The Ape (1940) User Reviews

Workmanlike B movie

[lorenellroy · 6/10 · 16 April 2005]

It could be argued that the 1940's were something of a golden age for the B movie in America -at least in quantity terms - and several studios arose to make a great many cheap pictures for double bills and the sleazier end of the market . Monogram pictures were one such company and they strove with Universal for the horror end of the spectrum although with fewer resources . Like other such pictures The Ape gives a leading role to a horror icon , Boris Karloff ,while featuring unknowns, and untalented ones into the bargain, for the supporting parts . He plays Doctor Adrian who is regarded with suspicion by the small town locals but is revered by a young woman ,the wheelchair bound Frances Clifford whose paralysis he is striving to cure .His favoured method is by injection of spinal fluid but he is running out of the stuff till fate takes a hand .A giant ape escapes from the visiting circus ;unknown to the townsfolk he is shot .Adrian skins the dead beast and goes out at night dressed in the skin ,killing to obtain victims so he can continue the treatment . Karloff is his usual excellent self ,this time playing the scientist rather than a creation of a scientist ,and the script is quite sharp in its depiction of small town narrow mindedness .The ape suit is better than usual in this type of picture with this type of budget and this is a decent little horror number

Karloff Slumming

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 13 August 2005]

William Nigh directs this low-budget Monogram picture about a circus ape escaping simultaneously with an eccentric doctor trying to cure a young girl's paralysis. Somehow the two plot strands meet and end in a very far-fetched denouement. Fantastical plot notwithstanding, The Ape is a quality picture at least as far as Monogram pictures go. Sure it has some real cheap sets and a threadbare, ridiculous story. The direction is adequate but nothing more. But what it does have is a fine performance from Boris Karloff as the doctor working endlessly to free a girl from the confines of her wheelchair all the while blurring the line of good and bad. For me there are three types of mad doctors. The first and probably most familiar is the crazed, maniacal, egocentric mad doctor looking for revenge or glory or the affections of a girl. These guys are the ones full of themselves and usually are dedicated in some form or fashion to evil. Bela Lugosi excelled at these. The second type is the same maniacal, crazed doctor but one that is more worldly. He wants money or power and position. He knows oftentimes that what he is doing is wrong(differentiates him from first type). I think Lionel Atwill played this type very well. The third type - and a very broad one - is the mad doctor who crosses the line of acceptable behaviour but his action are all done with good at the core. Karloff really perfected this type. The Ape has just such a "mad doctor" in it. Karloff gives such a good performance despite everything working against him. He creates genuine pathos in his role. The rest of the cast in this film is nothing too special. I enjoyed Henry Hall as the lawman, and Gertrude Hoffman as Karloff's quiet maid was chilling in her demeanor and silence. The Ape should not be overlooked simply because of its less than stellar roots with Monogram. Karloff rises above the material and this film rises above the standard fare usually created. The ape itself, well, quite ridiculous. In this one George Barrows gets a break and Ray "Crash" Corrigan(the alien in It! The Terror from Beyond Space)dons the unrealistic simian outfit.

Karloff makes this B-movie fun to watch!

[al-harris · 5/10 · 31 July 2006]

Watched this 1940 movie last night and had fun watching Karloff. His scenes as the caring Doctor trying to find a cure for the paralyzed girl (played by Maris Wrixon) were touching and well done. His mad obsession to cure her seemed very believable to me. Though it looks like Wrixon played mostly bit parts during her career, she did a good job in this larger role and she is beautiful. Gene O'Donnell as her protective and jealous boyfriend seemed unrealistic as he took an immediate and illogical dislike to Karloff, the man trying to help his girlfriend walk again. Maybe he thought he resembled some kind of mad scientist, remembering Dr.Janos Rukh in 'The Invisible Ray' or Dr.Ernest Sovac in 'Black Friday.' Of course, this Monogram film is lacking in production values and the supporting cast is for the most part forgettable. And, Karloff has certainly been more fun to watch in some of his other films. The killer ape was a little goofy, as were the never-ending posses hunting him. However, with all that being said, it was still fun to see an old Karloff film, if only for old time's sake.

Karloff and Siodmak add class to ridiculous tale

[michael.e.barrett · 17 July 2004]

It doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but this cheapie was better than I expected, thanks not only to Karloff's sympathetic performance but to a script by Curt Siodmak, who did much better things. Once you accept that the main idea is stupid, you can appreciate that each individual scene is well-written in terms of character development. Everyone is slightly more ambiguous than their stock character usually would be. The "mad" doctor is sincerely concerned with the insipid heroine who reminds him of his daughter, and his madness is a kind of beautiful tragedy. The "good" boyfriend says he doesn't want her hurt, but he also seems jealous of the doctor and resentful that the heroine won't be so dependent on him. There's real tension in their triangle. The hick sheriff is almost sharp enough to figure things out. The town blowhard gets several scenes showing what a well-chiseled wretch he is, especially the scene with his pathetic wife. The small-towners are all various little unflattering types--lazy, suspicious, gossipy, narrow-minded--not exactly an ad for rural life. Karloff's maid seems mute except when she suddenly whispers one word. There's a city doctor who comes on as an antagonist, then gets converted into an ally by Karloff's evidence, and disappears from the movie! There's the wise caretaker, introduced in a surprising pan shot that begins with a black circus worker playing a trumpet for a dancing elephant and ending with the ape being provoked by the rotten trainer. The very ending, too, has a certain power if you meet the movie halfway. The trouble is, just as you're pulled into the simplicity and effectiveness of all these human scenes, along comes another scene with that apesuit to pull the rug out from under the movie's credibility. The ape is the worst thing about THE APE!

Boris

[kairingler · 5/10 · 6 July 2013]

first off I enjoyed The Ape, not one of Karloff's great movies but it didn't stink either,, the premise of the movie is that he is trying to find a spinal cure for a woman, and the only way he can do this is to go around killing people,, he decides to use an Ape suit this way I guess he can scare the living daylights out of his victims.. he is great to watch his every move ,, what he is gonna do next, and how he will go about doing it,, he's really creepy in the Ape suit, I would not wanna be in his way when he is gonna get to his next victim,, granted there's not a lot of suspense here because you already know what he is doing, so there is really no great mystery about what's going on, just sit back and enjoy Boris Karloff that's what I did.

Spinal Fluid Seemed to Be at a Premium

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 14 March 2006]

If it weren't for the presence of Boris Karloff, this would be pretty bad. Apparently there has been a bout with polio in the community (paralysis) and there is a pretty young victim who the doctor fancies as looking like his late daughter. He makes it his life work to cure her. Unfortunately, he needs the bodily fluids of others to bring about that cure. Of course, he chooses the base, the outcast, for his work because the young pretty girl has more worth in the society than these others. He chooses his victims by judging this worth. He kills them by dressing in the skin of an ape that he killed and skinned. If this sounds silly, it's hard to defend. There's also a subplot of the jealousy of a young man who loves the young woman but may feel if she recovers she will reject him. Karloff's doctor is the constant victim of the community. They don't know what he's doing in that house and so he is victimized by the local kids (your garden variety brats), and looked on with suspicion. He is such a kindly man, it seems odd that there is such venom when it comes to him. Anyway, it's a small town and people do need their preoccupations. It just seems that a doctor with this much imagination could be a little more creative in his methods than the one he chooses. Imagine how lacking in dexterity if you were about 60 years old, running around in an ape pelt. It's rather forgettable and predictable, but it's fun to see Karloff's character.

A ponderous plot and a misnamed film

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 22 September 2018]

I'm not sure what I'd name this film. It was probably named "The Ape" to bring in crowds - thoughts of an ape gone rogue and Boris Karloff creeping about would do so in 1940. Dr. Bernard Adrian (Karoloff) is introduced immediately. He is visiting a girl, Frances, who is paralyzed on what would have been Adrian's daughter's 18th birthday. Both his daughter and wife were lost in an epidemic of what is called "paralysis". It is probably polio, but the disease is never named. The girl is like a second daughter to Adrian, and she has a beau, the rather simple but kindly Danny.

A local circus goes up in flames and an ape belonging to the circus is on the loose. The ape badly injures his cruel trainer/keeper in the process of escaping and the trainer is brought to Dr. Adrian. Adrian figures the man is going to die anyways, and uses his spinal fluid in a serum he is concocting to help Frances and other paralytics walk again.

There are several mysteries going on here. The ape only seems to kill people who are evil - you are given a scene in which each of his victims does something awful. How does the ape know? Plus the ape is hanging around the doctor's house. Why?? Also, in one scene the ape is said to be killed but is shown walking about later, still on a mad spree. How?

Is this all just bad editing? Why are chronically ill young people always shown as so patient and kind in these B films? Will the doctor push the boundaries of medicine too far and have Frances remove the blanket on her legs to reveal hairy ape legs? If so will Danny make a run for it? Watch and find out the ridiculous ending.

This film is five out of ten just because of Karloff. He creeps up the atmosphere and adds depth to just about any character he plays. Everybody else in the cast is just a cardboard cutout next to him. It makes me wonder why he even did this film. Probably for Karloff completists only.

Doors

[junk-monkey · 3/10 · 27 December 2004]

Just how many doors does Karlof open in this flick? Every shot seems to start or end with him opening or closing a door - or both! The sheriff opens and closes a lot of doors too. The whole movie is full of people opening and shutting doors. The ape suited doctor dies just in front of his own house door. The only character who doesn't use a door is the Ape who enters the doctor's house by smashing through a window. I'm sure there is a deep and complex metaphor going on here somewhere but I can't be bothered to work out what it is.

If you are looking to buy this movie be warned, the copy I own is on a DVD with two other Karlof movies (Both Mr Wong films) and is duped off a really terrible print.

Dear Kindly Dr. Karloff

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 10 November 2008]

In between episodes of the Mr. Wong detective series, Monogram Pictures found some time to cast Boris Karloff in his traditional role as a scientist experimenting in things unknown. The Ape has him in a more traditional Karloff type role.

Boris is a doctor who has settled in a small community and is not well liked by the inhabitants of this place. Rumors abound of his experiments on animals. What he's doing in fact is exploring a cure for infantile paralysis.

It's hard to understand these days, but that was a dreaded thing back in the day, the President of the United States had that disease, but Karloff isn't worried about curing FDR, it's pretty Maris Wrixon, that's got his attention who's confined to a wheelchair like the president.

At the same time a circus ape that's been abused by his trainer gets loose and sets fire to the big top. What The Ape getting loose has to do with Karloff and his experiments is for you to see.

Let's just say that Jonas Salk was not pursuing the same line of research as Boris Karloff was.

Where would (mad) science be without Boris Karloff?

[Coventry · 6/10 · 7 December 2004]

In this very short and extremely cheap horror film, horror legend Boris Karloff once again stars as a devoted doctor/scientist on the verge of a big medical breakthrough. He played quite a few similar roles in his rich career and this time he's helping out a young woman who's suffering from an almost terminal case of polio. Dr. Adrian (Karloff's character) has great visions but his experiments are what they call 'unethical' and all the villagers avoid him. When a mad-raving ape escapes from a nearby circus, it brings Dr. Adrian to an idea… 'The Ape' is quite an imaginative and well-intended horror film with a slick plot but unfortunately too little action. It never features a horrific atmosphere and the ape costume isn't exactly convincing. Still, I'd certainly categorize it as a worthwhile horror film if it were only for the performance by Boris (who looks quite thin and unhealthy here, though). In case you're looking for a really excellent film starring Karloff going insane while reaching new medical heights, I strongly recommend purchasing 'Corridors of Blood'. This film would make a neat appetizer before watching that one.

"Do apes ever return to the scene of their crime?"

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 21 April 2023]

Although officially suggested by the play by Adam Hull Shirk, writer Kurt Siodmak was already employing an element that had been a staple of horror films since the silent era; the use of apes to commit skullduggery already dating back nearly a hundred years to 'The Murders on the Rue Morgue'.

In a long career William Nigh has the rare distinction of having directed both Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff. By the time he made 'The Ape' he had come down in the world considerably and working for Monogram when his path ironically passed Karloff playing Mr Wong the detective since Chaney had also played a Chinaman in the film Nigh made with him.

Karloff looks very distinguished in a long droopy moustache, while Maris Wrixon is genuinely touching as the young lady in a wheelchair on whose behalf Karloff dedicates himself to harvesting spinal fluid.

An Underrated Karloff Horror Classic

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 8 June 2015]

This is one of those lesser known Boris Karloff films that is an underrated horror classic! Worth watching if you enjoy the films concerning "a mad scientist", older horror classics and/or Boris Karloff.

Yes Karloff is finding a cure for polio in this underrated classic - but is he really a "mad scientist" or a man desperate to help humanity?

What does a circus, an ape, a mad scientist, a woman with polio and murder have to do with each other? If you are curious then I would recommend you watching the Karloff film "The Ape".

The copy of this film I have is clear and I can hear the movie quite well but it does jump around a little bit. I would guess the film was not preserved all that well but that has NOTHING to do with the original film before the wear and tear of time.

If you want a fairly decent copy of this film like I have then I would recommend getting the horror film pack called "Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection" (with Phantom of the Opera on the cover). It's a fairly clean/decent copy although their might be a better copy of this film floating around out there that I am unaware of.

"The Ape" is a good old fashioned horror film that I do recommend to others.

8.5/10

Choppy Video, But Decent Nonetheless

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 16 April 2007]

A local doctor and scientist (Boris Karloff) is working on a treatment for paralysis. He finds the cure requires human spinal fluid. But to get such a thing, he must kill. And then a local circus starts on fire and a murderous ape escapes...

First, let me give a shout out to director William Nigh of Berlin, Wisconsin. I always have to support my local directors, even if they're dead. And while there was nothing really out of the ordinary as far as directing style, it was good just the same. And Nigh has a history of working with Karloff, which I'm sure helps quite a bit (look at Tim Burton and Johnny Depp).

This film has a strong point, a weak point and a mediocre pint. The strong point is the plot. My summary will sound strange to those who haven't seen the movie. There is a circus, an ape, a scientist and people are getting killed. It really fits together very nicely, and I found this to be impressive. Many older films fill time with extra fluff, but this one was only the necessities and even that was pretty thorough.

The weak point is the film quality. I don't think I can blame the movie for its quality, but the sound is not great, the picture is not great, and many frames are missing entirely. Either lost, or filmed with bad equipment. Once I adjusted, this wasn't such a big deal. But other films from this time period have fared better, so I wish this had been one of them. A restored, touched up version of this film would have been vastly superior.

The mediocre point is the costume designer. The ape was obviously a man in a costume. However, despite this being obvious it was still a very good costume and worked for the sake of the picture. Can I reasonably expect a better ape without a real ape being used (which would be much harder to control, of course)? Perhaps not. So I give them credit for the effort. (And I assume the costume here is much nicer than the one used in the earlier theatrical production.) This film was alright. As far as older, lower quality movies go, I think this is better than much of the stuff we now call "classic". Karloff delivers, as usual... and we get a good story that has a nice dark comedy element to it, or at least an element of sympathy for evil acts. And that's always nice.

Boris, why?

[Milk_Tray_Guy · 4/10 · 6 November 2021]

The Ape (1940)

I love B movie horror, but man this is terrible. Saved only by Karloff's dignity as the doctor who decides to dress up as an ape(!) 4/10.

Slow, occasionally funny old horror flick

[DrSatan · 1/10 · 20 September 1999]

This is a ridiculous yarn about a doctor who seeks to cure paralysis with human spinal fluid. Why do all these old horror flicks have characters who need human spinal fluid to stay young/cure disease/remain human, etc.? I've never understood how human spinal fluid was thought to accomplish these things. This movie is slow and the idea that Karloff would be able to gut out a gorilla, turn it into a costume and make people believe a gorilla on the loose was responsible for a series of killings is unbelievable, unless you take into account the fact that no gorilla appears anywhere in this cheapie, just a man in a gorilla suit. SO, I guess it would be possible to kill the man in the suit and take him out of it. Only watch this flick if you love crapcinema, Karloff, or movies about men in gorilla outfits killing to collect a supply of human spinal fluid.

If only for Boris

[leonardfranks · 3/10 · 11 May 2009]

Basically, Boris Karloff is the only good thing about this movie, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the makers of this film were aware of that. He truly does give a good performance, and adds a good amount of depth to an otherwise rather stereotypical character. But imagine if it had been played by anyone else: a doctor is trying to cure polio, when he is attacked by an escaped circus ape. He kills the circus ape, skins it and makes a perfect costume out of it, and then makes a remarkably unsuccessful attempt to go on a killing spree looking for spinal fluid. It's not a great concept, and no one but Karloff could have added any plausibility to it. And even with him, there are still problems. Lines like "Man... the greatest of animals" are pretty hokey and some of the throwaway scenes that don't relate to the plot (like that random guy and woman whom you never see again looking at the circus) are pretty annoying. I will also note that although there is no such thing as a convincing gorilla suit, that one is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

THE APE (William Nigh, 1940) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 23 January 2010]

Very minor and frankly dull Boris Karloff vehicle, one of the "mad scientist" roles he specialized in during this phase of his career. The plot takes pains to render the idea of how despised his character is, presumably because of his unorthodox experiments, but I cannot fathom why – surely what he was engaged in would prove exceedingly beneficial to mankind if successful (as readily acknowledged by an authority brought in from out of town to investigate him)! A measure of the film's ambivalence in this respect is that both views will be accounted for at the very end – as Karloff's miracle cure does work, but he has had to resort to the despicable act of murder in order to procure specimens!; incidentally, this latter business and the fact that one of the protagonists is wheelchair-bound would both resurface – to infinitely infinitely greater effect – in a later Karloff picture, the Val Lewton classic THE BODY SNATCHER (1945). The titular creature, then, is seen prowling about a number of times – even after having watched Karloff stab it: where we supposed to know that he was behind subsequent killings?; my brother actually arrived at this conclusion about three-quarters of the way in…but I just could not believe Karloff would go to such extremes for Science (after all, he failed to save the immediate members of his family and had kept up the fight for a good 10 years afterwards – why should he bother so much with the rest of the world, especially since they hated him for it?!) and, in any case, being a doctor does not automatically give one a propensity for taxidermy, does it?! All things considered, this is watchable but inessential – and not nearly as much fun (in a guilty pleasure kind of way) as when Bela Lugosi did something similar i.e. in THE APE MAN (1943).

Pretty dumb

[zetes · 4/10 · 3 October 2011]

Boris Karloff stars as a doctor attempting to cure paralysis. To continue his research, he needs to collect spinal fluid, but there just aren't enough corpses from which to harvest it. Thankfully, he has just killed an escaped circus gorilla, so he hollows out its corpse, puts on its skin and goes out at night to murder townspeople for their precious, precious spine juice. This movie is pretty retarded. Why exactly does Karloff need an ape costume to kill his victims? I mean, he knows that the sheriff has organized hunting parties that go out every night looking for the ape. It seems that an ape costume is probably the least safe thing to be wearing. And it's not like wearing a gorilla costume is going to give him super-strength or anything. It's more likely to make it much more difficult to murder your victims, as it's got to be hot as Hell in there and your maneuverability and vision have to be severely diminished. The film is also painfully slow, and the characters are as dumb as the plot. Not Karloff's finest hour, but at least it provided some good laughs.

Karloff dons gorilla skin to kill neighbors for their spinal fluid

[a_chinn · 5/10 · 6 July 2017]

Corny but fun low budget horror film about small town mad scientist Boris Karloff trying to cure a girl of polio, while at the same time a circus ape has escaped and is terrorizing the locals. When the ape breaks into Karloff's laboratory and destroys the spinal fluids he needs to cure the girl, he concocts a scheme to skin the ape and then wear it's flesh as a disguise to kill the townsfolk in order to harvest their spinal fluid and let the ape take the blame. The film was written by Curt Siodmak, who wrote "The Wolf Man," but who also wrote a lot of nonsense along the lines of "Bride of the Gorilla" and "Tarzan's Magic Fountain," but I did find the overall story of Karloff disgusting himself as an ape to steal spinal fluid a campy good time. Fun, but nothing brilliant.

Karloff lifts this movie above itself

[kd-white · 6/10 · 18 December 2005]

Boris Karloff's performance is wonderful as always, mainly because the moral ambiguity with which he presents his character makes it unique. Most "mad scientist" movies portray truly mad doctors who perform their awful experiments for less-than-pure purposes. Karloff, on the other hand, kills only a mortally-wounded, insolent trainer, and an exceedingly evil cheater ("there's always the river"), and does it for a wonderful young woman who he truly cares about. Karloff augments this story by making his character nearly the most sympathetic player in the story. The sheriff is crooked, the polio scientist accommodating, the men in town drunken gossipers, and even the girl's boyfriend "afraid of what he doesn't know". The only characters we really root for are the mother and daughter, and the happy ending centers on the daughter, so we are appeased. Overall, the acting (outside of Karloff) is OK, but nothing special, and the direction pedestrian, but this makes for a solid hour of entertainment and thought.

Do It! do It! Only your minds holding you back in that chair not your Body!

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 11 March 2007]

**SPOILERS** One of the great Boris Karloff's most sympathetic and touching roles as a mad scientist who's obsessed in his mission to conquer paralysis but at the same time goes a bit too far and over the line, in murdering a number of people, in doing it. After a polio epidemic hit the quite little town of Red Creek dozens of townspeople ended up dying from it including the towns doctor Bernard Adrian's, Boris Karloff, wife and young daughter. Determined to find a cure for this, at the time, incurable disease Dr. Adrian started to fiddle around in his lab with spinal fluid feeling that it's the key in curing that illness but the spinal fluids that Dr. Adrian needed was from humans beings that if extracted from them would eventually kill them.

While treating a patient, what seems like the only one in Red Creek who's willing to put up with him, the pretty but wheelchair-bound Frances Clifford, Maris Wrixon,Dr. Adrian is called upon to do an emergency operation on gorilla trainer J. Standford Jolley who was mauled by the big ape, Nabu, when he began abusing the, what he thought was, helpless animal. Seeing his chance to get the valuable spinal fluids from the near-dead Jolley Dr. Adrian extracted it from his spine thus killing him.

Injecting the spinal fluids into the unaware Frances she suddenly began to get some feeling in her legs that were totally paralyzed for ten years but the bumbling old fool, in a fit of exhilaration, dropped the test tube containing the fluid causing it to smash to pieces and become worthless. Meanwhile Nabu the escaped gorilla makes his way to Dr. Adrian's place and in a wild and pitched struggle the elderly and frail Dr. Adrian ends up killing the 400 pound gorilla and using it, or it's hide, to go out in the countryside looking for new victims to both kill and extract their spinal fluids.

Even though Dr. Adrain is undoubtedly a homicidal maniac you have to say that his heart is in the right place in him using his talents as a man of medicine to help rather then hurt those he's treating. Blinded by his attempt to cure those who are suffering from crippling diseases like polio the kindly but at the same time foolish old man just overlooked the fact that he had no right to play God with peoples lives like he did in the film.

Tracked down by a posse of townspeople Dr. Adrian, dressed in a gorilla suit, is shot and stabbed a number of times as he tries to find, and kill, new victims for his experiments and the big reward that he gets at the end of the film, as he's about to expire, is that Frances whom he was so determined to cure got up off her wheelchair and walked towards the dying doctor showing him, and the people of Red Creek, that he wasn't all that bad. Whether they were good bad or indifferent I seriously doubt that the medical community would continue the late Dr. Adrian mad and murderous experiments anytime in the near future or for that matter anytime at all.

KARLOFF TRIES TO FIND A CURE FOR POLIO!

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 1 May 2003]

Monogram pictures produced rather low budget films and cut costs in every way imaginable. Karloff made this entire film possible with his great acting as Dr. Adrian, dedicating his career to finding a cure for the dread disease Polio. He ties to help the only person in town who believes he can cure her from paralyzis. Karloff soon learns that he needs spinal fluid from a human being, he tries to blame the Ape for his horrors. This "APE Film" finished Karloff's contract with Monogram and he returned after eighteen(18)years when Monogram became Allied Artists in 1953 where he made "Frankenstein 1970".

Not quite as bad as you'd expect for a picture featuring an ape run amok

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 15 September 2007]

This film is very much like an earlier Monogram Pictures effort, THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES. That's because both starred Boris Karloff as a well-intentioned doctor who is trying to help mankind but ultimately becomes a "mad" scientist. Here Karloff is trying to find a cure for spinal paralysis and he uses the spinal fluid of a man injured by an escaped ape to help cure a lady who is bound to a wheelchair. The problem is, although there is improvement, Karloff needs more and more fluid in order to effect a cure. The rest, though predictable, is pretty entertaining for a low-budget horror flick. The conclusion is particularly good--giving a nice twist that's not expected.

And speaking of "low-budget", this film is very, very cheaply made--with occasionally bad acting and an annoyingly repetitive musical score. Despite the film's many short-cuts and all, it's STILL very watchable and worth a look--particularly for fans of Karloff.

"Somebody better get after that ape or he'll tear this town wide open."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 27 July 2005]

As I sit here and think about the movie I've just seen, I ask myself why the film makers even bothered to feature a gorilla as a central character in this story, but there's the title "The Ape", so I guess they had to fit one in somewhere. The story is actually rather standard fare for the era, a mad scientist/doctor Bernard Adrian (Boris Karloff) is obsessed with finding a cure for a young woman's paralysis, and will go to any lengths to succeed. Those lengths include killing a circus ape that invades his home, gutting out the creature (off screen of course), and then using the carcass to disguise himself as he seeks victims from which to extract spinal fluid for the serum he needs to complete his experiments and cure the stricken Frances Clifford (Maris Wrixon). To state that the film makers took excessive liberties with the premise of the movie is putting it mildly. For example, Karloff's character, who appears frail and weak, manages to dispatch the ape by blinding him with some lab fluid, and stabbing him once with a knife, and to the back no less. Then, in his first outing in the monkey suit, he manages to waylay a burley Henry Mason (who was such a cad, he actually had it coming) on his way into town to join the gorilla posse.

If not for the presence of the venerable Boris Karloff, this film probably wouldn't stand a chance. However, you then ask yourself why Karloff would even consider getting involved with this project after having created film history with "Frankenstein" and "The Mummy". Perhaps he was intrigued with the idea of working a comedy.

You'll get a chuckle out of the Ray "Crash" Corrigan ape early in the film as he makes his way to Dr. Adrian's home. Attempting to cross a rail fence, he practically trips over it, and has to correct his balance. You have to love these low budget Monogram efforts, no time or money for do-overs.

In spite of some of my tongue in cheek comments, you owe yourself at least one viewing of "The Ape", whether you're a fan of the poverty row movie machine of the 1940's or a follower of Boris Karloff. In my case, I'm all the better for having seen it, and I can truthfully say it didn't make a monkey out of me.