Indestructible Man (1956) SciFi Noir

"One Upon a Time in Noirsville , L.A."

Even Noirsville can have its SciFi.

Produced and directed by Jack Pollexfen. 

Written by Vy Russell and Sue Dwiggins. The great Cinematography was by John L. Russell (Park Row, City That Never Sleeps, Hell's Half Acre, The Cabinet of Caligari ( 1962) and Music by Albert Glasser.

Starring Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man, Big House, U.S.A., I Died a Thousand Times) as Charles Benton, known as "The Butcher." Max Showalter (Niagara) as Dick "The Dick," Chasen  Police Lt. in the LAPD. Marian Carr (The Devil Thumbs a Ride, Kiss Me Deadly, The Harder They Fall) as Eva "The Stripper" Martin. 

Lon Chaney Jr. as Butcher Benton

Max Showalter as Dick Chasen  Police Lt.

Marian Carr  as Eva "The Stripper" Martin. 

Ross Elliot as Mouthpiece Lowe

Ross Elliot (The Crooked Way. Woman on the Run, Storm Warning, Loan Shark) as "The Mouthpiece" Paul Lowe. Stuart Randall as Police Capt. John Lauder, Ken Terrell as "Box man" Joe Marcellia, Marvin Press as Squeamy Ellis.

 Ken Terrell as Joe Marcellia

Marvin Press as Squeamy Ellis

Robert Shayne as Prof. Bradshaw, Peggy Maley as Francine. Robert Foulk as Bar Owner Harry, Reita Green Carney's 'Bait'. Roy Engel as the Desk Sergeant. and the gritty downtown and Bunker Hill in The City of Angels.

The Story

Flashback as Dick Chasen records his report on the Case of the Indestructible Man. 

San Quentin. The Butcher is on Death Row. 24 hrs before he's sucking cyanide.  Mouthpiece is trying to pry out the whereabouts of the six hundred thousand in robbery loot. It was stashed by Butcher after his last job. 

His "partners" Squeamy and Box man Joe Marellia turned states evidence against him. Mouthpiece says its because the Butcher got greedy. Was gonna keep it all. Butcher says BS. It was you crumb's plan to screw me from the get go.

Mouthpiece says you ain't gonna spend it anyways and what about Eva? Mouthpiece says he'll give Butchers cut to Eva. Buther makes a Death House threat to kill all three of you and take are of Eva myself.

Mouthpiece: Even for you Butcher that would be quite a trick. So long dead man.

So Butcher gets gassed. Mouthpiece heads down at the Follies where Eva takes it off in eight shows a day.  He wants to make a move on  her. Eva was about to open a letter that Butcher gave her in the event of his death. But Eva is called away to do her final routine before she can open it. Mouthpiece grabs it replaces the map to the loot with a fifty dollar bill and splits.

The letter from Butcher

But Eva is called away to do her final routine before she can open it. Mouthpiece grabs it replaces the map to the loot with a fifty dollar bill and splits.

Treasure map "X" marks the stash

Meanwhile a Professor Bradshaw who has been experimenting on a caner cure needs a fresh human cadaver to test a treatment on. The Morgue unofficially delivers The Butchers corpse. The "treatment" consists of some type of serum pumped into Butcher that needs a catalyst of 287,000 Volts. 

The delivery

Professor Bradshaw and assistant

The serum

The juice

It brings The Butcher back to life. Not only that but since his cell structure and density was multiplied one hundred times, he has incredible strength and is also indestructible. When the Professor and his assistant try to stop him from leaving. The Butcher strangles the both of them and heads South to Los Angeles.

A heartbeat

The Butcher awakes

Some ingratitude

Back In The City of Angels, Dick visits Eva at the Follies on South Main, and asks her for a date. Dick takes her to a drive in for a burger. They make small talk about how they got to where they are today. 

Up north The Butcher spies a hot brunette standing by her car that has a flat tire. She's a carnival stripper. 

As soon as The Butcher stops by the car the woman's carny manager pops up tells The Butcher that she was his bait, and explains that its a new car but they have no jack. The Butcher bends over and lifts the car so the carny can change the tire.

bye bye baby bye bye

Butcher steals the car and drives South to Los Angeles to see Eva and get revenge on Joe, Squeamy, andand Mouthpiece. It all, of course goes Noirsville.

Noirsville

Supernatural, Sci-Fi and Fantasy based Noir have been around since the beginning of the Classic Film Noir Era. Decoy (1946) used the exact same plot point, revival of a gas chamber executed con, albeit minus the indestructible angle.  Other films like Cat People (1942), The Leopard Man (1943) I Walked with a Zombie (1943),  Alias Nick Beal (1949), Repeat Performance (1947), The Amazing Mr. X (1948), Fear in the Night (1947), The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Nightmare (1956), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), all covered roughly the same Supernatural, Sci-Fi and Fantasy territory, there are probably a few more. The Twilight Zone TV series (1959–1964) beautifully explored these Noir tangents in some of its stylistically Noir episodes. Transitional and then Neo Noir films continued it to the present.

Its a fun watch. The cast and the seedy Los Angeles locations carry a lot of cinematic memory. 7/10