A waste of 90 minutes of my life

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

George Zucco is my favorite horror movie actor. He made the most of any crappy script he was handed and always turned in a great performance. His trademark sinister stare could even give Boris Karloff the shivers. He was always a standout in any movie cast he was a part of. The Mad Ghoul is Zucco's movie. Even though David Bruce plays the title monster it's Zucco who is the true monster and he is delightfully evil as Dr Alfred Morris.David Bruce was probably the least intimidating monster in any of the Universal horror movies.He plays Ted Allison. Ted is dumped by Isobel and screwed by Dr Morris so he is the chump of the month in this movie In his ghoul make up , he looked like he had stuck his finger in an electric plug at a flour mill.He had kind of a baby face anyway so he was more pathetic than scary. The beautiful Evelyn Ankers portrays Isabel Lewis the singer who seems to be the object of everybody s sexual desires and is Ted's fiancé. Evelyn was Universals top scream queen and she was in top form in The Mad Ghoul. The fact that for awhile Dr Morris is under the delusion that Isabel loves him reveals his personal conceit and how out of touch with reality he really is. Dr Morris apparently exposes Ted to the lethal gas just to remove him from contention for Isabel...truly rotten.Turhan Bey is Eric Iverson, Isabel's pianist and the guy she actually digs. Bey had the look of a Latin Lover although he was actually a Turk. During the war, when the top stars in Hollywood were fighting the war, Bey got work as a romantic lead and occasional villain.He had the acting range of the average pine tree. When the war ended and the top star returned Beys career disappeared.Anyway Zucco turns Bruce into a zombie with an ancient Mayan gas. Bruce has to ingest the serum of the heart of a newly dead human corpse to keep living. Zucco tries to get Bruce while he is in his zombie state to kill Bey and himself so the way will be cleared for Zucco to have Ankers.And so on. Robert Armstrong,yeah Carl Denham himself ,has the role of a newspaper man. Milburn Stone, yeah Doc Adams on Gunsmoke.plays a police detective. Addison Richards, Rose Hobart , and Charles McGraw all have Featured roles. Its Zucco, however, who makes the movie watchable.

Curious about the effects of an ancient Mayan nerve gas used in human sacrifices, Dr. Morris (George Zucco) asks one of his eager pupils, Ted (David Bruce), to assist him in his experiments. Morris has managed to put a monkey into a 'dead' state, and Ted manages to revive it by giving it the fluid of another heart. Morris has an ulterior motive however, and plans to put the moves on Ted's musician girlfriend Isabel (Evelyn Ankers), who has grown tired of Ted and longs for someone else who shares her love of music. Afraid of hurting his feelings, Isabel confides in Dr. Morris to help Ted understand, but Morris exposes Ted to the Mayan gas, turning him into a mindless zombie that Morris can control. He has to rely on human hearts to survive, so Morris and Ted leave a trail of murders and grave-robbing behind them, as Morris turns his attention to Isabel's new beau, pianist Eric (Tuhran Bey).Of all Universal's regular actors, George Zucco was one of their most prolific, but was usually confined to supporting roles. Here he is given the starring role, and his well-spoken, subtly evil performance proves to be one of the few positives in what is a quite dull affair. Universal's gorgeous set-design and high production values are clear to see, but the story is old-fashioned and weak, offering nothing more than a familiar mad scientist storyline, similar in many ways to Universal's own Frankenstein (1931), but lacking the satirical bite. The make-up, which is usually highly iconic, is uninspired and quite basic, involving nothing more than a bit of powder and messy hair, and features no big 'change' scene, and instead Ted simply raises his head from his hands and is transformed.Running at just 65 minutes, The Mad Ghoul is clearly lacking ideas, and resorts to lazy scenes of exposition as Robert Armstrong's 'Scoop' McClure gets a scent of Dr. Morris, communicating his ideas and intentions with a girl from his office he keeps happening to come across, helping the audience to understand what's going on. The scenes with Armstrong do offer some light comic relief however, taking the attention away from the mundanity of Morris's quest from Isabel. I'm sure this was made merely for the purpose of playing as a second feature to one of Universal's more accomplished films, but it doesn't excuse The Mad Ghoul from being frightfully pedestrian, with the only real saving grace being the performance of Zucco.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

As an horror movie,well,it's pretty silly ,blending zombies stories with Incas' nice traditions (the excision of the heart of the unfortunate victim: we "learn" that they did not offer life in sacrifice to their gods,they had found a way to bring the dead back to life and vice versa).The interest lies elsewhere: the love story is rather unusual ,since Ted ,the good boy with a great heart ,is sacrificed and his girlfriend prefers a bland buck who accompanies her on piano .The nasty professor 's motive is more his desire for the girl than the triumph of "science" .

Mad Ghoul, The (1943)** 1/2 (out of 4) Decent Universal chiller has a doctor (George Zucco) experimenting with a Mayan gas that can bring life to the dead. He uses the gas on his partner (David Bruce) turning him into a zombie-like creature but one who still has feelings for his girlfriend (Evelyn Ankers). It also turns out that the gas eventually wears off so the doctor is constantly in search of fresh hearts to keep his zombie/assistant going. THE MAD GHOUL will never be confused with the Universal classics but at the same time it's actually on the mark with many of the studios outings from this period. I think the biggest problem with the film is its actual screenplay because once "The End" comes up you'll realize that not too much happened throughout the 65-minutes. Many elements are borrowed from 1935's THE RAVEN including the relationship between the doctor and his assistant. As in the Karloff-Lugosi picture, the relationship here as the doctor being the evil one and the film tries to get us to have sympathy for the monster who is actually the innocent victim. One really shouldn't come into this thing expecting any sort of logical story because once you really look at the material you'll probably have quite a few unanswered questions including how the zombie, who isn't suppose to remember anything, still manages to be a brilliant surgeon in his dead state. I'd also question how on Earth the doctor was able to discover this mysterious gas but that's another issue. What makes the film worth viewing are the performers as they all fit their roles nicely and add to the entertainment level. Ankers wasn't the greatest actress in the world but there's no doubt she was the Queen of this period of Universal films. Whenever she appears you can't help but have a smile on your face and in the films she's not in you often find yourself wondering why the studio didn't put her in the part. Bruce is pretty good as he manages to make you believe he is this smart character and he also handles the part of the monster and makes us feel for him. Zucco could play this type of role in his sleep so he delivers the goods as usual. Robert Armstrong appears briefly as a newspaper man trying to solve the case. He gives a good performance but I think the film could have done just fine without his comedy bit. Jack Pierce's make-up effects are rather cheap but effective. I liked the white face make-up and the skeleton like look that he gave the actor.