Return of the Ape Man *** (1944, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco) – Classic Movie Review 3749

Director Philip Rosen’s 1944 Monogram studios horror movie is an entertaining follow-up to 1943’s The Ape Man, in which scientists Professor Dexter (Bela Lugosi) and Professor John Gilmore (John Carradine) go on an Arctic expedition and try to resuscitate an ancient ice-buried prehistoric caveman, the Ape Man (George Zucco) whose frozen body they find.

They take him back to their lab and decide they must transplant a more developed brain into the caveman.

[Spoiler alert] So Lugosi’s Dexter finds he has to kill Carradine’s Gilmore for his brain to transplant it into the creature, which alternates between being cultured (it plays the piano!) and going rampaging. Of course, Lugosi’s Dexter has to meet a sticky end at the hands of the monster.

Written by Robert Charles, Return of the Ape Man is delirious at times, imaginative at others, and always jolly good fun.

Also in the cast are Michael Ames, Frank Moran, Judith Gibson, Mary Currier, Eddy Chandler, Ernie Adams and George Eldredge,

It was released on 17 July 1944. Most of the team then re-convened to make Voodoo Man (1944), which was released first on 21 February 1944.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3749

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com