The Doctor and the Monkey (1900) User Reviews

Probably the first film with a guy in a cheesy ape costume.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 9 September 2020]

When you watch "Le Savant et le Chimpanze" you will most likely NOT be reminded of any of the Planet of the Apes films. This is because there is a guy wearing one of the worst ape costumes in movie history. But it's also important to note that it's probably the first (and definitely one of the first) to feature someone in a crappy monkey costume! So, all those god-awful ape films from the 1930s and 40s owe a lot to this Georges Méliès film!

The action is very simple. After all, the film (like so many from 1900) is only about a minute long. A professor has a monkey to help him but instead the creature runs awok.

Not a lot in the way of plot and it's more a film for devoted fans of Georges Méliès or film historians.

Going Ape!

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 11 November 2017]

Dress a man up in a monkey suit and have him go crazy. He is destructive and wild. At one point the man pulls his tail off and it comes to life. Pretty much a stationary camera just watching a staged mess. It's OK because lots of movies depend on this format. As is expected, the monkey gets the last laugh. Just crazy slapstick, with the doctor's wife getting assaulted by the primate.

Monkey mayhem

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 5 October 2015]

"The Doctor and the Monkey" is a 1-minute black-and-white silent short film by the legendary Georges Méliès from 115 years ago. While animals were frequently depicted back then, mostly documentary style, it was not really common to dress up as one, so once again Méliès was quicker than the rest. Here a monkey manages to get out of his cage and causes complete chaos at the doctor's house. The doctor's wife/maid comes to help and even shots are fired. Can order be restored? Watch for yourself. Or maybe don't. Not only the action in here is very chaotic, the film as a whole is as well and does not really offer anything memorable apart from the costumes aspect. Not a bad film by any means, but also not even close to the French film pioneer's finest works. Thumbs down.

Doctor and the Monkey

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2008]

Doctor And The Monkey, The (1900)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Servant et le chimpanze

A doctor is doing experiments on a caged monkey but when it breaks out of his cage there's all hell to pay. Once again, this is a cute little short but it really doesn't show the genius of Melies. There's no real magic to be spoken of but there are a couple laughs from the monkey including one scene where he tries to rip the dress off of a servant. The movie last just over a minute but there's really nothing too special that happens in that time. Once again Meiles takes the lead and plays the doctor.