THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE (1961)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

Though I saw most of the sci-fi flicks of the fifties and sixties on commercial TV, I only came across a YouTube copy of this item recently. ALIVE is one of many movies on the theme of "mad science transforms ordinary man into superhuman." Like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, main character Eddie Candell is transformed by accidental exposure to an atomic test.

Eddie's a gangster of indeterminate history, but he's sent to prison for a murder he didn't commit by mob-boss Damon (Anthony Caruso). His former girlfriend Linda (Debra Paget) ends up in Damon's bed, but another woman, Carla (Elaine Stewart), genuinely loves Eddie and waits for him while he's in prison. Hungry for vengeance, Eddie breaks out, trespasses on the testing ground, and the atomic blast causes him to assimilate the steel molecules of a nearby tower. Eddie soon learns that he's invulnerable to gunfire, making him uniquely suited to be Damon's nemesis.

I don't recognize most of the other credits of the three credited writers, not even those of Michael Pate, best known as an actor in films like CURSE OF THE UNDEAD. Director Allan Dwan had a much longer resume of movies dating back to the silent era, but ALIVE was his last rodeo. Dwan later described this sci-fi mellerdrama as an unpleasant shoot, not least because he had a meager budget and only limited sets on which to shoot. Nevertheless, ALIVE tells its simple story efficiently enough. I particularly like the scene in which a resident scientific expert explains Eddie's new power to some dumbfounded cops with the visual aid of a "steel watermelon," also a creation of the atomic blast.

Said scientist is given some nice gravitas by Tudor Owen, and Stewart emotes nicely as the lovelorn Carla. Paget and Caruso just deliver their lines reasonably well, and Caruso has a nice moment directing his hoods to spring an electrical trap on Eddie. But Ron Randell provides the linchpin in terms of acting, and though the script isn't anything special, he put a lot of intensity into his character of a shady guy motivated almost entirely by vengeance. He's compelling enough that, even though the pursuing cops do the right thing in hunting him down, he retains the better part of the viewer's sympathy when he's finally destroyed. Dwan might not have liked ALIVE, but other directors have ended their careers on much worse movies.