The Indestructible Man (1956)
Director –Jack Pollexfen
The Plot
Butcher Benton (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is on death row, taking the fall for his criminal pals who ratted him out. The jokes on them. Only Butcher know where the $600,000 they stole is hidden. Post-execution, the Butcher's body is brought back to life by a not-so-mad scientist, but the killer doesn't exactly thank the good doctor for this efforts. For the resurrected Butcher it only about revenge on the black and white streets of a long gone Los Angeles.
Film Notes
Drunken and Holy
There's two things that make Indestructible Man of interest. The first is a Los Angeles that Charles Bukowski would have been right at home in. Actually, filmed on location, it truly is the very habitat where the poet of the underbelly of LA wandered drunken and holy.
And speaking of drunken and holy, that brings up number 2 – Lon Chaney, Jr.
Torture, Thy Name is Lon Chaney, Jr.
The son of silent film god Lon Chaney, Sr., the younger Lon carried a heavy cross from the beginning to the end of a film career that lasted over 40 years. Though we will probably never know the true psychology behind his descent into a hell of alcoholism, his liquid and mental demons fueled performance moments that are unequaled in their tortured vulnerablity.
No joke. Really.
Yes, you could count the quality films he was involved with on one hand. (Ok, less than one hand. Of Mice and Men, The Wolfman and in a minor role High Noon.) And yes, he would inform directors to get what they needed from him before lunch, lunch being a dive into the endless river of booze he would swim the rest of the day through.
But, yes, whether it was Frankenstein va the Wolfman, House of Dracula, or Indestructible Man, when the role called for a desperate soul living with the realization that life truly is the horror, Lon Chaney Jr delivered the goods that a method actor could only dream about.
Evidence – Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Often thought of as the true end of the Universal Horror franchise, this is actually a fun film that takes the monsters seriously within an almost Waiting for Godot absurd treatment. But that's another story. Watch this film for Chaney, Jr's performance when he is begging to be locked up, or crazed over his not being taken seriously for who and what he actually is. He's letting it all out here.
And Then There is the Wolfman
A son's psychlogical/spiritual battle with his father. Ten years after the death of the elder Chaney the son faces a plot that has him up against his father and eventually killed by him. It's a Freudian dream that puts Freud's Wolfman to shame.
Image = Action = Image
Indestructible Man fills the screen with:
...Angel Flight Cable Cars, San Quentin, Captain Binghampton from McHale's Navy, Inspector Henderson from Superman, burlesque houses, dive bars, LA sewers, back alleys, sweater girls, electricity, hamburger drive-ins, the terrible, tortured, twitching eyes of Lon Chaney, Jr...
-- Ed Schneider
Cast & Production Credits
| Lon Chaney Jr. | Charles 'Butcher' Benton |
| Max Showalter | Lt. Richard 'Dick' Chasen |
| Marian Carr | Eva Martin |
| Ross Elliott | Paul Lowe |
| Stuart Randall | Lt. John Lauder |
| Ken Terrell | Joe Marcelli |
| Robert Shayne | Prof. Bradshaw |
| Joe Flynn | Lab Assistant |
| Produced by C.G.K. Productions | |
| Jack Pollexfen | Producer/Director |
Vy Russell and Sue Dwiggins |
Screenwriters |
| John L. Russell | Cinematographer |
| Albert Glasser | Composer |
| Fred R. Feitshans Jr. | Editor |
| Theobold Holsopple | Art Direction |
