The Ape (1940)

Why so much hype?

Very Cool!!!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

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

Somewhat silly but played with a straight-face nonetheless, 1940's "The Ape" was a contract fulfillment for Boris Karloff, toiling away at the time under employment by Monogram Pictures. Boasting an oddball concept and the rock solid capabilities of Karloff, this little cinematic side-bar is, at its best, serviceable. At its worst, it can be a bit of a slog, even at a swift 62 minutes long.Karloff plays the calmest mad scientist you've ever met, Dr. Bernard Adrian. Dr. Adrian spends his days working on a miracle serum that he hopes will cure paralysis. Trouble is, this serum comes from tapping the spine of human patients, and willing participants are rather hard to come by. He grows close enough to his human guinea pig, the wheelchair-bound and charming (if a bit aloof) Frances Clifford (Maris Wrixon), that when a circus ape makes its way onto his property, he kills it and then uses its skin (?!) to roam the night for more victims to tap. If it sounds nutty, then that's because it is. The ignorant townsfolk spend most of the movie's run-time trying to stop science in its tracks, never once realizing that what they're up against is a guy in a surprisingly well-tailored ape costume. Karloff rises about as far as the material asks of him, while his co-stars just kind of stand there, rarely sticking out (save for Wrixon). Movies like this were never meant to be more than double-feature, b-flick filler and "The Ape" fills that niche quite nicely. File under: late Saturday afternoon, time to lie on the couch.

The pretty Maris Wrixon has spent the past ten years in a wheelchair because of paralysis and research doctor Boris Karloff, the pariah in his community, is doing his best to cure her. Practically all of the townspeople hate him (although he's the first one they go to in a sudden medical emergency!) and the children all fear him even though they go out of their way to throw rotten tomatoes at his house. A rash of dog disappearances have caused suspicion to be thrown at him, but when a circus fire breaks out and the caged ape escapes, Karloff sees an opportunity to find the serum he so desperately needs in a way that nobody could suspect him.This is a truly horrible movie, fortunately short, but it is almost laughable that somebody could think up such tripe. Karloff gets to try and humanize his character in a scene with one of the doctors (played by Selmer Jackson) who years ago fought his methods, and when they are standing facing each other, actually look almost identical. Jackson looked here exactly like Jack Betts who would play Karloff in the recent James Whale bio "Gods and Monsters", so that aspect absolutely distracts from the scene. Gertrude Hoffman, the old lady playing Karloff's housekeeper, only gets to whisper one line to him. She would go on to be better used as Barbara Stanwyck's murdered aunt in "The File on Thelma Jordan" and most memorably as the "lifer" who stands up to Hope Emerson in the cult classic "Caged".

This is a bad movie made worse by horrendous DVD "restoration". Like many old public domain films, the quality is so bad it looks and sounds like someone tore little bits and pieces of the film away. The best way to describe the quality of this film is "moth eaten". I don't know why, it just sounds right to me. It's about a scientist(Karloff) who tries to cure polio by running around the countryside in an ape pelt in search of victims that he can drain of spinal fluid. It has a ridiculous plot that takes itself too seriously. Don't go into this film expecting it to be a "pleasant surprise" or "better than most cheap old horror movies", because it's just like all the rest. At least it was in my opinion.

1st watched 5/1/2009 - 5 out of 10 (Dir- William Nigh): Interesting movie that just missed the mark for me due to a strange quick ending that I don't believe was prepped well, in my opinion. The movie is about a misunderstood doctor, played by horror great Boris Karloff, who is trying to cure the local town of a crippling disease but is using animals in his experiments and the townfolk don't like his methods. The Ape comes into the story after it escapes from a local circus, causes a fire and then is hiding somewhere in the town. While the authorities are hunting for him it is noticed that he spends a lot of time around the doctor's place but no-one knows why. When the doctor first encounters the creature he stabs it, but it's not apparent that he killed the beast. The ape still continues showing up killing others, but escaping from the authorities. A subplot revolves around a crippled woman that the doctor is slowly healing thru spinal fluid from victims of the ape and wherever else he gets it. It appears to be working but he needs more fluid. This is where the filmmakers lost me because they don't link these two pieces together very well. You can probably figure out what's going on, but I'll let you watch the movie and see if you felt the same way I did about the quick ending. The movie wasn't bad it just felt like the makers didn't have enough movie to really do what they wanted to do and tell the story better. So, this one just missed the mark for me despite the fact that I was glad that I saw it.