Man-Made Monster

- Here's another flash on that highway bus accident.

Dan McCormick, the lone survivor,

has been taken to the receiving hospital for observation.

Attending physicians are astounded at his condition

because he shows no effects of the electrocution

that killed the driver of the bus

and all of his fellow passengers.

- And the man is conscious? - Yes.

It's the most amazing thing I've ever heard of, Doctor.

After a good night's rest,

he'll be able to leave the hospital.

Come on, come on.

Give me those pants.

I wanna get outta here. (laughs)

Here, here.

What's going on?

- I can't make him stay in bed, Doctor.

- I guess I ain't as tough as I thought I was.

Tough?

You're lucky to be alive after a shock like that.

Now get back into bed and take it easy.

Okay, okay.

You're the doctor.

This is Dr. Lawrence.

Doctor, Don McCormick.

How do you do?

- Dr. Lawrence wants to ask you a few questions.

Sure, glad to have somebody to talk to.

You know, for a minute I thought

you was one of those reporters.

- No, but there are several of them downstairs.

You won't like for publicity.

Oh, say, that's great.

I can use a couple good write ups in my business.

What is your business, Dan?

Oh, didn't you know?

I run a high pitch down on the midway.

It's an act.

I'm Dynamo Dan, The Electrical Man.

Fool around with storage batteries

and stick my fingers into light sockets,

and make sparks jump between my hands.

You know, yokel shockers.

- Yokel shockers? - Sure.

Stuff to fool the peasants.

It's all for effect.

Most of it's phony. - Yes, I see.

Hey doc, get a load of this.

Supper in bed and I ain't even sick.

Yes, we're gonna make sure

they take good care of you.

Well, I must run along now.

Here's my card.

When you get out of here, just drop in

and see me sometime. - Sure, sure, doc.

- Good bye. - So long, doc.

Nice guy, the doc.

- Dr. Lawrence is one of America's foremost scientists.

No kiddin'.

Dr. John Lawrence, 515 Forrest Drive, The Moors.

Thank you, Henry.

That's all tonight. - Thank you, sir.

- Good evening, Dr. Lawrence. - Wong.

- Hello, Uncle John. - Hello, dear.

Oh, look at you.

What's the matter, no date tonight?

Yes, and a very nice one,

and I waited to tell you about your tickets.

Tickets?

Tickets, what tickets? - For the convention.

Oh, yes, yes.

When do I leave?

First thing Wednesday morning.

- Well, that gives me a couple of days.

- I've listed the references that you wanted.

Oh, can't we get out of that?

I detest speeches.

It's probably because I've had

to listen to so many in my time.

Well, here's your chance to get even.

Not that yours will be boring.

- (chuckles) I wish I could be sure of that,

but electrobiology sounds terrifying.

Except to electrobiologists,

and that's who you'll be talking to.

Mm, well, good night.

We'll hope for the best.

See you in the morning.

Oh, and don't forget your medicine.

I left it on your desk.

- I said good night. - Good night.

Paul, why don't you give this up?

It will work, I know it.

- With all the constructive things to be done,

why do you concentrate on destruction?

You call my work destructive?

Must we go over that all again?

This theory of yours isn't science,

it's black magic!

I believe that electricity is life,

that men can be motivated and controlled

by electrical impulse supplied

by the radioactivities of the electron,

that eventually a race of superior men

could be developed, men whose only wants are electricity.

- But man, you're challenging the forces of creation!

The forces of creation.

Bah!

You know as well as I do that half the people

in the world are doomed to a life of mediocrity,

born to be nonentities,

millstones around the neck of progress.

Men who have to be feared, watched, looked over,

and taken care of by superior intelligence.

My theory is to make these people of more use to the world.

By successive treatments, their bodies

could be so electrolyzed

that they are no longer subject

to the pains and frailties of ordinary mankind.

Sometimes I think you're mad.

I am!

So was Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Pasteur,

Lister, and all the others who dared to dream!

50 years ago, a man was mad to think of anesthesia.

40 years ago, the idea of operating

on the brain was madness.

Today, we hold a human heart in our hands

and watch it beat.

Who can tell what tomorrow's madness may be?

No one, Paul, least of all I,

since I too believe that we've only scratched

the surface of electrobiology.

But science through the ages

has been used for the betterment of mankind

to give some faint ray of hope

to these nonentities, as you call them.

- But-- - Now, now, now.

Together we've been very successful.

Let's drop it for tonight.

You hurry and clean up.

There's some cheese and beer in the kitchen.

I'll make a Welsh rabbit and we'll celebrate.

What do you say?

- All right, John. - Good.

I won't be a moment.

- Do you like it? - It's terrible!

Say, who are you?

- Mark Adams. - Oh!

So you're Mark Adams, the big newspaper man.

Well, I have something to say to you.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

Five people killed and the best thing

you can do is write bad jokes.

Under his own power.

- Oh, well look, lady five people were killed

and we treated it with the proper respect,

but that was yesterday.

Now the Globe Dispatch has a circulation of 300,000,

say a million readers, and they don't want

to read anymore about the five that died.

They want to read about the one that lived, Dan McCormick.

Where is he?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Oh, come, come!

- By the way, what makes you think he's here?

- Well, I bought the fourth floor nurse a dollar dinner

and found the taxi cab that brought him here.

Now come on, get with the news item.

What's Dr. Lawrence's angle?

- I still don't know what you're talking about.

Okay, I'll wait.

You're wasting your time.

There's nobody here.

Nobody but us dogs.

You must be all right.

He doesn't usually make friends very easily.

Sure, me and dogs always get along.

What are your plans?

Oh, I don't know.

I was headed for the county fair

when that accident happened.

I was going to open up my act.

Guess I'm too late now.

Suppose I'll have to do something else.

In the meantime?

Well, in the meantime there's always

that good old 18 bucks a week

from the unemployment insurance.

Of course, that doesn't start for a couple of weeks.

- Well, why don't you come and work with me?

Huh?

- I say why don't you come and work with me?

What doing?

Well, I was thinking about

that electric act you used to do.

Oh, I already told you that was a phony.