Although one of the lesser-known flicks from Universal’s horror boom, 1941’s Man-Made Monster strangely proved to be one of the most impactful. A copyright infringement case centered around its re-release's new title 15 years later ultimately led to the formation of American International Pictures. Furthermore, it was responsible for transforming its leading man into one of the genre’s greats.
Lon Chaney Jr. had already racked up dozens of credits by the time he was cast as Dan McCormick, a sideshow act whose freakish immunity to electricity makes him the sole survivor of a deadly bus collision with a pylon (considering its suspiciously similar plot, Unbreakable director M. Night Shyamalan may well be a fan). But celebrating its 85th anniversary this day, the sci-fi chiller marked his horror debut. Remarkably, by the end of the following year, he’d become the first ever actor to assume all of the studio’s four main villains (Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, Dracula, Wolf Man).
