The Third Night of Halloween

ON THE THIRD NIGHT OF HALLOWEEN ... I watched The Monster-Maker (1944). I chose it because I’ve decided to focus on the MAD SCIENTIST in horror movies this year. I don’t plan on summarizing or analyzing each movie as whole—you’ll have to look it up on Wikipedia if you want to know more (or this case, watch the whole thing for free on Youtube, where it’s been uploaded multiple times). Instead, I’m just going to focus on what is unique about the take on the Mad Scientist archetype and theme.

Here, we learn the Mad Scientist is not actually a scientist at all but a demented thief and con artist. He killed and stole the notes of a scientist working on a cure for Acromegaly. This is a real degenerative disease that causes progressive growth and distortion of the face and extremities. He has done this because he thinks that if he can derive the cure from the scientist's notes, he can become rich by withholding it from the world and charging vast sums to treat the afflicted. So, what makes him mad in terms of the science is his hope to exploit sick people for profit. Thus, by this film’s definition, every real world pharmaceutical company today is a monstrous Mad Science outfit. Which is not at all wrong!