''Most Dangerous Man Alive'' is a 1961 American science fiction film, produced by

Benedict Bogeaus Benedict Bogeaus (May 4, 1904, in Chicago – August 23, 1968, in Hollywood), was an independent film producer and former owner of General Service Studios. Biography and filmography Bogeaus' business career started when he was seventeen, workin ...

, directed by Allan Dwan (the final film of his long career), that stars

Ron Randell Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

, Debra Paget, and Elaine Stewart. The film was distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

Plot

Gangster Eddie Candel is framed for a crime he didn't commit. Escaping from the police he flees to the desert. stumbling by accident into an atomic bomb testing site. Eddie is exposed to high levels of radiation, and his body begins to transform in remarkable ways. With his new mental and a near steel physical body, he sets out to take revenge against all those who betrayed him. His first target is rival gangster Andy Damon, who took over his gang and framed him for the murder. Andy fights back, but Candel's new near invulnerability makes his efforts useless. Damo does manage to kill Candel's gang girlfriend. Candel's ex-girlfriend and a sympathetic scientist attempt to help him and dissuade him from this course of action but are unsuccessful. The scientist wants to study how Candel survived despite being exposed to so much radiation The

National Guard (United States) The National Guard is a state-based military force that becomes part of the reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force when activated for federal missions.Ron Randell Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

as Eddie Candell * Debra Paget as Linda Marsh * Elaine Stewart as Carla Angelo * Anthony Caruso as Andy Damon *

Gregg Palmer Palmer Edwin Lee (January 25, 1927 – October 31, 2015), known by his stage name Gregg Palmer, was an American film and television actor. Born in San Francisco, California, Palmer served in the United States Army Air Corps as a cryptographer i ...

as Lt. Fisher *

Morris Ankrum Morris Ankrum (born Morris Nussbaum; August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor. Early life Born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in ...

as Capt. Davis

Production

The genesis of the film is a bit vague. One source says the film began as a story by Leo Gordon called ''The Atomic Man''. Gordon went to fellow actor

Michael Pate Michael Pate OAM (born Edward John Pate; 26 February 1920 – 1 September 2008) was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Early life Pate was born in Drum ...

to rewrite the story. Needing money, Gordon sold his rights to Pate who took the story to his brother-in-law, screenwriter Phillip Rock. The screenplay was written by James Leicester and Phillip Rock and is based on ''The Steel Monster'' by Phillip Rock,

, and Leo Gordon. Michael Pate also co-wrote the script. Producer

had wanted to shoot the film as a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distr ...

(a common creative practice of the time), to be shown on TV as three episodes, should it be picked up for syndication. Traveling to Mexico to begin shooting in 1960, Mexican film syndicates ruled that it was actually a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

and demanded Bogeaus make it using a full crew, which would now have to be paid at feature film labor rates. With the budget now tripled, director Allen Dwan claimed he had to shoot the feature in one week, instead of five (some members of the cast disputed this statement). It was Randell's last leading role.

Reviews

The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

in a contemporary review warned the readers away from this movie, finding it be so bad the audience was laughing in the wrong places. Fantastic Musings was kindlier to the movie, citing its ability to make the main character sympathetic. It did note similarities to the

Lon Chaney Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dra ...

movie The Indestructible Man Film Fanatic found little to praise here other than effective cinematography.http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/?p=84057

Home media

''Most Dangerous Man Alive'' was released by ''Cinema Rarities'' as a

manufactured on demand Build-on-demand or manufacturing on demand (MOD) refers to a manufacturing process where goods are produced only when or as they are required. This allows scalability and adjustable assemblies depending on the current needs of the part requestor or ...

two-disc DVD-R set. It contains both the widescreen and

pan-and-scan Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown in fullscreen proportions of a standard-definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus ...

TV release versions. The widescreen is transferred from a surviving TV syndication print and contains occasional local station identifiers, etc.

Notes

Bibliography

* Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties'', The 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. . Covers science fiction films made from 1950 through 1962. 1040 pages.

External links

''Most Dangerous Man Alive''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Review of film
at DVD Talk
Review of film
at New York Times {{Allan Dwan 1961 films Films directed by Allan Dwan Films shot in Mexico Columbia Pictures films 1960s science fiction films American independent films American science fiction films Films about technological impact 1960s English-language films American black-and-white films Films about nuclear war and weapons American crime films 1961 independent films 1960s American films Science fiction crime films