THE PROFESSOR (1958)
Article #1642 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-12-2005
Posting Date: 2-9-2006
Directed by Tom McCain
Featuring Irene Barr, John S. Copeland, Doug Hobart

A scientist experiments with suspended animation while his daughter has an affair with a reporter, commies try to steal his secrets, and a werewolf roams the neighborhood.

This short was made in 1958 but not released until Greg Luce unleashed it to the public in 1988. It features a professor who is not from Mars, a geeky lab assistant, his beautiful daughter and her reporter boyfriend (who almost move while dancing), a bunny named Oliver, a neatly dressed werewolf and Russian communist spies with French accents who meet in the sports section of a local library. Got that? It also features howlingly bad dialogue, howlingly bad acting, and howlingly bad howling (from the werewolf). So how do all of these diverse elements combine into a coherent whole? Hint: it’s a trick question. Twenty-three minutes of jaw-dropping insanity. Don’t worry – it all has a point…and I’ll tell you what it is when I figure it out. The only familiar name in this mess is that of Doug Hobart as the werewolf, who would go on to play other monsters in two William Grefe films (STING OF DEATH and DEATH CURSE OF TARTU) and who designed the awful silly-putty makeup in SCREAM, BABY, SCREAM.