The Mad Ghoul (1943)

The Mad Ghoul (1943) was one of Universal's 'other' horror movies of the era, one which was always intended to be B-movie, whereas the studio's ongoing Frankenstein series, (which at this point had also incorporated the Wolfman and would shortly co-opt Dracula), were seen as slightly more prestigious, designed to play at the top of double bills, or even as A-features in second run cinemas.  It also comes from a period when Universal was casting around looking for new monsters to add to its gallery of horrors - it had already started grinding out Invisible Man and Mummy sequels as B-features.  The problem is that the title character isn't really much of a monster at all.  He certainly doesn't, as the term 'ghoul' implies, dig up graves and feast on human flesh.  Which, perhaps, isn't surprising in a film made in 1943.  Instead, we get the substitute activity of him digging up the graves of the freshly deceased in order to steal their hearts, (although he does graduate to murder, later in the film).  The lack of truly ghoulish activity isn't the only problem, though.  The fact is that the title menace ultimately has no agency of his own, effectively being a zombie under the control of his creator and needing regular infusions of heart fluid to stay alive.  The film also throws in a touch of the Jekyll/Hyde dynamic, with the Mad Ghoul periodically returning to his normal state, (he looks like a corpse and shuffles around like the Mummy when he's the Ghoul), but with no memory of his ghoulish activities.

The real villain of the piece - as he was in many B-movies - is George Zucco, here playing a professor who has discovered the secret of an ancient Mayan nerve gas, used to make sacrificial victims compliant before they had their living hearts cut out.  He's part of a love triangle, being in unrequited love with the singer girlfriend of one of his students, a pianist.  But, in a twist, the girl reveals to  Zucco that she doesn't love the student, but doesn't want to hurt his feelings by rejecting him outright.  Zucco assures her that he will take care of the situation for her.  Naturally, he uses the gas on the student to try and get him to break off his interest in the girl.  But when in his human state, the student can't be deterred and insists on following the girl on her singing tour, resulting in a series of grave robberies in the cities in which she performs, baffling both police and press.  In another twist, it turns out the girl is actually in love with her pianist, so a jealous Zucco now tries to get the student, while in his ghoul state, to kill him.  Obviously, none of this ends well, with the ghoul turning on his master and giving him a whiff of his own gas.  It ends with the dying student reverting to his normal self, while Zucco turns into corpse as he desperately scrabbles in the dirt  at a fresh grave, in search of another heart.

The film's biggest strength is its sense of utter nihilism, with virtually none of the characters motivated by any sense of morality or purpose other than narrow self interest.  Love is largely unrequited and used bycharacters to justify various unethical actions on their parts.  The object of their affections - the singer - seems either unaware of their feelings or content to let them continue to suffer by not making her lack of reciprocation clear.  Even the supposed romance between the singer and the pianist seems devoid of any obvious affection.  For their part, the authorities are plodding and stupid, seeing the ghoul's crime spree as an inconvenience and interested less in justice than simply pinning it all on a convenient scapegoat.  The press, meanwhile, are interested only in generating sensational headlines rather than getting at the truth.  The bleak and dreary sets - familiar from many a Universal B-movie - just add to the general feeling of misery generated by The Mad Ghoul.  This approach, though, also results in a narrative that fails to provide the audience with any kind of sympathetic character, let alone an heroic one, to focus upon.  You are constantly left wondering which of the various characters who parade through the film is going to pick up the mantle and provide Zucco with a string antagonist.  At various points Turhan Bey's pianist, Robert Armstrong's hard nosed journalist and his colleague Rose Hobart all seem to be about to step into the  role, but instead fall by the wayside.  Indeed, in the case of Armstrong's character he is clearly deliberately built up by the script to be the unlikely hero of the piece, only abruptly fall victim to the ghoul just when it looks as if he has solved the case, in a genuinely shocking twist.  

Not surprisingly, The Mad Ghoul - unlike Universal's contemporaneous new monsters, the 'Wild Woman' and 'The Creeper' - didn't return for any sequels.  He was a limited and pretty dreary monster who left little scope for further development or any variations in story lines.  But as a one off, The Mad Ghoul is an enjoyable, if somewhat depressing, little movie, featuring a dominant and typically entertaining performance from George Zucco.  The rest of the cast do their best with a script that offers them little in the way of opportunities, although Bey is as bland as he was the other films of this ilk that he appeared in, while David Bruce as the ghoul is decent enough but ultimately has little to do.  Evelyn Ankers as Isabel, the singer, gives a serviceable performance in a thankless role, but is nowhere near as memorable as she had been in The Wolf Man (1941).  Robert Armstrong (ten years after playing Carl Denham in King Kong) gives a lively turn as the doomed journalist, but is struck down just as he seems to be really getting into his stride, while Rose Hobart as his colleague is equally lively but has too little screen time to really develop her character.  Milburn Stone and Charles McGraw are suitably thick headed as the police detectives on the case.  James Hogan's gloomy direction conjures up a suitably downbeat feel for the film, which moves quite smoothly through its sixty five minutes of running time.  (this was to be Hogan's last film before dying of a heart attack after its completion).  Ultimately, the most memorable thing about The Mad Ghoul is its utter lack of sentimentality and sheer ruthlessness with regard to its sympathetic characters, which leads up to an unusually bleak ending.