A motley crew of 240 year old plus crustaceans, led by suave but diabolical doctor Victor Jory, are hanging out at a reform school for teenage girls, who are really in their upper twenties and early thirties. But I digress. It seems that to keep themselves alive, these crumbling pillars of the medical fraternity have to indulge in a little bioelectrical hanky panky from time to time. However, the ruse will soon be up because Miss Goody Two Shoes prison psychologist Charlotte Austin and prison psychiatrist William Hudson, (he being the nasty hubby of poor, dear Allison Hayes in the fifties cult classic "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman") are both determined to put an end to the chicanery that is going on.
As much a B-mystery movie as it is a B-horror movie, "The Man Who Turned To Stone" celebrates a silly script, leaden pacing and granite-like performances except for Jory, and Ann Doran as 1957s foreshadowing of Nurse Ratchet. A minor low-brow effort with little to redeem itself, "The Man Who Turned To Stone" is a cheapie quickie that somehow managed to do respectable box office by virtue of an enticing ad campaign and, much more importantly, a generous television advertising budget at a time when such products rarely got the sort of dollars this one (and its packaged co-feature "Zombies of Mora Tau") received. I know, because in my city it was the television ads flowing out of Buffalo that immeasurably hyped our box office at the Downtown Theatre in Hamilton.
Almost instantly forgettable, "The Man Who Turned To Stone" is a minor, 71 minute artifact that should really have been on the lower half of the double bill package given it's "Zombies of Mora Tau" that displays most of the life.
As much a B-mystery movie as it is a B-horror movie, "The Man Who Turned To Stone" celebrates a silly script, leaden pacing and granite-like performances except for Jory, and Ann Doran as 1957s foreshadowing of Nurse Ratchet. A minor low-brow effort with little to redeem itself, "The Man Who Turned To Stone" is a cheapie quickie that somehow managed to do respectable box office by virtue of an enticing ad campaign and, much more importantly, a generous television advertising budget at a time when such products rarely got the sort of dollars this one (and its packaged co-feature "Zombies of Mora Tau") received. I know, because in my city it was the television ads flowing out of Buffalo that immeasurably hyped our box office at the Downtown Theatre in Hamilton.
Almost instantly forgettable, "The Man Who Turned To Stone" is a minor, 71 minute artifact that should really have been on the lower half of the double bill package given it's "Zombies of Mora Tau" that displays most of the life.