The Mad Ghoul (1943)

Best movie ever!

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

"The Mad Ghoul" is the only one of its kind. George Zucco gives the best performance in this film as a mad professor. (how often did he play those??)David Bruce as the luckless student is OK, Evelyn Ankers does her usual and Turhan Bey is about as wooden as they get. Not longer after "The Mad Ghoul," his career came to an end and he was forgotten. Robert Armstrong as the journalist is good and he livens up the proceedings. A shame he couldn't have had more screen time.The production values are pretty much what you would expect. The make-up used to make David Bruce look ghoulish works very well. The film has a fair bit of incident and being only on for about 65 minutes, works to the films advantage.

Evil professor George Zucco has the hots for singer Evelyn Ankers. He's also been experimenting on animals with an ancient Mayan gas! Zucco decides to clear a path to Ankers by using the gas on her boyfriend (David Bruce). This turns Bruce into a murderous ghoul who needs human hearts to survive. Little does Zucco know Ankers was already planning on dumping Bruce for Turhan Bey. As Homer Simpson would say: "D'oh!"Fun, lively Universal B horror movie with a nice cast and an interesting plot. George Zucco is awesome. I would watch this classy actor in anything. Evelyn Ankers is lovely as she always was in her Universal films. David Bruce, an actor I'm not overly familiar with, gives a sympathetic performance here. Turhan Bey has little to do. Robert Armstrong plays the obligatory wise-cracking reporter. If you're a fan of Universal horror films or George Zucco, you'll enjoy this a lot. It's not one of Universal's best but it's pretty good.

As an horror movie,well,it's pretty silly ,blending zombies stories with Incas' nice traditions (the excision of the heart of the unfortunate victim: we "learn" that they did not offer life in sacrifice to their gods,they had found a way to bring the dead back to life and vice versa).The interest lies elsewhere: the love story is rather unusual ,since Ted ,the good boy with a great heart ,is sacrificed and his girlfriend prefers a bland buck who accompanies her on piano .The nasty professor 's motive is more his desire for the girl than the triumph of "science" .

MORD39 RATING: *1/2 out of ****Even in a magically sentimental series such as the Universal Monsters there is bound to be a clunker now and then. THE MAD GHOUL is one of the least effective entries out of the 1940's for the horror studio.George Zucco is usually reliable as a ruthless madman, but he doesn't seem sufficiently menacing this time around. He subjects a student of his to a poisonous gas and turns the unsuspecting victim into a zombie-like...well, ghoul. But the events that transpire come off as flat and dull and not as interesting as they should be.Evelyn Ankers, Universal's Scream Queen of the 1940's, is cast as a singer here. The musical segments with her crooning really begin to grate on the nerves after awhile and add boredom to an already limp movie.Turhan Bey is wasted as a love interest with nothing to do but look dashing.There are quite a few enjoyable horrors from 1943 in the Universal stable (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN and SON OF DRACULA for example) but THE MAD GHOUL is not one of them.