Wolfman Joe wrote:
I'm watching MASTER MINDS right now, and man, Glenn Strange has some unexpected comedic chops!

Yeah... who woulda thunk that Strange could swan around so convincingly like Sach and convincingly mouth Hall's dubbed dialogue? (Although I confess I was expecting it since I remember Weaver praising it in the Poverty Row Horrors! book...) But Strange did a better Sach than Hall did an Atlas, that's for sure.

HalLane wrote:
Alan Napier makes a good 'Karloff', and the Strickfaden gizmos are a classy accent to anyone's mad lab.


Wich2 wrote:
I wondered if - after using Lugosi - they actually asked Boris first for this? Because Napier's character was definituly in that vein, though he was classy enough not to imitate Karloff outright. (And speaking of Bela's two - wow, would'nt it be nice to see them in this quality!)


I noticed the recycling of parts of the SPOOK BUSTERS set... not just the lab space for the pseudo-Strickfadden whirlygigs, but the graveyard-staircase, too.  

And just to add to the Bela-ishness of Napier's Dr Druzik for me was his line of dialogue about Atlas being the first of what would be his own race of [atomic] supermen which will conquer the world.

And I found myself asking a lot of questions about "Atlas, the Monster" (as the opening credits called him)... like: What kind of monster is he, anyway? From which animal(s) did Druzik concoct him? What happened to him after the police arrested everybody? Where is he now? (Maybe we should write a script for a sequel!). And why in the world would Druzik think that putting the brain of "The Bowery Prophet" into Atlas's head would be a good idea? Sure there are better kidnapping choices, right?

I liked MASTER MINDS the best of all the Bowery Boys films that I've seen on TCM these last few months. We watched it with all the lights out in the middle of the night during a rather impressive lightning storm, so that helped a lot. There were some choice bits of dialogue, too... I laughed when Sach referred to Atlas as "Mr. Coffee Nerves" (made famous by Kraft's caffeine-free Postum "instant hot beverage")...






Last Edited By: CreepingBride Jun 28 10 8:48 AM. Edited 1 times.