After Al Adamson’s Psycho a Go Go failed to meet much success, producer Sam Sherman attempted to sell the picture directly to television. The distributor was uninterested in a crappy crime thriller. They wanted a horror picture. So, Adamson agreed to add new footage of a mad scientist (played by John Carradine) in an attempt to make the strangle-happy jewel thief played by Roy Morton a product of some Frankenstein-type shenanigans.
In this version, Morton is no longer just a loose cannon who gets his kicks by killing women. Now he’s a dead Vietnam vet who was brought back to life by Carradine as a part of his illicit experiments. The new footage, which amounts to about twelve minutes, is nicely shot and benefits from a fine performance by Carradine, who lends a touch of gravitas missing from the original version. It also helps that Morton also appears in the newly shot scenes, which doesn’t make them seem as superfluous as you might expect. The chintzy lab equipment is also amusing. (It looks like it was installed in a men’s room.)
The downside to all this, is… you guessed it… you still have to watch Psycho a Go Go in its entirety… again… and boy, if you thought those scenes were a chore to get through the first time around, they’re even tougher to sit through a second time. Thankfully, Adamson didn’t cut out the go-go song and dance numbers, so those scenes, along with the new Carradine footage, is enough to make this marginally better than its original iteration. That said, it’s still far from Adamson’s best.
Incredibly enough, this wasn’t Adamson’s last rodeo with the material. He would later add new footage (AGAIN) to the movie and rerelease it as Blood of Ghastly Horror. As you’re probably aware, the third time was not the charm.
AKA: Man with the Synthetic Brain. AKA: The Love Maniac.
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