Movies with Evil Doctors and Mad Scientists

“She’s the Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic, the Dr. Octopus to my Spider-Man, the Dr. Sivana to my Captain Marvel. [pause as realization hits] You know, it’s amazing how many supervillains have advanced degrees. You’d think the Masters programs would do a better job of filtering them out.” – Dr. Sheldon Leonard, The Big Bang Theory

I’m doing this category only after a little bit of hesitation, and partially because I just really like the quote above. I hesitated because as someone with an interest in science and knowledge it often bothers me in films when a similar character almost inevitably ends up being evil, or at least led astray and harmed by his/her thirst for knowledge. The evil scientist is as much a stock character as the bad guy with a foreign accent. Unlike the latter archetype, nobody is out there protesting when smart people turn out to be evil. It’s apparently okay to dump on them because, well, they’re smart. Beat them up in school, see them suffer in movies; it’s all connected.

One of the reasons I like the film Contact (1997) so much is that it is the rare film that treats science and scientists with respect. It’s also a rare film that treats faith with respect. To have both together in one movie is nothing short of remarkable. You can read my review of it here.

Films have used these kinds of evil characters almost from the first days of the invention of the movie camera and they have continued right up to the films that are still being released today. That doesn’t mean that all movies that use it are bad, though; far from it. I will be reviewing some of the classics of the genre. And the fact that the mad scientist is such a cliché makes it ripe for parody and reinvention. I will review a couple of those kinds of films, too. In all, I will be posting ten new reviews.

I won’t be including any James Bond movies since almost all of them would qualify and this category would end up being one on Bond instead. I also won’t be including Bond parodies like Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) – starring Vincent Price and Frankie Avalon, no less! I do like the title, though.

You will not find any torture porn horror movies such as The Human Centipede here. I haven’t seen it, but I know what happens and you couldn’t pay me to watch that.

Finally, you may be expecting me to include the film Dr. Strangelove (1964), but Peter Sellers’ mugging for the camera as the title character is actually my least favorite part of that movie. I will be including a film which references that character, though.

As I review the films I will come back and add the links for them here.