Watch The Mad Ghoul For Free

Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely the worst movie.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's entirely possible I am over-familiar with Universal's better known horror films from the 30's and 40's, so watching one for the first time is a doubly pleasurable experience. Tremendous actors like George Zucco, Evelyn Ankers and Turhan Bey often play supporting characters, but in this they take centre stage without a Chaney or a Karloff to share the limelight with. And it impresses what a huge amount of dialogue they are given in each scene, and how convincingly they convey it. Lesser-known David Bruce is the titular creature here, playing Ted Allison, who becomes a slow thinking, shambling zombie-like henchman for Zucco's Alfred Morris and his nefarious activities, a ghoul who is reliant on the life-force from human hearts to avert his death.The film itself is slim, never designed to be a blockbuster, and comes complete with typical wisecracking cops and journalists, luckily only featuring briefly. And so it is Morris we are captivated by, and his machinations. His idle playing of the piano waiting for his student to fall under the power of the deadly steam in the next room is a good example of his evil – he craves the love of Isabelle (Ankers), Allison's disillusioned beau. The 32 year gap between them was more acceptable then than it seems to be now – and Allison is a likable character, not saddled with the bland smugness of hero-types of the time. However, when Morris discovers Isabelle has eyes only for her pianist Eric (a slick and fascinating Turhan Bey), he instructs Allison's alter-ego to kill 'the Turkish delight', as Bey had been dubbed due to his suave ways (at only 21 years old, he was the baby of the picture).'The Mad Ghoul' is reminiscent of 'Man-Made Monster' from a couple of years earlier, wherein Lionel Atwill conducted similarly debilitating experiments on Lon Chaney.The finale, when it comes, is solid and includes just desserts for Morris, who succumbs to the lethal Mayan gas. He transforms into a shambling ghoul and is last seen clawing at a grave in a bid to find a vital life-giving heart, but runs out of time. His death is cut off too quickly by the over-zealous end credits.

Evil professor George Zucco has the hots for singer Evelyn Ankers. He's also been experimenting on animals with an ancient Mayan gas! Zucco decides to clear a path to Ankers by using the gas on her boyfriend (David Bruce). This turns Bruce into a murderous ghoul who needs human hearts to survive. Little does Zucco know Ankers was already planning on dumping Bruce for Turhan Bey. As Homer Simpson would say: "D'oh!"Fun, lively Universal B horror movie with a nice cast and an interesting plot. George Zucco is awesome. I would watch this classy actor in anything. Evelyn Ankers is lovely as she always was in her Universal films. David Bruce, an actor I'm not overly familiar with, gives a sympathetic performance here. Turhan Bey has little to do. Robert Armstrong plays the obligatory wise-cracking reporter. If you're a fan of Universal horror films or George Zucco, you'll enjoy this a lot. It's not one of Universal's best but it's pretty good.

I first saw this film at age 12 in 1943, having played hookey (truant) from school (7th grade) -- a great show for a 12 year old in the middle of WW2.Here's the fun part of the story. Later, when I was 42 or so, I saw a re-run of The Mad Ghoul on TV. Much to my surprise, I discovered a FRIEND in the movie: Milburn Stone, who played "Doc" in the Gunsmoke TV series, and who I had met and visited with at the CBS Studios in California. Doc and I met when we were both visitors at the home of William "Bill" Anders, Apollo 8 Astronaut in Houston, TX during the Apollo 11 Mission. Doc and I hit it off immediately, and he turned out to be a great friend. When I discovered him in the film of my mis-spent youth, I had to tell him about it. We both had a good laugh, and Doc explained that when you are a young, starving actor, you can't be too particular about the parts you take. Doc was a very popular regular in the Gunsmoke series with James Arness, Amanda Blake and Ken Curtis.

The Mad Ghoul is one of the many horror movies Universal made during the Second World War and like most of the ones I've seen, is quite good.In this one, of the regular stars to appear in these, George Zucco is a mad scientist experimenting with an ancient nerve gas and is a success on a monkey, but only for a short while. To keep his experiments a success, he has to rob graves and kill people to obtain a fluid from their hearts and he turns one of his pupils he teaches into a ghoul to do this.The Mad Ghoul is creepy in parts, especially the foggy graveyard scenes shot in the dark.Joining George Zucco in the cast are other sci-fi/horror regulars: Robert Armstrong (King Kong), Evelyn Ankers (The Wolf Man), Milburn Stone (Invaders From Mars) and David Bruce.The Mad Ghoul is a good way to spend just over an hour one evening. Enjoyable.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.