Casey Chong profiles seven mad doctors who deserve more recognition for their contributions to crazy cinema science…
Movies about mad doctors have been around for the longest time, stretching way back to the black-and-white film era such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. They have continued to dominate the cinema from one generation to another with different actors putting their stamp on the mad doctor roles – notable examples being the likes Jeff Goldblum in The Fly to Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator, Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers and of course, Anthony Hopkins in his Oscar-winning performance as the cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. However, there are numerous others who deserve more recognition and here are seven of them below…
Larry Drake as Dr. Evan Rendell in Dr. Giggles (1992)
Larry Drake, who already made a lasting impression as the sadistic antagonist Robert G. Durant in Darkman two years prior, proved once again that he’s the man for the job when it comes to playing a villain. Like the title of Manny Coto’s pitch-black horror comedy, Drake plays the titular mad doctor who loves to giggle. The movie doesn’t waste time establishing the insanity of his character right from the get-go, with the gruesome opening scene in the mental hospital that effectively blends macabre horror and dark comedy.
What truly elevates Dr. Giggles isn’t just Drake’s go-for-broke performance but also the puns-heavy dialogue related to all things medical and doctor. Beyond his remorseless killing spree, viewers get to see the funny side of him, evidently in his wisecracking remarks. The movie also features pre-Charmed star Holly Marie Combs as the local teenager with a heart issue.
Corbin Bernsen as Dr. Alan Feinstone in The Dentist (1996)
Brian Yuzna is no stranger to the mad doctor subgenre with his earlier 1980s movies including Re-Animator and From Beyond, and in 1996, he brought out the best of Corbin Bernsen as the titular dentist, Dr. Alan Feinstone. By tapping into the relatable fear of dentist a.k.a. odontophobia, Bernsen’s character turns out to be a deranged madman. But the story doesn’t start as such. In the beginning, he’s a respectable dentist who prioritizes the importance of dental hygiene and demands perfection due to his obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Everything changes for Feinstone however when his wife (Linda Hoffman) cheats on him after sleeping with a poolman. He has since become increasingly erratic and delusional. Bernsen’s committed performance is one of the highlights in The Dentist, while Yuzna doesn’t shy away from the gore and violence associated with the dental procedure that makes you flinch. Bernsen would return for another round in The Dentist 2 two years later.
Peter Lorre as Dr. Gogol in Mad Love (1935)
Clocking in at just 68 minutes, the black-and-white macabre horror Mad Love is notable for challenging the strict Hay Codes era at the time. The lurid tone within Karl Freund’s movie which tells the story of Dr. Gogol (an incomparable Peter Lorre), who obsessed over his favorite actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), is controversial at the time of its release. Of course, such a story is considered tame by today’s standards.
Lorre is the heart of this movie, with his distinct appearance and dedicated performance in turning Dr. Gogol into such a perverse character. He goes as far as purchasing a wax figure of Yvonne Orlac to display in his home so he can keep on fantasizing about her. He also has questionable moral ethics as a doctor, evidently in his unorthodox method of transplanting Yvonne’s pianist husband’s (Colin Clive) mangled hand with the one belonging to the dead body of a knife-throwing murderer.
Gene Hackman as Dr. Lawrence Myrick in Extreme Measures (1996)
This is the movie that has Hugh Grant being cast against type as a young ER doctor, who learns the truth about the unethical treatment revolving around the homeless people being used as test subjects. Back then, Grant was prominently known for romantic comedies and watching him crossing over to the unlikely psychological thriller territory seems like a far-fetched idea, and yet he carries the role well but the real deal comes from Gene Hackman as Dr. Lawrence Myrick.
Dr. Myrick is the man behind the operation to find a cure for paralysis and Hackman’s subtly disturbing performance without resorting to an over-the-top madman antic is what elevates Extreme Measures. The third act is particularly an excellent acting showcase for Hackman, delivering monologues with no sense of remorse, despite his questionable method of kidnapping and murdering homeless people to fulfill his experiments. It’s a pity that Extreme Measures was largely forgotten after a dismal box office result, grossing only $17.4 million at a $38 million budget.
William Hurt as Dr. Edward Jessup in Altered States (1980)
Altered States may have been William Hurt’s feature-length acting debut after spending his earlier years in television, but he already demonstrated acting prowess equivalent to a seasoned pro. He plays Dr. Edward Jessup, a psychopathologist who grows increasingly obsessed with varied states of consciousness. He first experimented with it using the isolation tank and later, ingesting a potion concocted from sacred mushrooms.
Strange things happen as director Ken Russell delves deep into Edward’s mind filled with a series of hallucinations. He combines the clever use of sound, lighting and special effects to bring out the heightened surrealism seen from Edward’s perspective. Is the mushroom playing tricks on him or is it actually happening for real? Russell doesn’t provide easy answers other than wanting us to go along with the bizarre ride just like Edward is experiencing throughout the movie. It also helps that Hurt’s committed performance is believable enough without succumbing to over-the-top histrionics.
James Lorinz as Jeffrey Franken in Frankenhooker (1990)
Far from a certified scientist, James Lorinz’s Jeffrey Franken is more of a wannabe who has a thing for DIY inventions. In the hands of Frank Henenlotter of the Basket Case trilogy fame, you can expect things are going to be abnormal in Frankenhooker. After a freak accident that kills Jeffrey’s fiancée, Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) during a birthday party, he refuses to move on with his life. Instead, he tries to find a way to bring his dead fiancée back to life, even after her body has been badly dismembered, and finally comes up with a solution: Get her a brand-new body by handpicking the hookers of his choice. For the right body parts, that is.
Frankenhooker grows increasingly exploitative with Henenlotter delivering copious amount of nudity, gore and violence as the story explores Jeffrey’s quest for putting together Elizabeth’s body from top to bottom. James Lorinz’s screw-loose and gleefully unhinged performance is one for the ages, who certainly has a field day playing the mad scientist Jeffrey Franken.
John Lithgow as Dr. Emilio Lizardo in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
Playing a madman is what John Lithgow does best. Whether it’s a role suffering from multiple personality disorder in Raising Cain, the tyrannical Lord Farquaad in Shrek or the sadistic care-home resident in The Rule of Jenny Pen, you can count on Lithgow to inhabit such a role. Going back to 1984 in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Lithgow goes unhinged as Dr. Emilio Lizardo, a power-hungry megalomaniac, whose deranged Italian-accented personality is the next-level craziness that he made his role truly his own.
His over-the-top performance fits perfectly in the movie’s wildly bonkers premise. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension also boasts an overall game cast with the effortlessly cool, pre-RoboCop’s Peter Weller in the title role. Too bad the nonsensical nature of this genre-defying sci-fi comedy proves to be too much to bear for the audiences at the time. The box-office flop immediately killed any chance of a sequel promised at the end of the movie, even though it has since developed a cult following.
Who are your favourite mad doctors? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
