Thu 15 Sep 2016
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: TERROR IS A MAN (1959).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[6] Comments
TERROR IS A MAN. Valiant Films, 1959. Re-released as Blood Creature. Francis Lederer, Greta Thyssen, Richard Derr, Oscar Keesee, Lilia Duran. Screenplay: Harry Paul Harber, based on the novel The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells (uncredited). Co-directors: Gerardo de Leon (as Gerry de Leon) & Eddie Romero.
The long shadow of H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau hangs over the incredibly bleak Filipino-American film Terror is a Man (aka Blood Creature). Produced in stark black and white, the movie feels more like a late 1930s or early 1940s horror film than one made at the tail end of the 1950s. This is a film that, with modifications, could have just as easily been made by John Brahm at the height of his creative output.
Co-produced by Eddie Romero, the esteemed Filipino director whose vast corpus of work includes of a series of English-language exploitation and horror films in the 1970s, Terror is a Man features Francis Lederer in a leading role. He portrays Dr. Charles Girard, a mad scientist clearly inspired by Wells’ eponymous Dr. Moreau. He’s a man guided by both a zealous quest for knowledge and a desire to create a new kind of man, one unburdened by the effects of natural evolution. Indeed, his quest is not, in itself, malicious. Rather, it is a noble quest, but one that deliberately goes against the laws of nature.
The plot of the movie is rather straightforward. William Fitzgerald (Richard Derr) is an American sailor who washes up on a South Pacific island. His ship went down and he’s the only survivor. It’s up to Dr. Charles Girard and his beautiful blonde wife (Greta Thyssen) to make a home for the stranded Fitzgerald.
It doesn’t take long for our intrepid sailor to discover that there’s a panther on the loose on the island. He soon discovers that Dr. Girard’s experiments have something to do with the panther’s lethal behavior and – oh yes – that the panther may actually be a man!
All of the tension that’s built up during the exceedingly talky first hour of the film ultimately comes to a series of catastrophic and violent clashes between the panther-man and the main characters. If the movie could be faulted for anything, it’s that it takes a little too long for any real action to occur. But when it does, it’s handled skillfully and with a genuine sense of impending doom.
All told, Terror is a Man is a better horror movie than you might expect. True, the movie feels a little slow going at times and it wears its message of not tinkering with the laws of nature on its sleeve. But it’s much better than a lot of the American horror movies released at the time, particularly those derivative productions that blended horror with science fiction and atom age anxieties.
What makes Terror is a Man a true horror film, as opposed to a work of science fiction, is that the real beast in the movie isn’t the panther-man, but his creator. Recommended for those viewers who don’t mind an occasionally stagey production and especially for admirers of Francis Lederer as a leading actor.
September 15th, 2016 at 4:49 pm
Although he had various parts on TV over the next 12 years, this was the final movie in Francis Lederer’s film-making career.
September 15th, 2016 at 4:54 pm
Kane Lynn was the American co-producer, a friend of mine, who died too early, was also the producer of the esteemed Walls of Hell with Jock Mahoney. Also a Filipino-American co-production.
September 15th, 2016 at 5:38 pm
Richard Derr seems rather mushy as the lead, but aside from that it’s — as you say — a surprisingly effective film.
September 15th, 2016 at 11:39 pm
Richard Derr, an actor I like in this thing and others, played the male lead in Plain and Fancy, a truly unusual Broadway musical produced by Richard Kollmar, radio’s Boston Blackie. And quite good Boston he was.
September 17th, 2016 at 7:58 pm
Derr appeared in the Charlie Chan film CASTLE IN THE DESERT, not surprisingly as he was a cousin of Earl Derr Biggers. He was also Lamont Cranston in the rather strange INVISIBLE AVENGER.
He’s likely best remembered as the lead in George Pal’s production of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer’s WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE.
September 18th, 2016 at 12:11 pm
More about Richard Derr than I ever knew before, which was nil. Thanks, guys!