As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead!
For full detailed show notes (without character limits), including the titles of the films mentioned or shown, you can choose the episode on the watch page here: https://www.everyscififilm.com/watch
Description:
The idea of the ‘mad scientist’ has been with us for a very long time. In the early 1930s science fiction (and horror) films proliferated with the trope. Metropolis (1927) had already had the remarkable Rotwang who was a prototype that would go on to be referenced in Stanley Kubrick’s character Dr Strangelove (1964) with his black-gloved hand.
But why has the mad scientist become a staple of cinema? And why were the 1930s and 40s a time when Dr Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and the many other crazed scientists (including several played by Boris Karloff) became so commonplace? Luckily we have two wonderful brains ripe for picking!*
The Experts
Thomas Doherty is a professor of American Studies at Brandeis University; he is a cultural historian with a special interest in Hollywood cinema on which he has written extensively.
Xavier Aldana Reyes is a Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University with a special interest in the Gothic. His books include the fiction anthology Promethean Horrors: Classic Tales of Mad Science.
*Disclaimer: No human brain transplants were carried out on unwilling participants during the making of this podcast.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:05 The Great Depression and the Hays Code
06:24 How World War I changed perceptions of science
07:38 Frankenstein, Faust and forbidden knowledge
11:33 The male mad scientists and the lack of female ones
16:13 Religion, magic and science
20:20 Eugenics, miscegenation and The Code
25:26 Anti-authoritarianism, psychoanalysis, Leopold and Loeb
33:34 Einstein, real science and the beneficial scientists
43:00 The legacy of the mad scientist
48:12 Recommendations for the listeners and outro
NEXT EPISODE!
I have a lot of detours planned ahead (which you can learn about in the outro). One of the films I will definitely be covering very soon will be Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) for a crossover episode with The Lorehounds podcast. Alien can be found to buy or rent on many channels as well as hard copies.
To keep up to date with what’s coming next you can join me on Instagram.
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