Too much of everything

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A murderer known as The Butcher is betrayed by his lawyer and two friends who want to get thousands of dollars he has hidden somewhere in Los Angeles. However, the betrayal leads to The Butcher's death in the gas chamber. A scientist has the body stolen and brings it back to life in a scene highly reminiscent of FRANKENSTEIN, but without the budget. The Butcher finds that his cell number has increased, which leads to a thickening of his skin, making him indestructible. Filled with rage, he murders the scientist and his assistant and makes for the city. His murder of two policeman soon means that the police are looking for him. His betrayers begin to die, thrown off high ledges as the Butcher extracts his revenge.Lon Chaney Jr. takes centre stage again in this disappointing shocker. The film does have some good elements, mainly the leading actor, but spends far too much time on minor characters. One scene of people talking in a car lasts for over five minutes, or so it seems. However the film is worth watching for a number of elements, such as when Chaney stabs his hand with scissors to no effect, or when a needle put in his arm breaks off. Unfortunately the rest of the cast are unappealing, and as Chaney is a sympathetic murderer, his performance is the only one worth watching. The film is presented in a DRAGNET style, with the voice over explaining the proceedings for us.It's very low budget, but if you like to see what mid-'50s America looked like then this is the horror film to watch. At least it is intelligent for a change, and has some nice special effects, even if they are very simple. I especially liked Chaney's face after he'd been burnt. As a matter of interest, what was with the close ups of Chaney's eyes? Were they supposed to be scary? Frankly, I found his squinting more amusing than terrifying. As a film, this one stinks, but if you're not too hard on it then you'll find yourself enjoying it. My first exposure to Chaney is entertaining but ultimately disappointing.

In 1956 Lon Chaney Jr returned to the horror genre with Indestructible Man and The Black Sleep, the less said about The Black Sleep the better. Anyway it had been eight years since Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein and four years since his role as a mute henchman in The Black Castle. Fans of his will be interested to know that this is a semi of remake of Man Made Monster (1941) the movie which typecast him in horror genre.Here he plays a robber sentenced to death and he has the nickname Butch so I assume he also killed people, he's bought back to life via a Frankenstein type way but the electricity has damaged his vocal cords, fans of Chaney Jr will know that because of his alcohol problem he often asked for his dialogue be eliminated, entirely if possible so apart from the opening scene he has no dialogue. Having been bought back to life he's a man on a mission to kill his ex partners who set him up. Two brilliant scenes are when he kills the scientist and assistant that bought him back to life and around the half hour mark when he kills two cops. The detective hot on his trail is Max Showalter and he narrates the story similar to Friday in the TV show Dragnet.While everything else in the movie is fine the good work of the cast and crew is tainted a little bit the silly romantic sub plot with the detective and Chaney's ex girlfriend played by Marian Carr, in my opinion it seemed forced and didn't do anything for the story.All in all a must see for fans of Lon Chaney Jr or fans of 1950's B horror movies.

I was pretty much weaned on this entertaining sci-fi/horror TV staple back in the early 1970s. As such, I certainly have a nostalgic bias in favor of it, but I do think it's truly a better genre experience than its unfairly maligned reputation may suggest. Lon Chaney takes on the title role of a Los Angeles criminal named Butcher Benton, who is on death row and taking the rap from two of his traitorous cohorts who turned state's evidence against him at his trial. His scheming lawyer is also involved in sending him down the river, and so just before Butcher gets executed he vows to kill all those "crumbs" who wronged him. Conveniently, Benton manages to get his chance when he's accidentally revived after a couple of scientists acquire his dead carcass for experimental purposes. Granted, I cannot truly call this a "good movie" in the cinematic sense, but I just have too much of a good time when watching INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN to give it anything less than two and a half stars out of four. One of the elements I really like about this is that it feels like a film noir movie, with DRAGNET-like narration. There's a police investigation with Casey Adams as a dedicated detective seeking to solve the mystery of missing loot from an armored car robbery, and his getting involved with a showgirl who used to be linked with Butcher Benton. The story makes nice use of actual L.A. locations like the marvelous "Angel's Flight" with its cable cars (no longer in existence). Although Lon Chaney has a couple of fun lines early in the picture, once he comes back to life he plays it ominously mute, like an unstoppable electrified Frankenstein monster of brute power, with quivering maniacal eyes. Always a guilty pleasure film I revisit at least once per year. **1/2 out of ****

Indestructible Man (1956) ** (out of 4) A scientist brings an executed killer (Lon Chaney, Jr.) back to life who eventually goes on a killing spree in this minor cult classic. I'm really not sure why this film has gained a rather nice following over the years but perhaps it's due to its public domain status or perhaps it's due to the rather strange style that the film was made. With the Dragnet-like narration and strange performance from Chaney, those two mixtures make for a unique film that isn't very good but it is quite watchable. The entire Dragnet thing is rather annoying in my opinion because the story really isn't strong enough or original enough for the police/thriller aspect to work. The dialogue in the spoken narration is also quite silly to the point where you never really believe that you're listening to a cop speak. As for Chaney, his performance is mute throughout, which is something I've seen him do more than any other actor I can think of as I write this. His mute performance is rather good but with some of the editing it brings a surreal and rather strange feel to it overall. The supporting performances are all rather bland but they really don't hurt the film any.