To be completely honest, this was a much better movie than I expected. Well, let me rephrase. The story, and implications, of this film were much better than I expected. The film shows all the hallmarks of early low-budget Corman productions, the science makes no sense at all, and the monster makeup at the end of the movie is truly laughable. But the meaning of the film shouldn't be laughed at, not at all.
First off, this is a unique type of mad-scientist-makes-monster movie. To start with, the scientist isn't mad at all. As this article points out, our Dr. Zinthrop is cautious and methodical. Unique among movie scientists, his experimental documentation is painstaking and complete. The monster only happens because Dr. Zinthrop is required, for plot purposes, to stagger into traffic before he can stop the abuse of his method.
And why is our heroine, Janice Starlin, abusing his method in the first place? Well, she's a woman who got ahead in business using the only tools available to her in 1940's and 50's America: her youth and beauty. Since she abdicated her role as spokesperson for her cosmetics company, sales have been dropping. And she only abdicated because -- horror of horrors -- she's starting to look like she's on the far side of 30! So when Dr. Zinthrop's youth restoration method isn't working fast enough for her, Janice goes behind his back to multiply her personal dosage of his untested drug, a drug he didn't want to give her in the first place.
Don't get me wrong -- Ms. Starlin is far, far more than just a pretty face. The movie goes out of its way to show us she has a keen business sense and a strong grasp on the whims of the market. But she's lost confidence in her physical appearance. The age-makeup worn by the actress is fairly good for a film of this era and budget, but the youth makeup, when Janice starts to feel 20 again, is only part of the bargain. When the treatment has finally taken hold, Janice feels 20, and that gives her a bounce in her step and a huge smile. More importantly, it makes her once again feel confident that she can not only run her company, but serve as the trusted public face.
On the other hand, now she's some kind of monster who kills people, drinks their blood, and (thankfully offscreen) is probably eating every bit of their bodies. She's going through at least one a day by the end, and no amount of market share is worth that.
In the end, this monster is made not by the evils of science, toying with things man was not meant to know, but by internalized sexism. The female voices in this movie are strong, and mostly admirable (or at least relatable), but it's clear that AMERICAN INDUSTRY is still very much a man's man's man's world.
We all see what we expect to see -- it's part of the human condition. When the male board members of Starlin Cosmetics see Janice Starlin showing doubt and weakness, it never occurs to them that they might play some part in her self-doubt. When Janice looks in the mirror near the end, and sees herself looking 20 years younger, it never occurs to her that her smile and wide-open eyes have so much to do with it. And when we look back on a movie with this title, made by Roger Corman in this era, with this budget, we don't expect to have to think much about it. It's so easy to write it off as another cheapy monster exploitation movie (it even quotes the previous year's The Fly, as Janice screams "Help meeee!"). But we're better off if we don't.
This film is, again, in the public domain, so you can watch it (or download it) at archive.org, which includes the ten minutes of extra padding added to the film (the loooooong opening sequence, where Dr. Zinthrop walks through fields and gets fired from his previous job, and the looooong search scene, where police drive around and around, looking for him since he was foolish enough to wander into traffic without carrying ID). I can't find a release of the film with that stuff taken back out, but here's a buy link for you anyway, just in case:
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