Indestructible Man

1956 CrimeHorror 72 minutes Directed by Jack Pollexfen

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About Indestructible Man

Detective Dick Chasen tells the story of 72 hours in Los Angeles. Charles "Butcher" Benton, a robber and killer, is executed in the gas chamber. His body is sold to Dr. Bradshaw, who injects it and hits it with high-voltage current while studying cancer. Benton wakes mute, hugely strong, and almost impossible to wound. He kills the doctor and the assistant, then goes after the two henchmen and the lawyer Paul Lowe, who double-crossed him for the loot. Lowe confesses that Benton hides in the sewers. Police hit him with a bazooka and a flamethrower. He climbs a gantry at a power station, the gantry swings into the main transformer, and the current burns him to ash. A few nights later Chasen proposes to Eva Martin at a drive-in hamburger stand.

Cast & crew

More about Indestructible Man

Jack Pollexfen produced and directed from a script by Vy Russell and Sue Dwiggins. C.G.K. Productions made it. Allied Artists released it in the United States on March 25, 1956, on a double bill with World Without End, and in some cities with Invasion of the Body Snatchers. John L. Russell photographed it. Fred R. Feitshans Jr. edited. Ted Holsopple was art director. Albert Glasser's music is uncredited.

Themes

  • An executed man sent back
  • Revenge on the double-cross
  • A detective and the dead man's girl
  • Butcher Benton
  • gas chamber
  • electricity
  • sewers
  • Los Angeles
  • power station

Look

John L. Russell shot the film on Los Angeles locations. Chasen's narration is modeled on the Dragnet police-procedural style.

Music

Albert Glasser wrote the score. The credit is omitted from the film.

Notes

  • Lon Chaney Jr. plays Benton. Max Showalter, billed as Casey Adams, plays Lt. Richard Chasen. Marian Carr plays Eva Martin. Ross Elliott plays Paul Lowe. Robert Shayne plays Dr. Bradshaw. Joe Flynn is the uncredited assistant.
  • Ken Terrell plays henchman Joe Marcelli. Marvin Press plays "Squeamy" Ellis. Stuart Randall plays Capt. John Lauder.
  • Benton had left a map of the stash with Eva, a stripper who has since gone straight and is seeing the detective who arrested him.
  • Much of the picture was shot on Los Angeles streets, including Angels Flight and the open court inside the Bradbury Building.

Scenes

  • Bradshaw jolts Benton's corpse and the dead man sits up, unable to speak.
  • Lowe tells the police that Benton uses the sewers.
  • Benton burns to ash when the power-station gantry touches the transformer.
  • Chasen proposes to Eva at a drive-in hamburger stand.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (indestructible_man)