Fifties Science Fiction: The Indestructible Man (1956)

This was a classic science fiction film made back in the fifties.  (The movie is in the public domain and you can watch it the whole of it online at the end of this review.)   While certainly not in the same league as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" it is worth a look.  It stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as the title character.   His character is a criminal named "Butcher" Benton, who is on death row. 

Benton swears vengeance

  His accomplices turned states evidence against him and his sleazy lawyer double crossed him, which leads to them being freed and Benton sentenced to death.  From his jail cell Benton swears he will kill them, in spite of the inconvenient fact that he's locked up and he's to be executed the next day.   There is also a large sum of money hidden away in the sewer system of Los Angeles. 

And from such contradictions a strange tale is born.  After his execution a scientist trying to find a "cure for cancer" needs a body to test his hypotheses. The scientist pays off the morgue attendant and receives Benton's body in his laboratory.  Once there he puts close to 300,000 volts of electricity through his body.   Interestingly the lab assistant in this part of the movie is Joe Flynn, who later went on to star in the popular 1960s TV show "McHale's Navy" as Captain Binghamton. 

Cheney (left), Flynn (middle)

 

The procedure, as might be expected by anyone who had seen Frankenstein, brought the man back to life, which surprises the scientist and his assistant.  They use a fluoroscope on his chest, and notice that his heart is beginning to beat.  Benton gets up and starts to move around.   For some reason the electricity "burned out his vocal cords" but left his mind intact.   It also made him incredibly strong and with bulletproof skin which when the doctor goes to take a blood sample is unable to penetrate with a needle.   Then about the time the scientist and his assistant decide that a blood sample will have to be obtained surgically, they are strangled by Benton, catching each in one hand.    The 300 kv may have destroyed his vocal cords, but they have left his evil mind bent on vengeance intact and super strength on top of that.  He steals a car and finds his way back to Los Angeles.  

The rest of it is a police procedural.  Police Lieutenant Dick Chasen (Max Showalter) who has been on the case before the execution is still working on where the money is hidden.  Apparently Benton had a girlfriend in a burlesque house who on instructions from Benton was to open a letter in the event of his death.  This contained the map of the sewer system saying where the money was hidden.    Visited by both Chasen and then Lowe, Lowe steals the contents of the letter and replaces it with $50.    

Now about that rampaging lunatic mute bent on revenge.  Leaving a string of murders in his wake Benton tracks down his erstwhile accomplices "Squeamy" Ellis and Joe Varcelli with predictable results.   Then he turns his attention on that rat attorney, Paul Lowe.  Lowe is desperate that the police take him into custody, but the only way to do it is to assault a policeman right there with the boss and Lt. Chasen looking on.  However when Chasen talks over strategy with his boss, it is clear that the place that Lowe doesn't want to be is on the street with that monster looking for him.

  So they make a deal with him and persuade him to help them find the money, since the monster presumably is after the money as well as Lowe.    Chasen rightly guesses that Lowe knows where the money is and that Benton is using the sewer system of the city in which to hide and travel around.    By this time the police also know that bullets alone will not subdue their man.  I will not spoil the movie beyond this point except to say that it turns out that the "indestructible man" is not as indestructible as originally supposed. 

It's too bad about that scientist and his assistant.  They should be more careful about where they get fresh bodies.