The Manster

The Spanish version of this poster looked way cooler than the English version.

After a momentary blogging sabbatical, I have returned to review more films and nonsense because I have no one else to talk to about such things. Most recently I've watched The Manster (1959) directed by George Breakston and Kenneth Crane, which has nestled a nice cozy place in my heart. This American/Japanese collaboration depicts a US reporter, Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley), living and working in Tokyo. Meanwhile, the nefarious (although sort of good-intentioned) Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura) is high up in the mountains (on a volcano, to be exact) working on various kinds of injections to turn people into mutants. When we join the doctor, he is giving his amazingly attractive assistant, Tara (Terri Zimmern) a recap about his intentions for his experiments and how he hopes to study and achieve chemical evolution.

Tara, the assistant.

Of course, his first test subjects are his family which include his former wife who now looks like this:

Ex-wife and current mutant.

Larry, looking to report on some sort of story about Dr. Suzuki, visits him, but is surprised when he gets a syringe full of "chemical evolution" right to the neck courtesy of the good doctor. Throughout the film we witness Suzuki befriend Larry in hopes that he will be able to see the full effects of his injection over the course of a few weeks. Meanwhile, Tara is sent to seduce Larry and note any changes that she sees in him. Somewhere along the line, Tara (previously cold-hearted and unaffected by human emotions) falls for the big galoot while still trying to maintain her evil-sidekick facade. AND THEN Larry's wife flies in from New York to attempt to coax Larry back home to his plush urban lifestyle with her. There's a cat fight here and there, but the real story is happening on Larry's shoulder.

Shortly after Larry's wife (Jane Hylton) arrives in Tokyo, Larry begins to have sudden and unpredictable mood changes that presumably stem from whatever was in that needle. Sharp pains in his arm and shoulder begin to plague Larry more and more frequently until....

BAM! AN EYE SPROUTS OUT OF HIS SHOULDER! Here's where The Manster will always have a special place in my heart. This awesome genetic deformity not only controls Larry's mood and actions, but eventually forces him to make Siamese twin fashion choices.

It somehow also convinces him to start killing monks, geishas, psychologists, and anyone who gets in his greasy buck-toothed way! Larry really shows Tokyo who's boss while the Tokyo police (somehow headed by an American) are hot on his tail... or tails... or is it heads? Either way, you start to realize that his schtick can't last very much longer UNTIL...

WAAPOW! He splits into TWO people! Like a starfish making another starfish from a severed limb, or half of a worm turning into a whole worm, or bacteria turning into a kajillion other bacteria, or spores turning into a mushroom, Larry the reporter splits and forms THE MANSTER. If giving asexual birth to a giant monster isn't enough to convince you to watch this movie, I don't know what is.

In the final face off, the Manster shanks Suzuki, then gets ahold of Tara the babe and chucks her into the mouth of the volcano. In a last-ditch attempt to redeem himself, Larry pushes the Manster into the fiery furnace right as his wife and the police run up. In all the action and confusion the movie just ends... Like this review.

I want this for my birthday.