Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961)

Interesting facts

Most Dangerous Man Alive is a 1961 American science fiction film, produced by Benedict Bogeaus directed by Allan Dwan, that stars Ron Randell, Debra Paget, and Elaine Stewart. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Production

The genesis of the film is a bit vague. One source says the film began as a story by Leo Gordon called The Atomic Man. Gordon went to fellow actor Michael Pate to rewrite the story. Needing money, Gordon sold his rights to Pate who took the story to his brother-in-law, screenwriter Phillip Rock.

The screenplay was written by James Leicester and Phillip Rock and is based on The Steel Monster by Phillip Rock, Michael Pate, and Leo Gordon. Michael Pate also co-wrote the script.

Producer Benedict Bogeaus had wanted to shoot the film as a television pilot (a common creative practice of the time), to be shown on TV as three episodes, should it be picked up for syndication. Traveling to Mexico to begin shooting in 1960, Mexican film syndicates ruled that it was actually a feature film and demanded Bogeaus make it using a full crew, which would now have to be paid at feature film labor rates.

What should have been shot in five weeks was done in one. And everything in interiors - nothing built. The actors didn’t want to stay. All they wanted to do was get home. And I was in the awkward position of trying to keep it together with all this schism going on around us. So I gritted my teeth and battled it. And that’s not fun. Nobody cared a damn. So it was just get it in the box and get home. A misfit from start to end.

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