Ever since I stumbled across a photo in Famous Monsters of Filmland from this movie showing a man with an eyeball in his shoulder, I've wanted to see it. But I never ever chanced upon it on TV nor have I come across in any collection of old flicks I've bought. Until yesterday that is.
I picked up one of those giant 50-movie collections, mostly junk and curiosities, but sometimes holding some cheapo gems. The Manster is one of the latter. It also is called The Split.
Apparently this movie is an English-language Japanese production, set in Japan but making use of several American actors. I imagine there must be a fully Japanese version of the movie too. The story is fairly straightforward and begins immediately.
After a very exciting opening sequence showing a shaggy man-beast killing three gorgeous Japanese girls in their bath, we meet a mad scientist who lives and works atop a volcano where are imprisoned the wretched human subjects of his past experiments and his amoral assistant, a lovely woman named Tara. A reporter shows up and the scientist immediately plans to inject him with a chemical that will bring about some sort of change, a similar change we are to expect as the shaggy beast that opened the film and who was killed by the scientist when it returned to the lab. Drugging the reporter he injects him and the man begins to change almost immediately. Once a moral and decent fellow he falls into a life of debauchery and starts shacking up with Tara. His long-suffering wife comes in from New York to confront him and he's cruel and dismissive of her.
His problems increase when physical changes begin. First his hand gets shaggy and dark and develops claws. Then that eye shows up in his shoulder, a precursor to the creature which is developing in him. Soon thererafter he grows another head, a savage looking thing. After several murders which get the police involved, the "Manster" returns to the volcano lair and offs the scientist who is by this time filled with regret and consideing suicide. Then the reporter completes his transformation and splits into to two completely different creatures, one shaggy and vile and the other the reporter as he was before the experiment. The movie ends with questions about his culpability for the crimes, since he was under the influence of forces well beyond his control.
Great little flick, that pushes some very bad behavior right in your face. This guy is a miserable fellow for most of the movie, mistreating everyone around him and secretly committing murders. He's also a complete victim, having had no say in what the scientist did to him. The open way his sexual escapades are shown surprised for a movie of this vintage, but it gave the themes a real charge for sure.
The movie seems to be like many monster flicks, about repression. Forbidden Planet comes to mind, as well as just about every Frankenstein movie. Man is a complicated critter with complusions and drives and trying to keep those leashed can really create havoc if they ever slip off. This movie is about one man who loses his moral compass by means of a drug, albeit a drug he did not choose to use. It's a really neat little movie, with a different setting and tone.
After all these decades, I have to say it delivered.
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