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(SeaPRwire) –   Despite being one of the more obscure films from Universal’s horror era, the 1941 feature Man-Made Monster had a surprisingly significant influence. A copyright lawsuit over its new title upon re-release 15 years later played a key role in the creation of American International Pictures. The film also launched its star into the ranks of the genre’s legends.

By the time Lon Chaney Jr. was cast as Dan McCormick, a carnival performer with a bizarre immunity to electricity who is the only survivor of a fatal bus crash into a pylon, he had already accumulated numerous film credits. As the movie marks its 85th anniversary, this sci-fi thriller represented his first foray into horror. Incredibly, before the next year was over, he became the first actor to portray all four of the studio’s primary monsters: Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, Dracula, and the Wolf Man.

Chaney Jr. naturally had a horror pedigree. His father, after whom he was named and celebrated as The Man of a Thousand Faces for his innovative makeup work, had dominated the market for silent film monsters, famously scaring audiences in The Phantom of The Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His son, however, was initially reluctant to pursue the same path.

Indeed, Chaney Jr. worked in a plumbing firm early in his life until his father’s premature death in 1930 inspired a shift in profession. He also first acted under his birth name, Creighton Chaney, before Universal pressured him to leverage his family legacy and take on his now-famous, nepotism-tinged stage name.

The actor, who was once hesitant about horror, owes his major opportunity to two other icons of the genre. Boris Karloff was originally set to play McCormick four years prior, with Bela Lugosi also cast as the mad scientist Dr. Paul Rigas. However, the project was abandoned for being too much like another of their collaborations, The Invisible Ray, until new studio executives later chose to revive it.

Produced on a shoestring budget of $86,000 in only three weeks, the final version of Man-Made Monster that reached cinemas was not anticipated to be revolutionary. Nonetheless, studio executives were highly impressed by Chaney Jr.’s nuanced performance as a zombified assassin and offered him an exclusive contract.

Chaney’s formidable presence naturally dominates every scene. While an Oscar was never in the cards, he injects his doomed character with genuine heart and pathos. McCormick has no desire to be a killer. But under the command of the villainous Rigas and the massive electrical charges forced into his body, he is left with no alternative, unleashing a reign of terror that culminates in the demise of both the creature and his creator.

The film, which has also been released as Electric Man, The Mysterious Dr. R., and The Atomic Monster, is not solely carried by its star. Lionel Atwill delivers a perfectly measured performance of megalomania as Rigas, the scientist determined to conquer the world using electricity. When his shocked colleague Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) calls him mad, he proudly agrees, “I am. So was Archimedes, Galileo. Newton, Pasteur, Lister, and all the others who dared to dream!”

The script, penned by director George Waggner—who, having honed his craft on westerns, was also new to horror—is filled with sharp dialogue. “I’ll bet he spent his childhood stickin’ pins into butterflies,” reporter Mark (Frank Albertson) observes, not inaccurately, about Rigas. There are also more philosophical moments, like when Lawrence questions his unhinged associate, “With all the constructive things to be done, why do you concentrate on destruction?”

Even with its constrained finances, the special effects were notable for the period, especially the eerie glow emitted by McCormick as he goes on a rampage after surviving the electric chair. The film also features Corky, the endearing dog whose steadfast devotion to his owner provides a surprisingly poignant ending.

Man-Made Monster falls short of being a classic. For instance, a substantial portion of its brief, hour-long duration is set in a courtroom. Additionally, the romantic subplot between Mark and Lawrence’s daughter June (Anne Nagel) is so underdeveloped it hardly makes an impact, implying that many of their scenes were cut.

Still, it stands as one of the more enjoyable and semi-original films Universal produced between its major blockbusters. Had it not been made, the landscape of mid-20th century horror might have lacked one of its most dynamic personalities.

Man-Made Monster is streaming on Tubi.