Plot
The “La Salle Detention Home for Girls” is plagued by a series of tragic events that seem to specifically target the inmates: young, healthy women are abruptly dropping dead with no plausible explanation. A secretary’s pointed comments about a vague plot regarding those strange, unnatural deaths spur social worker Carol Adams to begin digging into the facts surrounding these tragic events.
With the help of an outside psychiatrist determined to get to the bottom of what’s going on, she’ll uncover the shocking truth – the prison’s governing board is composed of two-hundred-year-old mad doctors – former students of the Count Saint Germain! – and they’ve been unnaturally prolonging their lives by siphoning off the “bioelectric energy” of young women of childbearing age (resulting in the women’s death, naturally).
Will Carol and the conscientious, young psychiatrist pay the ultimate price for their curiosity?
The project of the Germain cellular theory has reached completion.
Critique
5.5Modest science fiction horror film by Hungarian director László Kardos, “The Man Who Turned to Stone” revisits the mad scientist genre, borrowing numerous clichés from the 1930s and ’40s, including both general themes – the quest for eternal life, the risk of falling into “Übermensch” philosophical conceptions, the references to Franz Mesmer’s teachings – as well as metaphorical and visual elements – Dr. Murdock’s iconic laboratory, the somber, mysterious deaf-mute servant, makeup reminiscent of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1931).
Nothing particularly exciting here, although the decision to forgo the Gothic component and shift from a historical time period to a contemporary, late-1950s setting constitutes a grain of originality in itself. Beyond that, the short running time, the decent performances, and the preposterous pseudoscientific notions in the dialogue lend a certain charm to a lively, unpretentious film (dialogue such as: “We discovered that it is possible to transfer bioelectric energy from one individual to another. Naturally, the person who is the donor dies, but the person who is the receiver of the energy gets a new lease of life […] The donor is placed in an electric conducting bath of copper sulfate solution“).
The music is awful, with an incessant main theme that’s in an annoying class all its own.
More Info
Quotes
- Screams. We've heard 'em before. Every time we do, we find out the next day that somebody died.
- After a time, you think you're more than a man, you think you can make life... and take life.
- I knew this was coming and I'm prepared for it... 220 years is too long for any man.
- The project of the Germain cellular theory has reached completion.
Trivia
- The Count of St. Germain (1712-1784) was an alchemist and renowned personality in European high society of the mid-1700s.
- “The Man Who Turned to Stone” was released as part of a double bill with “Zombies of Mora Tau” (1957), also produced by Sam Katzman.
- The title refers to the hardening condition that afflicts the bodies of the Methuselah wannabes when they need “recharging”.
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 | Classic Horror: Five, The Mad Magician, Man Who Turned To Stone |
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![Man Who Turned To Stone [Edizione: Stati Uniti] [USA] [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gbJnkYsiL._SL75_.jpg) | Man Who Turned To Stone [Edizione: Stati Uniti] [USA] [DVD] |
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| Man Who Turned To Stone / (B&W) [DVD] [Region 1] [NTSC] [US Import] |
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