Terror is a man
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Terror is a man |
| Country of production |
United States Philippines |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gerardo de Leon |
| script | Paul Harber |
| production |
Eddie Romero Kane W. Lynn |
| music | Ariston Avelino |
| camera | Emmanuel I. Rojas |
| cut | Gervacio Santos |
| occupation | |
| |
Terror is a Man is an American-Filipino horror film from 1959 by Gerardo de Leon, starring Francis Lederer in his last role in a feature film. The story was inspired by HG Wells ' science fiction horror story The Isle of Dr. Moreau .
action
William Fitzgerald is the only survivor when the cargo ship Pedro Queen sinks in a typhoon far off the Peruvian coast . The man is lucky in misfortune because he is near a remote, small island, the Isla de Sangre (Island of Blood), to which Fitzgerald was washed ashore. Some natives pick him up on the beach and bring the emaciated man to the absolute master of the island, the naturalist and researcher Dr. Charles Girard, where Fitzgerald is nursed back to health. Dr. Girard lives here with his beautiful, blonde wife Frances, who is seriously bored of the monotonous life on this island and the equally strange and questionable experiments of her husband and is all the more delighted that the newcomer finally has some change in the house .
When Fitzgerald explores the island for the first time, he notices that some strange things are happening here. Strange creatures roam the island and have extremely strict rules of submission to Dr. Girards subordinate. The third white person on site is Girard's assistant, Walter Perrera, who seems to be more interested in Mrs. Girard than in the experiments carried out by her husband, the scientist. And they have it all: Girard tries nothing less than to teach animals human characteristics, voice and locomotion and to turn the animals into human beings through an infinite number of extremely painful operations. In doing so, he proves to be inconsiderate, even if Girard claims that this is all only in the name of science.
Girard has come a long way with an (original) panther; the big cat is gradually becoming an upright cat-man. Fitzgerald soon realizes the madness behind Girard's bizarre experiments and is already planning his escape from the Isla. Fitzgerald absolutely wants to take Frances, whom he has also had an eye on, especially since she falls in love with him and is fed up with the island. Meanwhile, the panther human who kidnaps Frances begins to emancipate himself from his creator and runs amok, trapped as a creature between two species. In the process, he also kills Walter, who previously tried to torch the panther man, and eventually even throws his creator, Dr. Girard, in the depths - the man who had long considered himself inviolable, because what is Girard's law: Nobody kills a being of his own species! Finally, the cat being, shot by Fitzgerald several times, grabs the last remaining island boat with the last of its strength and drives out into the open sea, leaving the last two remaining humans to the creatures that have remained.
Production notes
Terror is a Man was filmed in the Philippines and premiered in the United States in November 1959. The film was never shown in Germany.
Obviously inspired by William Castle's penchant for extra-cinematic gimmicks and other jokes that the producer used during the screening of his horror film productions in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the local producers also operated with these antics: So rang the doorbell, presumably especially in front of one exciting or allegedly gruesome scene a bell that animated tender-tempered minds to look away from now on.
Reviews
"... calm, sensitively reserved and rather scary ..."
"Filmed in the Philippines, this story only comes to life in the last third of the flick."
"... a funny, stupid movie that is entertaining in spite of itself."
Web links
- Terror is a Man on allemovie.com
- Terror is a Man in the Internet Movie Database (English)