Movie Review: The Monster Maker

Following on the coat tails of my previous review of "Dead Men Walk" comes my review of "The Monster Maker". I have both movies on a double feature DVD and watched them on the same day so it only makes sense that I'd review them back to back. Don't think that this is my last review of a bad black and white horror movie because I have plenty more where these came from.

The movie starts with a man named Dr. Igor Markoff staring at a blond woman across from him in a concert hall. This blond, Miss Lawrence, is the daughter of the pianist on stage, and during intermission, Dr. Markoff goes back stage to apologize to her claiming that she looks like his ex-wife. After his story he proceeds to glare at her quite pervertedly (see above). Through the course of the next couple weeks he constantly sends Miss Lawrence flowers and love letters in the mail which upsets her father, forcing him to go to Dr. Markoff's office.

At the office Dr. Markoff gets angry and clubs Mr. Lawrence over the head causing him to pass out. Dr. Markoff injects the unconscious Mr. Lawrence with a strain of the acromegaly virus, a rare type of gigantism (which up until watching this movie I didn't know existed). Being the only doctor in the world who can cure the virus, this puts Mr. Lawrence in a position where if he wants to be cured, he would have to give Dr. Markoff his daughter in marriage. It was obvious this Markoff guy wasn't to be trusted when he was seen in those suspenders.

At one point Mr. Markoff's assistant finds out about his evil plot, mainly because he tells her all about it outright like every mad genius in the history of cinema. Fearing that his assistant will give him away, Dr. Markoff attempts to kill her... with a gorilla. The gorilla somehow finds it's way to her SECOND STORY room from its cage in the lab but is luckily thwarted by a German Shepard.

Unable to take it anymore, Mr. Lawrence is forced to go to Dr. Markoff for help. Dr. Markoff then has Miss Lawrence come over to his office to see her father but she becomes very upset when she finds him tied down like a monster. For some reason Dr. Markoff again says his plans out loud which makes Miss Lawrence panic and when the Doctor tries to subdue her Mr. Lawrence breaks free of his restraints and kills the Doctor. Spoiler alert by the way.

For a movie called "The Monster Maker" it sure didn't have well, any monsters in it. Sure, Mr. Lawrence looks ugly but that's just because he was infected with a virus which Dr. Markoff didn't make himself, it already existed. Dr. Markoff didn't make anything in the entire movie except for the antidote for acromegaly but that cures people, it doesn't hurt them. The only people hurt are the ones who watch this.