1958
Herbert Strock
Herbert Strock
Pete Drummond (Robert Harris), a make-up artist for American
International Pictures (the real life studio that produced the film), is fired after twenty-five years of employment. This does no sit well with him, so he mixes a
mind controlling drug into his make-up and lures two young actors into becoming
the instrument of his revenge. He makes Tony Mantell (Gary Conway) into Teenage
Frankenstein and Larry Drake (Gary Clarke) into the Teenage Werewolf, and then
sends them off to murder the studio executives who wronged him.
It’s interesting to find a film so metatextual coming out of
b-cinema in the 50’s. This film acknowledges a lot of AIP’s earlier films (‘The
She-Creature’ (1956), ‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’ (1957), and ‘I Was a Teenage
Frankenstein’ (1957) among others). It gleefully paints AIP and its executives
in a less than flattering light and takes great joy in having monstrous teens
destroy them. Robert Harris is very
enjoyable as the increasingly unhinged Pete Drummond. I thought the teens were a bit dull, but
since they spend the majority of the movie as hypnotized murderers in monster
costumes, it’s not really an issue. Interestingly, the movie switches from
black & white to color for the fiery finale.
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