The Mad Monster (1942)

Starring Johnny Downs, George Zucco, Anne Nagel, Glenn Strange, Sarah Padden
Directed by Sam Newfield
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

When a scientist succeeds in transforming his innocent handyman into a werewolf, he plots to use the creature for revenge against his enemies.

Poverty row studio PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation) distributed this low budget horror film, but with the underappreciated George Zucco in the lead, and he makes up for much of its lack of production values.  Combining a sinister tone, eloquent diction, and an unsettling stare, the accomplished actor is the perfect mad scientist, and has some memorable dialogue at the film's start, confronting phantom images of the men he blames for ruining his career.  Actor Glenn Strange, who would later play the Frankenstein monster for Universal, essays the werewolf, delivering some fine snarls in makeup that's not all that bad, although it might have been more fearsome had his character not remained garbed in overalls.  As I read in a film encyclopedia some years ago, the movie "borrows" a number of plot details from Universal's 1941 vehicle for Lon Chaney Jr., Man Made Monster, and even features Nagel in an similar role to hers in that previous film.  It needed to borrow a lot more than that to be truly of quality, but nevertheless in my mind, Zucco's presence elevates the movie to the standing of one of PRC's finest productions.