What a waste of my time!!!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

If you have seen I Was a 'Teenage Werewolf (1957)' & 'I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)' first then you will recognize the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster in this film. You do not have to see the first two films to watch 'How To Make A Monster' because the story has nothing to do the first two films directly - each film is a story all on it's own."How to Make a Monster' is a fairly interesting, campy and a fun flick. It's a B film but one of the better B horror films from the 1950s. I think it took the idea of putting the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster from the Universal classic 'Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man' but this film is totally different - only the idea of the two monsters in the film together is the same. This movie is actually more of a crime film with the use of 'monsters' to help commit the crimes. As I said earlier this film is fun to watch but it's nothing spectacular either.7/10

***SPOILERS*** It's when hot shot businessmen Jeffery Clayton & John Nixon, Paul Maxwell & Eddie Marr,took control of the American International Movie studio that they decided to halt production on the very films that not only made the studio famous but save it from the brink of bankruptcy: Horror movies.These two incompetent movie makers plan to crank out both teenage musicals and comedies that have been out of favor with the American public since the Great depression! It's the studios top makeup man Pete Dumond, Robert H. Harris, who' job is on the line who decides to takes matters into his own hands by using his monster makeup on his actors playing Teenage Werewolves and Frankensteins as well as Neanderthal men to do his dirty work for him. In them ridding the studio of Clyton & Nixon or anyone else who gets in his way in not leaving American international Movies the way it is: The Horror Movie capital of the world!Getting the studio's top teenage monsters stars Tony Mantell & Larry Drake, Gary Conway & Gary Clark, who are soon to be on the unemployment line,in that horror movies are out and musical comedies in, under his hypnotic control with a secret formula foundation cream he invented Dumond has the pair murder both Clayton & Nixon as well as Monahan, Dennis Cross,this nosy security guard at the studio who's looking to make waves with his bosses. The butt kissing and brown nosing Monahan ends up dead by him sticking is nose,in what Dumond is doing, where it doesn't belong.It's when the heat,or police, starts to get to Dumond's weak minded assistant Rivero, Paul Brinegar, that he plans to cut his losses by offing Rivero and putting his top discoveries Tony and Larry on ice! That's by decapitating them and putting their prized heads, in Werewolf and Frankenstein makeup, on display in his secret head-shop that he keeps hidden in his basement.***SPOILERS*** It's by then that the local police lead by actor Morris Ankrum known among bad movie aficionados as the "Eternal Colonel" playing police Captain Hancock ,there's no colonels in the police department, raid the place only after it's accidentally set on fire by the boys in them trying to escape from Harris' insanity and at the same time save their heads. Harris seeing his life time of work going up in flames ends up joining it by not wanting to live in a world without movie monsters that he created! In fact it turned out that the deranged and homicidal Harris was the biggest monster of them all by taking his work too seriously!

Monster makeup man Pete Dumond (Robert H. Harris) is told the studio is closing down his shop because they've decided to stop making horror films. He vows revenge. The final film he's on has a teenage werewolf (Gary Clarke--not Michael Landon) and a teenage Frankenstein (Gary Conway reprising his role from the original). He puts a drug in their makeup that make them obey him and orders them to kill the studio heads.Pretty much forgotten horror movie--for good reason! The plot is sort of interesting but it's basically a 30 minute plot stretched out to 74 minutes! A lot of talk but little action. There's also a pointless (and pretty funny) musical number by John Ashley squeezed in (purportedly he had some hits in the 1950s).Some of the acting is good. Harris is enjoying himself and Clarke has some good moments. Conway however seems uncomfortable. The best part of this movie is the final 11 minutes--they're done in color (the rest of the film is in b&w). We get to see a good bunch of AIP monster masks, some blood, and Harris, Clarke and Conway in full color. Fans of AIP monster movies will get more of a kick out of this than anyone else. For the color ending alone I give this a 7.Be aware--most TV prints have the whole film in b&w--the DVD has the color.

How To Make a Monster is the third of the movies from American International to feature teenage monsters and follows I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I Was a Teenage Werewolf.A movie maker, Pete Dumond is fired when new people take over the studio where he works, American International. Instead of horror pictures, the new owners specialise in musicals and comedies. Pete gets revenge on the new owners by murdering them using his movie monsters, the werewolf, Frankenstein monster and also himself dressing up as a caveman. Victims include a security guard. He then takes his assistant and the two boys he uses for the monsters back to his place and after killing his assistant, he accidentally sets fire to his home but the boys manage to escape the inferno just as coppers arrive.We get to see heads from various other monsters from AIP movies in Pete's home, including the carrot monster from It Conquered the World.The cast includes Robert H Harris, Paul Brinegar, Gary Clarke, Gary Conway (Land of the Giants) reprising his monster role from I Was A Teenage Frankenstein and sci-fi regulars Morris Ankrum (Invaders From Mars, Earth vs the Flying Saucers) and Robert Shayne (The Giant Claw, Teenage Caveman).This movie is a must for all 50's sci-fi/horror buffs. Great fun.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.