Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961) User Reviews

a better than average blend of hoodlums, fast cars, loose women & sci-fi

[altaboy · 6/10 · 27 January 1999]

The Most Dangerous Man Alive caught my interest, because it was based on an original story (co-written) by horror film alumnist (& Australian native) Michael Pate; better known for his work as an actor in The Strange Door, Curse of the Undead and Tower of London(1962).

Slow moving at first, Most Dangerous Man picks up steam and is a better than average blend of hoodlums, fast cars, loose women & sci-fi. Australian born actor Ron Randell is believable as a radioactive freak of nature who is bent on re-establishing relationships with his women & setting the record straight with his one time gangster "friends". The tough guy treatment of women in Dangerous Man Alive and Randell's "romance" with Debra Paget goes beyond the typical 1950's screaming "scared" teenagers. However any potential shown is eventually thwarted by a low budget. I don't care. Most Dangerous Man Alive is nostalgic fun, boasts some mean looking thugs like Anthony Caruso & is reminiscent of films like The Indestructible Man & Man-Made Monster, but packs its own punch as a solid B picture of the 1960's. It's rarely telecast & is well worth a look or two!

I Usually Defend Such Films....

[email2amh · 6/10 · 18 May 2009]

...but the few reviews here are mostly positive, so I don't have to this time. I liked this film, but I'm a 50's sci-fi nut. Interesting cast, yes, and I agree with most of the other comments...

However, the film would have been more sci-fi-ish, and more interesting, if they had done something with the guy other than rub a little dirt on his face and tossle his hair. All we get is a crushed cigarette case, lightweight Supermanesque bullet shots, and apparently (though it's not explicit) some extra strength. And, yes, he survives a shock. It just needed more....something....anything.

A very good B-/C+ light sci-fi film that mostly reaches its owns limited goals, and is fun to watch. Probably was born as a script for a straight gangster film, and then adapted to sci-fi (just guessing).

Eight dead men and now he's starting on the women!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 15 April 2013]

***SPOILERS*** What's seems like a combination of the movies "Indistructable Man" and "The Beast of Yucca Flat" the movie "The Most Dangerous Man Alive" has convicted murderer Eddie Candell, Ron Randell,escape from his trip to the San Quentin gas chamber when his ride, an armored car, taking him there overturns and he makes his way into the Nevada Desert. It just happened that a nuclear test is being conducted there and Candell runs or walks right into it! Surviving the nuclear blast Candell is somehow turned into a man of steel where his cells turn into iron and in a way makes the guy indestructible. We soon find out that Candell was innocent of the murder he was convicted of but framed by fellow mobster Andy Damon, Anthony Caruso and Randell's two timing girlfriend Linda Marlow, Debra Paget. Knowning that he hasn't long to live with his steel body eventually turning to rust Candell is now determined to make the two pay for what they did to him! Even if he has to destroy the entire state of California to do it!

We get to see Candell slowly go murderously insane as he realizes he'll never be normal or human again. Candell takes out his frustrations on his fellow mobsters who set him up and sold him down the river. While doing that he get his girlfriend, not Linda who sold him out, the revenging beautiful Carla Angelo, Elaine Stewart, to help him find a cure for his illness, turning to steel, by getting in touch with Dr. Meeks, Tuder Owen, the man responsible for the nuclear blast that deformed him! It's his attempt to bring in alive mobster Andy Damon that sets off Candell's timetable in Damon and his hoods, whoever were still left after Candell offed them, doing everything to destroy him before he gets to them.

***SPOLIERS*** It's the California National Guard together with the LAPD lead by Captain Davis played by, this was a drop down in rank for him, the legendary Eternal Colonel Morris Ankrum that finally put an end to Candell's wild rampage. But before he was pulverized by artillery small and heavy arms fire as well as blasted by some half dozen flame throwers Crandell finally redeemed and exonerated himself from the murder that he was falsely accused and convicted of. But by doing that he must have killed more then a dozen men on his way for him to archive that.

Good sci-fi/gangster film

[bob dove · 21 November 1999]

After first reading about this movie when i was a kid,I finally caught it on TNT late one night.I thought it was pretty good ,even though hampered a little by a low budget.Ron Randell was his usual reliable self,and the rest of the cast was very good,especially Debra Paget as the snaky ex-girlfriend and Elaine Stewart(wooo!)as Randell's lover.Watch it if you get the chance.

Blame it on the nukes

[lermanine · 3/10 · 11 November 2010]

I had hopes for this film, I admit I have a low tolerance level for horrible dialogue delivered in a stilted manner. So this B Sci-Fi film about a framed gangster boss seeking revenge against his enemies that stumbles onto a nuclear test site seconds before the big bang was intriguing, but there was no pay off. There is so much potential with this leftover plot idea and yet no risks were taken, no imagination, no spark of life, only flat acting. I appreciate these films because if you dream of being a film maker or a writer it shows you what not to do with a film. I gave it a 3 because there is so much to be learned about film making from this stinker. Perhaps the nuclear blast effected the writers and film maker, or perhaps this story is completely true and big brother forced the studio to turn the truth into a laughable genre flop. Perhaps when we solve the crop circle mystery and area 51 the mystery of why "The Most Dangerous Man Alive" is so bad will also be solved.

dull

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 9 April 2011]

Snoozer mix of science fiction and gangster movies Gangster being transported to jail escapes when the transport crashes. Staggering through the desert he ends up being nuked. He survived but is slowly developing a metallic skin. He goes on the run.

A long 80 minutes as we get a mix of gangster wanting to get him, the cops wanting to get him, he wants revenge, and the scientists want to study him. There is no real attempt at showing the change other than a torn shirt with a loose tie.

Yea it's a mess.

Worse it's not very good.

Take a pass.

Day Late-Dollar Short

[LeonLouisRicci · 3/10 · 14 April 2013]

This is one of those 1950ish Sci-Fi/Nuclear Paranoia entries that for some reason was mostly ignored and little seen until recently. But the oversight was probably intentional since once viewed there is little here that is either memorable or worth much.

It is nothing if not a bit strange in its crossing of the Gangster/Human Monster genres. What it delivers is some titillating and quite tantalizing lingerie shots and cleavage obsessions with a couple of semi-violent confrontations with very little imagination. Hardly enough to carry the Movie.

The editing and pacing are confusing and everything looks bizarrely placed and haphazard. The Sci-Fi parts are unimpressive, mostly because by this time there had been quite a lot of wild and crazy mutants running around both on the Big Screen and on TV. So what we have here is quite dull and depressing.

It fails on almost every level and is a discovered disaster that might have been better off left in the dustbin of failed rip-offs, and Day Late-Dollar Short productions.

"Does anything solve anything?"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 12 June 2021]

A pretty good mixture of the gangster film and science fiction as escaped prisoner Eddie Candell gets caught up in an atomic blast that starts to turn him into invulnerable steel, useful as he seeks to clear his name for a crime he never committed. The plot wanders around somewhat but it does keep one's attention. There are some good sets that are eye catching. Ron Randell as Candell is suitably desperate, however not much effort goes into persuading the audience visually he actually is becoming a metallic man. The most interesting characters are the two women, the unfaithful Linda Marlow played by Debra Paget and the faithful Carla Angelo performed by Elaine Stewart. They both sizzle on the screen when they appear. Morris Ankrum plays an authority figure in his usual no nonsense way. It all builds up to a melancholy ending, albeit a fiery one. It was the last film directed by the immensely prolific Allan Dwan and he did a professional job. I enjoyed it.

Most Dangerous Man Alive (Allan Dwan, 1961) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 23 January 2010]

Mainly notable as prolific director Dwan's swan-song (and his tenth film for producer Benedict Bogeaus), this also happened to be his sole genre foray. Plot-wise, it recalls the recently-viewed 4D MAN (1959) and, even more so, Edgar G. Ulmer's similarly cheapskate hybrid of noir and sci-fi/horror THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN (1960); interestingly, then, its having a man pursue those who framed him after undergoing an unwitting metamorphosis looks back to THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL (1941; also watched as part of the ongoing Halloween Horror challenge) while the device of an electrical booby-trap was seen too in HOUSE OF MYSTERY (1961; ditto). It is well-served by a good cast: Ron Randell (the cop on the trail of THE SHE-CREATURE [1956]) has the title role; Anthony Caruso (from PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE [1954] – see review above) is his double-crossing nemesis; Morris Ankrum (I just saw him in BEGINNING OF THE END [1957]) is, typically, a figure of authority; and we get two lovely leading ladies in Debra Paget and Elaine Stewart, as femme fatale and good-girl type respectively. The film, of course, tackles the predominant concern of the era – nuclear paranoia – as escaped death-row convict Randell turns up on a test site but miraculously survives a blast, only to have his flesh slowly evolve into a literally steely exterior…which then comes in handy on his relentless payback mission, when he proves impervious to most kinds of weapons his enemies (and the pursuing Military and Police) can throw at him! Ultimately, he expires after being torched alive by a couple of flame-throwers: Stewart (who accompanies him most of the way as does a tied-up Paget) has to be forcibly removed from his side; poignantly, just prior to the final onslaught, his body temperature – by this point, icy cold – had begun to decrease (suggesting that, in the clash between human and machine that his shell had become, the former could still have taken the upper hand eventually)! Unfortunately, the ultra low-budget works against the film (in the copy I acquired, the exteriors are way too dark): I do not usually condone remakes (as many here know full well) but, watching this, I could not help feeling how effective the alterations in Randell's body (virtually inexistent here, though we do get to see a couple of mutant animals and plants) would have been depicted were this made 20 years later; ditto, his demise would have turned into something much more elaborate than mere sprayed cinders on a patch of land! Despite some lapses in continuity (when the supposedly police-guarded Stewart is seemingly effortlessly abducted by Caruso and his thugs), I would definitely contend that MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE is still vastly preferable to Shinya Tsukamoto's insufferably grungy TETSUO (1989-92) movies.

Atomic radiation does it again.

[reptilicus · 8/10 · 22 November 2006]

Take two parts gangster movie, one part science fiction, give it a decent cast and a competent director, shake well and what do you get? This movie!

Ron Randell is Eddie Candell, a big shot gangster railroaded to prison by his double crossing buddies and gold digger ex-girlfriend (Debra Paget, who had already done things like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS for DeMille and frankly needed a better agent). Eddie escapes en route to the big house and runs into the desert. Sadly the section of wasteland he chooses to hide in is also the test site for a nuclear bomb. Cue stock footage of an explosion, a mushroom cloud and buildings being destroyed. Eddie survives but the radiation has turned him into:

a. The Amazing Colossal Man

b. The Beast of Yucca Flats

c. The Amazing Transparent Man

d. The Hideous Sun Demon

e. a man whose body is slowly turning to steel and is impervious to

all kinds of weapons.

Did you choose "e"? Way to go, you know this genre very well! Either that or you have already seen the picture.

Eddie returns to his old headquarters and finds his former pals have already taken over all his rackets. It isn't long before he starts breaking necks with his (literal) fists of steel and shrugging off bullets like they were nothing. Can the combined efforts of scientists, the cops and the Army stop the Man of Steel? Ah, that would be telling!

Ron Randell can also be spotted in THE SHE CREATURE (1957). The same year she did this film Ms. Paget appeared with Vincent Price and Lon Chaney in THE HAUNTED PALACE. Watch for Morris Ankrum (THE GIANT CLAW, KRONOS, INVADERS FROM MARS and many more). Director Allen Dwan went clear back to the days of silent films. His best remembered film is ROBIN HOOD (1922) which was written by and stars Douglas Fairbanks.

Cinematography is much better than you would expect from a B movie like this. The characters are well scripted and very authentic, though Mr. Randell does have a tendency to shout "I'm Eddie Candell!" at the top of his lungs every few minutes which gets a little annoying. The special effects, while minimal, are convincing. This is a fun movie and yes it does deserve to be released on DVD, maybe on a double bill with Indestructible MAN. I have a feeling Eddie Candell and Butcher Benton would have gotten along very well together.

Enjoyable Atomic Age gangster/sci-fi

[chris_gaskin123 · 8/10 · 14 February 2006]

The Most Dangerous Man Alive is a good sci-fi/gangster picture and I've seen this a couple of times.

Gangster Eddie Candell becomes indestructible after being caught up in an atomic bomb test that should have killed him. He now has steel in him which makes him very strong too. Police now want him dead more than ever as he is even more dangerous but a scientist wants him alive as he is a unique specimen and wants to do tests on him. He has two women on the go and he kidnaps one of these. Police eventually catch up with him though and he is killed by flame throwers at the end and turns into a pile of ash.

This movie has echoes of The Indestructible Man and the 1950's already had men exposed to radiation shrinking and turning into giants. Typical of the Atomic Age is this.

The cast includes Ron Randell, Debra Paget (The Haunted Palace), sci-fi regular Morris Ankrum (Invaders From Mars, Giant From the Unknown), Elaine Stewart and Tuder Owen.

The Most Dangerous Man Alive is quite an obscure movie and my copy is from the Sci-Fi Channel, which a mate taped for me as I don't have this. A treat.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

This is a rare combination of science fiction and gangster melodrama.....

[tarwaterthomas · 8/10 · 12 October 2022]

.....and it works very well. Playing the titular role is Ron Randell as a gangster named Eddie Candell who's been framed by rival mobster Andy Damon (Anthony Caruso) fir a crime he didn't commit and is off to San Quentin Penitentiary. Only thing is, there was an accident en route to the big house and Candell hotfoots it out of there and into the desert where there's going to be an atomic bomb test. Candell shows up at the site, there's a massive nuclear explosion, and Candell should have been fried to a crisp. But the radiation from the big boom hardens his skin to a steel-hard consistency, and a gang of atomic scientists are amazed. Eddie Candell has become a true blue atomic superman, and the first thing he does is go after Andy Damon and Eddie's double crossing femme fatale Linda Marsh (Debra Paget), the latter gets killed off by Damon. Candell hooks up with one-time lady love Carla Angelo (Elaine Stewart) and meets a sympathetic scientist (Tudor Owen) who try to veer him away from seeking vengeance against the doublecrossers. But Eddie is power hungry, and wants mankind to obey him. He's out of his gourd. Even an attempt by Andy Damon and his mobsters to have him electrocuted on a metal plate backfires. The electricity just tickles him. But the Los Angeles Police Department secures the help of an Army unit armed with flamethrowers, and the fire turns Candell into dust. Although MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE was released in 1961, it was actually made in 1958, on location in Mexico, and it was shot back to back with FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON . Both features were produced by Benedict Bogeaus. By the time this movie was released, its director Allan Dwan had retired. He was the most prolific moviemaker in all of Hollywood. It was estimated that at the time of his retirement, Allan Dwan had around 1,300 films under his belt, and a lot of them were two-reelers from the silent era. I liked this movie. Anthony Caruso was very good as Andy Damon the very bad guy. He made a living playing gangsters, mobsters, punks, thugs, and mugs; he even played a gangster on the episode STAR TREK: A PIECE OF THE ACTION. One of the screenwriters was Phillip Rock (1927-2004), who went on to write original novels and novelizations. I had been looking for this movie for years, and finally watched it on YouTube. You can do the same. This is a great combination of mobster melodrama and atomic age thriller. It's rather similar to INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956). But it makes for great viewing.