Enjoy this Throwback Thursday with Mildred!

The Indestructible Man

In sunny California a noirish voice over introduces the story of “The Butcher” Benton who, standing in his prison cell glares at his crooked lawyer and tells him, gas chamber or no, he’s going to kill everyone who put him there, including the lawyer. And no, he’s not giving up the robbery loot.  Before you can say naïve mad scientist, The Butcher is revived, made impervious to bullets and given the strength of ten men.  Beginning with the mad doctor, The Butcher goes on a murderous crime spree, making his way slowly back to Los Angeles and the men he intends to kill.  You can tell they’re bad guys, they’re wearing dark shirts and light ties, and chewing gum. Through a series of fierce close ups of The Butcher’s insane eyes, we follow his implacable route to murder.  First he highjacks a car, killing the owner.  I may have been more frightened by the torpedoes on the chest of the guy’s girlfriend.

While in L.A. there are several sequences set in iconic areas of the city.  One of the (still scary) scenes is in the gorgeous courtyard of the Bradbury Building (seen in many sf films, and tv shows, like Blade Runner, The Outer Limits, Mission Impossible, Night Stalker).  The next still scary scene is near the Angels Flight rail. All the while our narrator, the detective tracking the killer, keeps us in the loop and woos The Butcher’s burlesque dancer girlfriend.  He shows his affections by buying her a hamburger. The noir dick, name of Dick, spearheads the hunt for The Butcher, finally tracking him to the LA sewers.  He brings a bazooka and a flamethrower, so you know it’s an action packed finale.

The film is one of many starring Lon Chaney Jr., and he speaks only in the opening sequence then never again.  I have no idea why, but it’s strange and unsettling. Tthis disquieting film is pure 50s, with all it’s washed out black and white, schmaltzy dialogue and truly disturbing attitudes toward women.  Pick this up some time if you’re in the mood for such things, because on re-watching it I discovered it’s still fun.

LINKS:

• The Indestructible Man – IMDB
• The Indestructible Man – Wikipedia
• Lon Chaney Jr.
• Bradbury Building
• Angels Flight

The Indestructible Man – Trailer (1956)

Apparently you can watch the whole thing here on YouTube: Indestructible Man (1956) [Crime] [Horror] [Science Fiction] Enjoy!-CFR

CFR In Addition: When I read “The Butcher” I keep thinking about one of the main villains in the Diablo video game made by Blizzard Entertainment. There have been three versions of Diablo (I have happily played them all many times) and in each version The Butcher appears and/or is mentioned. For me, he was the hardest to kill in Diablo I and most enjoyable to kill in Diablo III ’cause I love it when pompous verbage spouting villains die. So when I read the above review, I keep seeing a red demon with a cleaver who I wanted to pound over and over again. (No, I don’t have issues, I just love video games. :)) I wonder how that will affect my watching of this movie. Oh and you can read about The Butcher on the Diablo Wiki.