Review of Most Dangerous Man Alive

.....and it works very well. Playing the titular role is Ron Randell as a gangster named Eddie Candell who's been framed by rival mobster Andy Damon (Anthony Caruso) fir a crime he didn't commit and is off to San Quentin Penitentiary. Only thing is, there was an accident en route to the big house and Candell hotfoots it out of there and into the desert where there's going to be an atomic bomb test. Candell shows up at the site, there's a massive nuclear explosion, and Candell should have been fried to a crisp. But the radiation from the big boom hardens his skin to a steel-hard consistency, and a gang of atomic scientists are amazed. Eddie Candell has become a true blue atomic superman, and the first thing he does is go after Andy Damon and Eddie's double crossing femme fatale Linda Marsh (Debra Paget), the latter gets killed off by Damon. Candell hooks up with one-time lady love Carla Angelo (Elaine Stewart) and meets a sympathetic scientist (Tudor Owen) who try to veer him away from seeking vengeance against the doublecrossers. But Eddie is power hungry, and wants mankind to obey him. He's out of his gourd. Even an attempt by Andy Damon and his mobsters to have him electrocuted on a metal plate backfires. The electricity just tickles him. But the Los Angeles Police Department secures the help of an Army unit armed with flamethrowers, and the fire turns Candell into dust. Although MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE was released in 1961, it was actually made in 1958, on location in Mexico, and it was shot back to back with FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON . Both features were produced by Benedict Bogeaus. By the time this movie was released, its director Allan Dwan had retired. He was the most prolific moviemaker in all of Hollywood. It was estimated that at the time of his retirement, Allan Dwan had around 1,300 films under his belt, and a lot of them were two-reelers from the silent era. I liked this movie. Anthony Caruso was very good as Andy Damon the very bad guy. He made a living playing gangsters, mobsters, punks, thugs, and mugs; he even played a gangster on the episode STAR TREK: A PIECE OF THE ACTION. One of the screenwriters was Phillip Rock (1927-2004), who went on to write original novels and novelizations. I had been looking for this movie for years, and finally watched it on YouTube. You can do the same. This is a great combination of mobster melodrama and atomic age thriller. It's rather similar to INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956). But it makes for great viewing.