The Manster

1959 HorrorScience Fiction 72 minutes Directed by George P. Breakston

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About The Manster

American correspondent Larry Stanford, ready to leave Tokyo for his wife Linda, is sent to interview Dr. Robert Suzuki in a laboratory on a volcano. Suzuki drugs him and injects a serum. An eye grows from Larry's shoulder, then a second head, and he kills in the streets. Suzuki has a formula that can split the creature from the man. Larry kills Suzuki, wrecks the lab, and carries Tara to the volcano. The body splits. The monstrous half throws Tara into the crater. Larry pushes that half in after her. The police arrest what is left of him.

Cast & crew

More about The Manster

George P. Breakston produced it, wrote the story, and directed with Kenneth G. Crane, who also edited. Walter J. Sheldon wrote the screenplay. David Mason photographed it. Noboru Miyakuni was art director. Ryukichi Aimono and Robert Perkins were associate producers. Tokyo saw it on July 10, 1959, as Sōtō no Satsujinki (The Two-Headed Killer). Lopert Pictures released it in the United States on March 28, 1962.

Themes

  • A journalist used as an experiment
  • A second head growing from the shoulder
  • A scientist's earlier failure, his wife
  • A split body at the crater
  • two heads
  • injection
  • Tokyo
  • volcano
  • scientist
  • murders
  • Lopert

Background

An American horror film made in Japan and opened in Tokyo in 1959, then held until a 1962 U.S. release through Lopert.

Making

Breakston, an American working in Japan, shot the picture there with a mixed American and Japanese cast and a volcano laboratory as the main set.

Look

David Mason photographed the Tokyo streets and the volcanic laboratory.

Music

Hirooki Ogawa composed the score.

Preservation

A complete print circulates.

Notes

  • Peter Dyneley plays Larry Stanford. Jane Hylton plays Linda Stanford. Tetsu Nakamura plays Dr. Robert Suzuki. Terri Zimmern plays Tara.
  • Suzuki's earlier failed experiment is his wife Emiko, whom he kills in the lab rather than kill himself.
  • Hirooki Ogawa wrote the music.
  • The Japanese title translates as The Two-Headed Killer.
  • The U.S. release came almost three years after the Tokyo opening.

Scenes

  • An eye opens on Larry's shoulder and later becomes a second head.
  • The body splits at the volcano, and Larry pushes the monstrous half into the crater.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons