This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

George Zucco is my favorite horror movie actor. He made the most of any crappy script he was handed and always turned in a great performance. His trademark sinister stare could even give Boris Karloff the shivers. He was always a standout in any movie cast he was a part of. The Mad Ghoul is Zucco's movie. Even though David Bruce plays the title monster it's Zucco who is the true monster and he is delightfully evil as Dr Alfred Morris.David Bruce was probably the least intimidating monster in any of the Universal horror movies.He plays Ted Allison. Ted is dumped by Isobel and screwed by Dr Morris so he is the chump of the month in this movie In his ghoul make up , he looked like he had stuck his finger in an electric plug at a flour mill.He had kind of a baby face anyway so he was more pathetic than scary. The beautiful Evelyn Ankers portrays Isabel Lewis the singer who seems to be the object of everybody s sexual desires and is Ted's fiancé. Evelyn was Universals top scream queen and she was in top form in The Mad Ghoul. The fact that for awhile Dr Morris is under the delusion that Isabel loves him reveals his personal conceit and how out of touch with reality he really is. Dr Morris apparently exposes Ted to the lethal gas just to remove him from contention for Isabel...truly rotten.Turhan Bey is Eric Iverson, Isabel's pianist and the guy she actually digs. Bey had the look of a Latin Lover although he was actually a Turk. During the war, when the top stars in Hollywood were fighting the war, Bey got work as a romantic lead and occasional villain.He had the acting range of the average pine tree. When the war ended and the top star returned Beys career disappeared.Anyway Zucco turns Bruce into a zombie with an ancient Mayan gas. Bruce has to ingest the serum of the heart of a newly dead human corpse to keep living. Zucco tries to get Bruce while he is in his zombie state to kill Bey and himself so the way will be cleared for Zucco to have Ankers.And so on. Robert Armstrong,yeah Carl Denham himself ,has the role of a newspaper man. Milburn Stone, yeah Doc Adams on Gunsmoke.plays a police detective. Addison Richards, Rose Hobart , and Charles McGraw all have Featured roles. Its Zucco, however, who makes the movie watchable.

"You mean to say that your girl and my ghoul are playing the same circuit?!"Professor of chemistry, Dr. Alfred Morris(George Zucco), has perfected a type of poison gas derived from a native Mayan culture who used such methods to not only kill but to use the victims after death as slaves for their own diabolical reasons. He includes a student in his research, Ted Allison (David Bruce), a wunderkind with a scalpel, with tragic results for the pupil because of the insidious acts of the professor.Both men adore a popular soloist, Isabel Lewis( Evelyn Ankers), on the verge of her first country-wide tour and this motivates him to use Ted as a weapon to potentially kill the man she secretly loves, her pianist, Eric Iverson (the debonair Turhan Bey). While following Isabel on tour, Dr. Morris desecrates graves, forcing Ted, a zombie under his hypnotic spell, to despoil corpses for their hearts!The story is truly depraved if you think about it. I just delight in how fiendish Zucco is. I mean Zucco was just a wiz at depicting sociopathic mad scientists willing to use their brains to terrorize. It's the classic example of using your smarts for malicious intentions instead of contributing to society in a more beneficial manner. The reprehensible actions of Morris certainly adds emphasis on Ted's unfortunate fate as he must obey when induced in the zombie state, which often occurs when he is under extreme duress.One scene has a reporter, "Scoop" McClure(Robert Armstrong, given the "determined and wisecracking newsman" role), working the ghoul grave desecrations (the story truly heats up when a cemetery guard is killed by a crushing blow to the skull by Morris who, in turn, has Ted mutilate the fresh corpse with the surgical knife, extracting the heart), with a bright idea—working in concert with a funeral owner—of hiding in a coffin inside a funeral parlor hoping that the culprit will show up so he can catch him in the act, not knowing that Morris had an accomplice, resulting in a grisly demise (not only is the surgical knife used to incapacitate him, but Morris then strangles him!). The film utilizes the *puppet-puppeteer* angle where Dr. Morris uses Ted for his own twisted purposes, a gifted scientist, abusing his genius in a sordid fashion to, or as he would believe, have Isabel all to himself (an obsessive, delusional desire for a woman who respects him, but doesn't have a single, solitary clue that this well-renowned scientist is the madman behind the grave mutilations). Evelyn Ackers, a Universal beauty used in a lot of the B-movies for the studio, as always, is the woman of interest for all three male stars, her impressive figure once again costumed by those fabulous Vera West dresses. This movie uses the terrific sets Universal Studios always provided, such as foggy graveyards, Morris' laboratory, and lavish apartments (including the noisy newsroom where McClure works).This movie is all about Zucco; he just had a knack for portraying the cunning, menacing, cerebral maniac, who appears gentlemanly, polite, and cultured, masking a savage, homicidal mind without the moral compass or conscience needed to prevent the events which transpire in THE MAD GHOUL. Bruce effectively convinces as a victim who not only loses the love of his life to a friend (Ted introduced Eric to Isabel), but is unknowingly helping a man he trusts defile the dead of their hearts. The reason for the desecrations is that Morris uses ingredients the heart provides to return Ted to a more human state after each zombie attack.

This movie could have been much more effective with less of the Evelyn Ankers concert scenes to slow things down, but the morbid parts ,showing Zucco and Bruce robbing graves, are very unsettling. The movie has plenty of atmosphere, if one can sit patiently through the dull musical interludes.George Zucco gives what is certainly one of his best performances. He plays the sinister professor with a low key, almost amiable quality, suggesting a good man gone bad, rather than a totally evil, cartoon mad scientist. His scene with Evelyn Ankers at the piano, as he subtly insinuates things that she completely fails to pick up on, is a measure of the genuine talent he possessed, so often wasted in forgettable B chillers.David Bruce is pretty bland and uninteresting as the hapless hero, but his character is meant to be the dupe of the professor, and not much of a strong personality. Turhan Bey basically does nothing but smile and play the piano, with just one good line, when he walks in to a room to find Zucco putting the moves on Ankers, and jokingly says, " Men have been shot for less than holding hands, Professor" and all three laugh at the idea that Zucco could be romantically interested in the younger woman, when we know it to be exactly the case.

Of all the Universal stars and stock character actors, the one that seems to get lost in the shuffle the most is George Zucco. It is a shame as I can never say I saw him give a bad performance despite the lack of depth in the cinematic vehicle he was appearing in. Zucco is the star of Mad Ghoul and does a wonderful job playing a man obsessed with a pretty singer played by Evelyn Ankers. Zucco works with the fiancee of Ankers, both scientists working on what keeps life after death..in a zombie form at least. Ankers, however, is not quite sure she loves David Bruce still, and is having a relationship with the pianist touring with her, Turhan Bey, who has little to do in his role. Zucco somehow induces Bruce to become a zombie/ghoul at times...thus telling his pretty fiancee things that cool down the relationship so old George can have a crack at her..or so he thinks she might be so inclined toward him(not knowing about Bey of course). The Mad Ghoul is a wonderful film because it has some great scenes and dialogue for George Zucco. Zucco shines as a sinister man with a battle between moral conscience losing to his base desires. The rest of the cast is good(look for Robert Armstrong of King Kong fame), the scenes and graveyard sets in particular are very appropriate. Don't forget the Mad Ghoul when catching up with your list of Universal horror films. It is worth seeing if for no other reason than seeing Zucco in one of his finest performances.