. Too many of the young ladies seem to be dying by accidents or suicides and Dr. Rogers decides to look into the matter. Through the course of the film, he learns that the folks running the facility are actually incredibly old...over 200 years old! It seems that they came upon a way to transfer the life essence from a young lady into them...allowing them to seemingly live forever. However, if they don't get the transfer of energy, these folks become mindless and soon turn to mummies (complete with really cool make-up). Can he get to the heart of things before evil Dr. Murdock (Victor Jory) or his minions stop him?

What I really liked about the movie is that they managed to make a ridiculous story idea seem plausible. It also had a well thought out plot and was clever and engaging throughout.

The aim of becoming immortal is a fairly common theme in horror movies and has been experimented with often. A feature that is often a part of movies that focus on this idea is the central perpetrator killing off living people in order to achieve their aim of immortality, and that's basically what we have with this film. The Man Who Turned to Stone was clearly shot on a budget and is very much a 1950's 'B' picture, but in spite of that this film showcases some good ideas and the plot, while completely lacking in suspense, is at least interesting enough to keep the audience entertained for the duration; although that duration is only seventy two minutes. The plot focuses on a group of scientists that have beaten death by way of keeping the series of chemical reactions that keeps everyone alive going. The downside to this, however, is the fact that in order to keep this going; they have to sacrifice a human life. The scientists are currently residing over a women's prison, and the prisoners are starting to wonder why so many of their number is disappearing...

The script written by Bernard Gordon has its fair number of plot holes, inconsistencies and illogical events; but you have to expect that sort of thing from a fifties B-movie. The film was shot on a budget and it really shows; it looks cheap throughout and nothing about it is particularly outstanding. The plot is definitely interesting in spite of this; and in spite of the fact that it contains very little in the way of tension or suspense. Finding out exactly what is behind the central mystery is really the only thing that manages to keep the film going for most of the duration. The acting is not great either, with none of the little known central cast really impressing. The prison setting is not convincing, with most of the girls being quite happy and there's not a sign of anything restraining them to the building in site. Once the main revelation is out of the way, the film boils down to a rather predictable ending. However, despite all the film's flaws; The Man Who Turned to Stone is at least a fun timewaster and doesn't outstay its welcome.

Man Who Turned to Stone, The (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Low key Columbia horror film about a 200+ year-old doctor who keeps himself alive by having his assistants kill off girls at a detention center. When his assistants try and turn against him, the man becomes a walking piece of stone and seeks revenge. This is a very low budget movie but it's pretty good throughout due in large part to some strong direction by Laszlo Kardos. The ending is very well done and there's a large amount of atmosphere throughout the picture even though it's really nothing original. The make up effects are also pretty good considering the budget and with the proper lighting the monster too comes off well.