The Monster Walks (1932)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I have an original Mexican lobbycard of this oldie-but-not-goldie dark house thriller with a terrific illustration (not seen in American publicity materials as far as I am aware) of a very scary giant (King Kong-size!) ape, but, alas, no such monster appears in the movie. The on screen credits are superimposed over an illustration of a gorilla carrying a damsel-in-distress, but, alas, no such scene is in the movie either! There is only a chimpanzee locked up in a basement cage. The opening scenes when a potential heiress is awaited in a mansion where a will is to be read seemed somewhat promising with one or two nicely lit compositions and the actress playing the housemaid was a welcome presence. Yet it turned out that, 95 percent of the movie's brief running time (one hour), until a meaningless but mildly exploitative climax, consisted of people talking standing or sitting in rooms or moving in between rooms where they will talk sitting or standing!.. It would have helped if the "ape" in the basement cage was a man-in-gorilla-costume and not a chimpanzee. I have a feeling that at some stage, the original screenplay entailed something more than it was filmed. Who was the housemaid referring to when she told her son to lock up all the doors and windows against? To whom did the hairy hand belong? Not the killer as it is revealed.. It should also be noted that there is a pretty racist portrayal of a black driver as a foolish and timid folk, made worse by a pun where he acknowledges that he is related to apes. Worth looking only for those studying racism in American cinema, falls flat on all other departments, so boring that not even so-bad-so-good.

Sorry for my bad English :(This movie wants to be some many things at the time, and fails in every aspect, tries to be as Dracula or Frankenstein, tries to be a detective movie, a Gothic tale, a suspenseful movie ad scary, but none of this ones works, first the plot is ridiculous, a group of people stay in a old dark house to read the will of a relative and then strange things began to happen they all think is the ape of the dead relative, in the end the ape is controlled by three of the people to kill the others and stay with the money, which is ridiculous, so the story doesn't work and is rejected by major studios, but they still want to make the movie, so they make it independent, plus the develop of the script also has some plot holes and things that just don't make sense like the part the fiancée of the leading girl starts asking questions like a detective to a guy just because he found his cigarette, or the leading girl that screams the whole movie to take her out of the house, but they don't even try to get out, after all what just happened, or again the leading girl, screaming because she found a corpse in her bed, and just minutes later she sleeps in the same place the body was found, come on all this is ridiculous and i am not telling everything.From that we get the second point, the low-budget, you can see the movie is obviously cheap, because of the special effects, the setting and the actors, the killer hand of the monkey doesn't even look like the real monkey, it makes no sense, the setting tries to be Gothic and creepy but it is not, and the acting is laughable, the leading girl is always hysterical and in tow seconds she is smiling or laughing, Hans tries to be creepy, but it ends being laughable, and its a little bit racist, the only black character in the movie is the one with no intelligence. In the end its a bad low-budget movie that tries to be like Dracula or Frankenstain, this movie is just too simple, if you want to see a real Gothic old dark house movie go watch The Old Dark House, the 1932 version, directed by James Whale.5.1/10

This is a popular title among the "old dark house" thrillers (often given a comic slant) which flooded the market from the 1920s through to the mid-1940s or thereabouts, but I was sorely disappointed by it. For one thing, characterization is inadequate (even when considering the thing is just 60 minutes long) so that what plot development there is feels largely mechanical – and, regrettably, even the treatment proves too stolid to render this an entertaining film (with little genuine atmosphere to help matters). For the record, the same director's follow-up – THE VAMPIRE BAT (1933) – has an intriguing cast and uses leftover sets from James Whale's sublime spoof THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) but is not otherwise that more of a success in putting across the various genre conventions! Anyway, the would-be thrills here involve a couple of attempts on the heroine's life (typically, the sole heir of a vast fortune) made, we are led to believe, by a caged ape kept – for no very good reason – in the basement (except that the assailant's hairy arms are visibly longer than those of the rather squat mammal concerned!). As for the comedy, despite the presence of Mischa Auer (who actually plays it straight, Leonard Maltin's comments notwithstanding) and Willie Best (unflatteringly billed as "Sleep 'N' Eat"), it is quite sparse – and so mild as to barely raise a smile! Also involved is Sheldon Lewis (as the heroine's invalid and indignant uncle) who had played the dual role in the 1920 version of "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" that fell far short of the rival production designed as a vehicle/showcase for the great John Barrymore.

WoooOOOoooOOO... In the mood for a cheap, substandard rehash of the 1927 silent horror classic THE CAT AND THE CANARY? It's a dark and stormy night at an old, creepy mansion. The home's wealthy owner, a follower of the theories of Darwin for what it's worth, has just recently bought the farm. Assorted family members and the hired help all gather together to find out what kind of goodies the deceased has left them. Friend and attorney Herbert Wilkes (Sidney Bracey) presides over the reading of the will. Present and accounted for are the wimpy, overly emotional daughter Ruth (Vera Reynolds), her doctor boyfriend Ted (Rex Lease), wheelchair bound Uncle Robert (Sheldon Lewis), fraidy cat black chauffeur Exodus (Willie Best aka Sleep 'n' Eat), elderly maid Emma (Martha Mattox) and her very tall and menacing half wit son Hans (Mischa Auer), who... speaks... very... very... slowly... Even though the deceased made sure everyone basically got what they deserved, he left the majority of his cash (50,000 bucks) and his home to his daughter. One, or perhaps several, of the others decide they want poor Ruth dead so they can get her share of the inheritance. Did I forget to mention there's also a hyperactive "ape" (chimp) named Yogi locked up in the cellar? Everyone shudders in fear about the dreaded evil monkey being in the same home as them even though it never once leaves its cage. It basically just lets out the occasional shriek, bounces up and down, grabs the cage bars and shakes it all around, and later becomes an easy scapegoat when one of the characters ends up dead with hand prints around their throat. Exodus says "I had a grand pappy who looked somethin' like him!" Groan.Fans of cheap old horror flix will be all-too-familiar with this film's set-up, plot and roster of stock characters. The whole thing is dull, lifeless, excessively talky, set-bound and hopelessly clichéd, and that's even when you put in context of the time it was made. The one pseudo scary moment, as a hairy arm reaches through the back of a bed toward the sleeping leading lady, is lifted directly from the aforementioned CAT/CANARY, the supposed comic relief isn't the least bit amusing, the revelation of the killer(s) is predictable and the acting is horribly stiff from nearly everyone concerned, with Bracey and Mattox being the least offensive of the bunch. The sound quality is also bad and the sets are so flimsy that when someone knocks on a door the whole wall shakes like it's about to fall over. It's only worth checking out for a couple of unintended laughs or for monkey movie fetishists.