Author Topic: The Maddest Doctor of them all!  (Read 3676 times)

Memphremagog

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The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« on: May 20, 2018, 03:13:36 PM »
Ok, so it's pretty simple: there were quite a few mad scientists running around during the classic era, however, which one stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of sheer craziness and deeds, in your opinion?

Some examples from the candidates:

Colin Clive(Henry Frankenstein in both FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN)

Lionel Atwill(too many characters to name here but the films are THE VAMPIRE BAT(1933), MAN MADE MONSTER(1941), MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET(1942) and GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN(1942), to name a few.

Boris Karloff(another one with many such credits such as MASK OF FU MANCHU(1932), THE INVISIBLE RAY(1936), THE MAN WHO LIVED AGAIN(1936), THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG(1939), BLACK FRIDAY(1940), THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES(1940), BEFORE I HANG(1940), THE APE(1940), THE DEVIL COMMANDS(1941), THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU(1942), HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN(1944), ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR.JEKYLL AND MR.HYDE(1953), FRANKENSTEIN 1970(1958) and THE SORCERERS(1967).

Bela Lugosi(in the same vein as Karloff in regard to the mad doctor schtick with such features as MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE(1932), THE RAVEN(1935), THE PHANTOM CREEPS(1939), THE DEVIL BAT(1940), THE CORPSE VANISHES(1942), BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT(1942), THE APE MAN(1943), VOODOO MAN(1944), RETURN OF THE APE MAN(1944), ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY(1945), BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA(1952) and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER(1955).

George Zucco(THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL(1941), THE MAD MONSTER(1942), DR.RENAULT'S SECRET(1942), THE MAD GHOUL(1943) and THE FLYING SERPENT(1946)

John Carradine(since this guy has been in more films than most of the others put together, I'm just going with the films from the classic years..CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN(1943), REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES(1943), THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE(1944), FACE OF MARBLE(1946) and THE UNEARTHLY(1957).

Peter Cushing(at least six appearances as Baron Frankenstein would qualify him, however, there's more...CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN(1957), REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN(1958), EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN(1964), THE GORGON(1964), FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN(1967), CORRUPTION(1968), FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED(1969), THE CREEPING FLESH(1973), FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL(1972), THE GHOUL(1975) and SHOCK WAVES(1977).
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ChristineBCW

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2018, 03:48:15 PM »
(I'd argue against Baris Karloff in THE INVISIBLE RAY.  He was simply studying a form of radiant energy and his pals joined in to find a cure.)

But there's Claude Rains who was told by his mentor Henry Travers not to work with those plants and their chemistry.  Travers told him about the madness results on lab-animals but would Claude listen?  Noooooooo...

Isn't it Richard Carlson who's gungho about capturing the Creature From The Black Lagoon for his own studies?  Sheesh... or was it Richard Denning and Carlson was trying to stop him?  No, I think Carlson was the bad guy, yes?  Carlson was a no-good-nik in other films, too - trying to take Michael Rennie's diamonds in DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL... shame on him!

One of my most perplexing - and most dangerous - scientists was Robert Cornthwaite's Dr. Carrington, trying to preserve THE THING and bamboozling the military into sacrificing their outpost for his fame.  Sheesh... his mold labs musta been really nasty.  "Don't kill 'em!  Let 'em keep growing and see what happens!"  And that's just his shower curtain.

Of course, few of these actors have the quantity-of-roles like Karloff, Lugosi, Atwill, Zucco... oh, Michael Gough had a few, too, but mostly he was just a very very bad man - KONGA, he was a so-called scientist, though.  That's mad enough.

I'd strike Cushing's THE GORGON appearance because he's part of the good-guy team in that film. 

But I'd add Carradine's EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX skit as the mad scientist bent on gigantized boobs should qualify for some consideration as a Maddest Scientist.  Gosh knows whatever happened to all those Boy Scouts!

Arthur Franz accepts delivery of a prehistoric fish, and thinks, "I'll just turn on ye olde gamma-ray machine" and ends up as Monster On The Campus. 

Robert H. Harris isn't a scientist, but a make-up artist ("a great artist!!") who has been studying clays and hypnosis and elixirs for his HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER entry.  Harris had quite a few bad-guy roles in his decades, too.

Whit Bissell's Professor Frankenstein and his affinity for hunky young men should have been a scandal on that basis alone.  I've always thought his earlier work as a school-psychologist that couldn't prevent Michael Landon from being a teen werewolf as Bissell's dark-side moment: "If I can't beat 'em, I'll join the dark side..."



« Last Edit: May 20, 2018, 03:51:53 PM by ChristineBCW »

tidroplane

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2018, 06:25:36 PM »
I think Ernest Thesiger, Dr. Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein was awesome. The scene where he was having supper in the crypt by himself and laughing and talking to the skull showed he was a Mad Scientist, then the Monster shows up and he has quite the conversation with him!
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LugosiFan25

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2018, 09:44:27 AM »
Lionel Atwill is always going to be my perfect mad doctor. He just has the perfect amount of crazy in his eyes that always works for me.
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skully

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2018, 12:10:55 AM »
What was the name of the movie, "The Brain that wouldn't die"??, that doctor was pretty evil,  also, an older flick, keeping the head of Nostradamus alive, kind of gruesome, and the doctor from "Dr. Bloods Coffin".  And Basil Rathbone in the last segment in the trilogy keeping Vincent Price alive after he died.

ChristineBCW

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2018, 08:21:08 AM »
All of these, pretty great choices.  "Atwill vs. Zucco" is an interesting decision and I think Atwill's sharper features create a more sinister look, ergo more dangerous... maddest... Zucco was threatening looking, dangerous; but without those sharp features, I too would vote "Atwill".

Thesiger has those same sharp features - even more so - and he used those throughout his career for baddest villain roles.  Will Wright (playing the mean ol' store owner in Mayberry on ANDY GRIFFITH has those sharp, chiseled features, and was playing them into villainy late into his senior years and Robert J. Wilke in his Westerns... evil, cruel looking bad guys.

Michael Gough has those same sharp features and played those sinister roles so well, too.

I'd also mention Conrad Veidt from the Sinister Sharp-Features Department, although I can't remember or locate his roles playing Mad Scientists. 

Then the mention of Basil Rathbone brings up a new level - his Good Guy Sherlock Holmes were outstandingly heroic, almost mighty, while his bad guys were beyond villainy - flat-out evil, even. 

These films mentioned in this thread all benefit from a most sinister bad-guy - they wouldn't work nearly as well without. 

This is another great and provocative thread, Memph.

Robert W

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2018, 04:23:44 PM »
Please.....

Dr. Phibes!

Mike Scott

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2018, 05:23:25 PM »
Please.....

Dr. Phibes!

I think it's supposed to be actors.
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Memphremagog

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2018, 05:34:55 PM »
I think it's supposed to be actors.

Exactly!  ;)
DARK SHADOWS:

David Collins: "Dead people dont just get up and walk around.."

Sarah Collins: "Sometimes they do."

Robert W

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2018, 06:59:45 PM »
Well Vincent Price then. :)

geezer butler

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2018, 10:07:32 PM »
If we're talking collective body of work, then I vote for Peter Cushing.

If we're talking individual mad scientist performances, then here are my favs:
Ernest Thesiger "Bride"
Colin Clive "Frankenstein"
Claude Rains "Invs Man"
Fredrich Marsh "Dr. J"

Mord

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2018, 10:31:00 AM »
Cushing for me. His Victor Frankenstein really nailed it. "Frankenstein must be Destroyed" shows him in full depravity mode.

horrorhunter

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #12 on: July 02, 2018, 11:53:19 PM »
Love Atwill and Zucco but gotta go with Cushing. His Baron Frankenstein is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction.
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LundyAfterMidnight

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2018, 12:37:48 AM »
I was tempted to vote "other" for Peter Lorre's Dr. Gogol from Mad Love. Truly MAD, but I had to give in to Peter Cushing.
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ChrisW

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Re: The Maddest Doctor of them all!
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2018, 10:58:41 AM »
CHARLES LAUGHTON in "Island of Lost Souls". Vivisection? Inter-species breeding? "Burning out" the animal in her? Oh yea...

 

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