The Ape ** (1940, Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon, Gene O’Donnell) – Classic Movie Review 5611

‘These cold eyes have watched a thousand men die screaming!’ Director William Nigh’s 1940 Monogram Pictures poverty row horror thriller stars Boris Karloff once again as a mad doctor, Dr Bernard Adrian, who kills an ape and dresses up as a monkey to kill people for a polio serum to cure a young woman.

It is an obviously cheaply made horror outing, just as preposterous and foolish as it sounds, with Karloff the only real reason it is worth a look.

Also in the cast are Maris Wrixon as Miss Frances Clifford, Gertrude W Hoffman as Dr Adrian’s Housekeeper Jane, Henry Hall as Sheriff Jeff Halliday, Gene O’Donnell as Danny Foster, Dorothy Vaughan as Mother Clifford, Selmer Jackson as Dr McNulty, Jessie Arnold as Mrs Brill, George Cleveland as Mr Howley, Ray Corrigan as Nabu the Gorilla, Mary Field as Mrs. Mason, I Stanford Jolley, Philo McCullough, Minerva Urecal, Buddy Swan and Jack Kennedy as Deputy Archie Tomlin.

The screenplay by Curt Siodmak and Richard Carroll is suggested from the ancient play The Ape by Adam Hull Shirk, which opened in Los Angeles, on 13 December 1902.

It runs 62 minutes, is shot in black and white by Harry Neumann, is produced by Scott R Dunlap and William T Lackey, and scored by Edward J Kay. Filming began on 29 July 1940 and it was released in the US only two months later on 30 September 1940.

Karloff did this to complete his six-film deal with Monogram Pictures, following five Mr Wong movies: Mr Wong, Detective (1938), The Mystery of Mr Wong (1939), Mr Wong in Chinatown (1939), The Fatal Hour (1940) and Doomed to Die (1940).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5611

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