The Mad Doctor of Market Street
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''The Mad Doctor of Market Street'' is a 1942 American
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
produced by
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
starring
Lionel Atwill Lionel Alfred William Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the Garrick Theatre. After coming to the U.S., he subsequently appeared in various Broadway plays and Hollywood f ...
. The film was a low-budget project that utilized the studio's contract players and gave rising director
Joseph H. Lewis Joseph H. Lewis (April 6, 1907 – August 30, 2000) was an American B-movie film director whose stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by auteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement in 1966. In a 30-year direc ...
an opportunity to demonstrate his versatility with little production money.


Plot

The mad doctor Benson pays a destitute man $1,000 to be the first human subject of his regeneration experiments. When the man dies, Dr. Benson boards a liner headed to New Zealand to escape police search. The ship catches fire and sinks. In a life boat Benson and five survivors land on a tropical island. He brings the apparently dead wife of the native chief back to life and is pronounced a god by the natives. Benson has the lifeboat burned and tells his fellow survivors he intends to use them as subjects of his further experiments.


Cast

Cast sourced from the
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...
and the book ''Universal Horrors''.


Production

The original script for ''The Mad Doctor of Market Street'' was written by
Al Martin Albert Lee Martin (born November 24, 1967) is a former professional baseball left fielder. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball, mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also played one season in the KBO League. Early life Martin gradua ...
under the title ''Terror of the South Seas''. The screenwriter and director
Joseph H. Lewis Joseph H. Lewis (April 6, 1907 – August 30, 2000) was an American B-movie film director whose stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by auteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement in 1966. In a 30-year direc ...
had previously collaborated on ''
Invisible Ghost ''Invisible Ghost'' is a 1941 American horror film directed by Joseph H. Lewis, produced by Sam Katzman and starring Bela Lugosi. Plot The home of Charles Kessler is beset by a series of unsolved murders. Kessler, who lives with his daughter an ...
'' for
Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
. When filming began in July 1941, the title changed to ''Terror of the Islands''. In a 1988 interview, Richard Davies remembered little, and stated that "[
Lionel Atwill Lionel Alfred William Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the Garrick Theatre. After coming to the U.S., he subsequently appeared in various Broadway plays and Hollywood f ...
] was the star of the picture and we just had a speaking acquaintance" and that in his opinion "the picture was not as good as the picture I made with Fred Astaire called ''The Sky's the Limit (1943 film), The Sky's the Limit'' for
RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
."


Release

''The Mad Doctor of Market Street'' premiered in New York in the week of January 4, 1942. It opened wide on February 27, 1942. In early 1942, the film was double featured with '' The Wolf Man''. The film had a pseudo-follow up with
Abbott and Costello Abbott may refer to: People *Abbott (surname) *Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921), American painter and naturalist * Abbott and Costello, famous American vaudeville act Places Argentina * Abbott, Buenos Aires United States * Abbott, Arkansas ...
in ''
Pardon My Sarong ''Pardon My Sarong'' is a 1942 comedy film starring Abbott and Costello. Plot Tommy Layton, a wealthy bachelor, rents a city bus to take him from Chicago to Los Angeles to participate in a yacht race to Hawai’i. The bus drivers, Algy and Welli ...
''. By 2006, the film was not released on home video in any format. The film was released on DVD on October 7, 2014 by the Willette Acquisition Corp. Along with ''
Murders in the Zoo ''Murders in the Zoo'' is 1933 pre-Code horror film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, written by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller. Particularly dark, even for its time, film critic Leonard Maltin called the film "astonishingly grisly." Plot Bi ...
'', ''
The Mad Ghoul ''The Mad Ghoul'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by James Hogan and starring Turhan Bey, Evelyn Ankers, and David Bruce, and featuring George Zucco, Robert Armstrong, and Milburn Stone. The film is about the scientist Dr. Alfred Mo ...
'' and ''
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx ''The Strange Case of Doctor Rx'' is a 1942 black-and-white murder mystery/ horror B film by Universal Studios directed by William Nigh and starring Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Anne Gwynne, Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Samuel S. Hinds. Although ...
'', ''The Mad Doctor of Market Street'' was released on blu ray as part of
Scream! Factory Scream may refer to: *Screaming, a loud vocalization Amusement rides * Scream (Heide Park), a gyro drop tower in Soltau, Germany * Scream! (ride), a tower ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags New England * Scream! (roller coaster), at ...
's Universal Horror Collection Volume 2 on July 23, 2019.


Reception

From contemporary reviews, Lee Mortimer of ''
The New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' declared the film to be "on a par with all the other mad doctor mellers which have been shown on the Rialto screen." William Boehnel of ''
The New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...
'' called the film "a really bad piece of workmanship" and that it had a "story so bogus, so labored, so dreary, the dialogue is so unfunny and the acting so embarrassing that the whole thing is in a class by itself. Rarely has anything more ponderous or tasteless come out of the film capitol." A review in ''
Harrison's Reports ''Harrison's Reports'' was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher ...
'' declared that it was "so ridiculous is the story, and so slow-moving the action, that patrons will be bored instead of excited." From retrospective reviews, the authors of ''Universal Horrors'' declared the film to be "a foolish but occasionally entertaining little time-killer if viewed with low expectations." Hal Erickson of
AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
found that "the fact that it was the only Universal horror film directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis, it's a shame that ''Mad Doctor of Market Street'' isn't better than it is." and that it was "worth the price of admission for its chilling closing sequence alone." The film received a two out of four star rating in ''Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide''.


References


Sources

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mad Doctor Of Market Street, The 1942 films 1942 horror films American black-and-white films Mad scientist films Universal Pictures films Films directed by Joseph H. Lewis 1940s English-language films Films set in San Francisco American horror films 1940s American films