Cheap The Indestructible Man (Video) (Chaney Jr., Showalter, Carr, Elli, Lon Jr. Chaney) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Indestructible Man

Indi Effort Has its Moments
Sometimes an independent film company succeeds in a film despite its normal handicap of a shoestring budget. In the case of THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN director Jack Pollexfen uses the eye twitching talents of Lon Chaney Jr to create a weird period piece that both harkens back to the early career of Chaney who used to thrive on such off beaten roles and looks forward to the modern day Terminator series that features Arnold Schwarzenegger in a similar role as the bullet proof protagonist. Added to this was Pollexfen's use of a Dragnet-style narrator using co-star Max Showalter, who as Detective Dick Chasen, sounds remarkably like Jack Webb as Sgt Joe Friday. Usually, the graininess of a cheapo like this one works against the viewer's getting involved in the action, but in this case, Chaney's twitching eyes (whenever he gets angry--in nearly every third scene) become a symbol of an uprooted emotion of anger that is dramatically emphasized by numerous scenes of Chaney simply walking the streets,looking for his former cohorts in crime who betrayed him for $600,000. Chaney is 'Butcher' Benton, a career criminal who unwisely links up with a sleazy lawyer and two other lowlifes to steal money. They offer Benton to the police. But before Benton is executed, he vows revenge. Up to this point, this is a straight crime drama. Director Pollexfen quickly switches gears to the realm of science fiction by having Butcher's corpse wind up in the hands of two of television's most widely known second bananas, Robert Shayne (from Superman's Inspector Henderson), who plays mad scientist Professor Bradshaw and Joe Flynn (from McHale's Navy Captain Binghampton), as his geeky assistant. This pair revives Butcher by zapping him with 270,000 volts of electricity. An unexpected benefit is that all that juice has made his skin bullet proof and rendered him mute. For most of the picture, Benton prowls the streets of Los Angeles, looking like any other disheveled ex-con, and killing those who betrayed him.

It is too easy to dismiss THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN as just yet another example of a last attempt of an out-of-style actor to grab one more paycheck. Chaney rarely was allowed to speak at length in any of his films, but when he was as in HIGH NOON or OF MICE AND MEN, Chaney possessed the ability to make you feel his pain that he guarded under his massive frame. Here, there are only verbal hints of his inner turmoil. He tries to convey his anger, and in a few scenes he succeeds. When he meets with his former girlfiend, Eva (Marian Carr), his muteness does not allow him to verbalize. He takes a sharp scissors and blunts the tip against his open palm, with the camera focusing more on his face than his hand, and the audience can see that the Butcher is silently announcing his intentions of revenge. There are enough scenes like this one to elevate THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN from the sewers of culluoid bottom feeding to the next higher level where viewers can overlook its obvious shortcomings and be reminded once again that wilted talent can still stand out in a world of dreck.

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Predictable, unimaginative, and a just plain bad sub-B-movie
Lon Chaney Jr. is Charles "Butcher" Benton, a violent criminal who is brought back to life by scientist using electricity. The good news is that he is alive; the bad news is that he becomes an invincible mute (or indestructible man if you prefer), who seeks vengeance on those who led to his execution. Our story is related by Lt. Richard Chasen (Max Showalter), a hard-boiled detective whose voiceover narration tries to lend some degree of credibility to this tale. "The Butcher" is gassed on death row because of his crooked lawyer (Ross Elliott) and the partners (Marvin Ellis and Ken Terrell) who ratted him out because they did not want to share in the take from an armored car job. Unfortunately they put this whole plan in motion despite the fact that only the Butcher knows where the money is hidden. He dies vowing vengeance from beyond the grave instead of telling them the secret and before his corpse gets cold his body is sold to a mad scientist (Robert Shayne) who wants to cure cancer and thinks putting a large charge of electricity through Butcher's body will help do this. Chaney made a similar film in 1941 called "Man Made Monster," which also involved mad scientists and electricity, and which was certainly better than this unimaginative 1956 film. Chaney's muteness is somewhat effective, but my understanding is that this was because the actor had a problem remembering lines. However, this did not mean any problem with his acting because this film is incredibly predictable from start to finish. No wonder "The Indestructible Man" was most deservedly served up during the fourth season of "Mystery Science Theater 3000"

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50's Camp Classic!
This is a fun film. Don't try to electricute Lon Chaney Jr. It will only make him angry. Fun film, w/ lots of 1950's atmosphere. Great entertainment for fans of Chaney (and Sci Fi fans alike). Chaney's mad (insane) rampage throughout this film , is worth watching. Very entertaining and (somewhat) highly recommended.