I decided to acquire this (albeit from other sources rather than the legitimate Image DVD) following Michael Elliott's solid *** review of some time ago. Surprisingly enough, I found this modest genre outing to be quite engaging and enjoyable most of the way and certainly undeserving of the dubious honor of being currently positioned at #95 on the IMDb's "Bottom 100" list! John Carradine gives his usual commitment to the standard 'mad doctor' role; the hero Myron Healey is quite sympathetic and the film's three female leads (Allison Hayes, Marilyn Buferd and Sally Todd) very attractive. On the debit side are Tor Johnson's amusing blazer-tie-sandals attire and moronic speech ("Time for go to bed" he blurts out to the guests at one point) as Lobo, Carradine's all-purpose assistant (valet-cook-bodyguard- guinea pig) and the incessant histrionics of the other male inmate (Arthur Batanides) – although the insults the latter hurls at the former during breakfast are fairly hilarious! Despite the misleadingly other-worldly title, the villains and crimes perpetrated here are decidedly mundane (especially given the clumsy and panic-stricken antics of Carradine's elderly partner Roy Gordon). It is all well and good that the would-be escaped convict hero is revealed to have been an undercover cop all along but it seems improbable that he would discover Carradine's underground lair of Dr. Moreau-esquire failures (including a creepy pre-CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) wraith-like creature) so easily and it would have been much more convincing if, say, Gordon had inadvertently mentioned it to Hayes or, better still, left them unlocked for some reason. Equally silly is the fact that Carradine reveals the full extent of his experiments to Healey from the get-go and then allows him to roam freely among the potential (and, as I said, good-looking) victims themselves!! Besides, how anyone can mistake a Southern mansion in the middle of a swamp for a health spa is beyond me. In any case, despite the above-mentioned absurdities, the film contrives to end with a bang as we get a good look at the results of Carradine's previous guinea pigs.
Review of The Unearthly
