The Mad Ghoul 1943 Story by Hans Kraly, screenplay by Paul Gangelin and Brenda Weisberg, directed by James P Hogan. Sadly Hogan died just a week before the film was released. This is the 4th film in the 2nd volume of the Universal Horror Collection. This Blu-ray has a commentary by Thomas Reeder and a still gallery as extras. Reeder spends too much time talking about Lon Chaney Jr, the career of associate producer Ben Pivar, the Universal Mummy series and the Universal Jungle Woman series. Disappointing Thomas, disappointing. For me Volume 2 comes up short in the extras department, especially after the well padded Volume 1.
George Zucco is a doctor who has an interest in a Mayan nerve gas that was used in rituals. It requires the fluid from the heart of another animal to revive a dead animal. David Bruce is his assistant and Evelyn Ankers is David's girlfriend. She's a singer and she's going on tour with her pianist Turhan Bey. On a visit George figures out that Evelyn isn't in love with David anymore, she agrees but doesn't want to hurt David. George offers to tell him.
George wants Evelyn for himself but she's really in love with Turhan. George doesn't know this and he exposes David to the gas. David turns into a ghoul like zombie under George's control. Without regular injections of heart fluid David would wither away and die. While lucid David decides he wants to see Evelyn while on tour. They follow her tour. To get the heart fluid they dig up fresh bodies. That puts the police on their trail and it ends sadly at one of Evelyn's concerts.
There's a good script, a good cast and some entertaining scenes. I enjoyed it and would watch it again sometime.
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