Ape Man

Rating:
Summary: A classic by Beaudine & Katzman.
Review: A Monogram/Banner classic co-produced by Sam Katzman and directed by the one and only William Beaudine. Bela Lugosi is Dr. Brewster who has experimented with spinal fluids from a gorilla on himself. He is now slowly transforming to an ape himself and starts to regret what he has done. So Dr. Brewster and his pet gorilla (!) goes out killing people to get human spinal fluid so he can be cured. This is just as stupid as it sounds, and the film has a total lack of logic. But it's a fun and entertaining movie if you are into the genre of old horrors from the 40's. Well worth a look.

Rating:
Summary: Bela Lugosi goes ape!
Review: Here we have the local mad-scientist and gland expert (Bela Lugosi) working in his basement lab on his latest project. It seems while doing the usual mad-scientist thing of tampering in God's domain, he injected himself with some vaguely defined ape fluid. The ape stuff had some very unfortunate side-effects. Bela now goes around all hunched over, and wearing whiskers and a wig (both very phony). He swings his arms as he walks and mingles words with occasional grunts. Tragically, the only way he can stand upright as a man is to take injections of human spinal fluid. The only way to get human spinal fluid is to render humans inanimate (i.e., dead). The beneficial effect of the injections has become distressingly temporary; it doesn't last long enough for Bela to get rid of the whiskers and wig. Bela has taken to sleeping in the same cramped cage as Mr. Gorilla, his lab animal companion. The sexual overtones of this we won't even discuss.

This low-budget thriller is a good example of bad acting and unintended laughs. Bela Lugosi made some truly classic horror films, but this clunker isn't one of them. Lugosi and his gorilla pal lurking in doorways and alleys remind one of a simian version of Abbott and Costello. Bela is tall and slender while Mr. Gorilla is short and chubby. The snappy dialogue of the newspaper people is meant to be witty, but gets tiresome instead. The WWII jokes hopelessly date the film. The mysterious skinny guy wearing the goofy hat is a silly plot-twist gimmick that emphasizes the poor quality of the story. It's possible that dedicated Bela Lugosi fans or die-hard fans of old horror movies will find value in this movie. The recommended way for anyone else to view this movie is to use it as a "so dumb it's funny" party tape. Just be sure there has been sufficient imbibing of your favorite beverage to dull the senses.

Rating:
Summary: Bela Lugousi needs a shave!!!!!
Review: I really enjoyed Bela in this wacky but still good horror flick. I thought the end was the stupidist part where you find out who the mysterious man is. But other than that it was very good.4 1/2 stars

Rating:
Summary: "I warn you. It's frightening."
Review: That's the warning Dr. James Brewster's medical colleague gives Brewster's sister - - a ghost-hunting psychic - - before she sees Brewster changed into the Ape Man. It's also a warning for us. This is not one of Lugosi's better films. It's barely a step up from what he did with Ed Wood. But in one scene Lugosi evokes more pity than anything in Dracula.

Brewster (the filmmakers should have changed the character's name when they got Lugosi to play the part) injects himself with serum from living victims' spinal columns. (I saw the movie two days ago and I've already forgotten why he needs it.)

We watch Bela Lugosi, by this time fighting drug addiction in real life, shoot up. Then, even through bad monkey makeup, we see the shame and horror on his face as he realizes what he has become.

"I can't fight it," he says.

There's one other interesting thing in the movie. Low-budget pictures made during World War II dealt more explicitly with the fact of men going off to fight than ostensibly better movies with bigger stars. In Holiday Inn (1942) everyone wears dinner clothes and dances and drinks champagne on the Broadway Homefront, while in The Ape Man (1943) the cliché girl photog razzes the cliché cynical reporter about being 4-F (in one month he'll be Seaman Cyncial Reporter and kick Tojo's butt).

The last scene makes it clear the producers had no respect for themselves or their audience. Most of the movie is unspeakably bad. But if you get a chance, watch the first half hour to see one truthful moment with Bela Lugosi.

Rating:
Summary: "I warn you. It's frightening."
Review: That's the warning Dr. James Brewster's medical colleague gives Brewster's sister - - a ghost-hunting psychic - - before she sees Brewster changed into the Ape Man. It's also a warning for us. This is not one of Lugosi's better films. It's barely a step up from what he did with Ed Wood. But in one scene Lugosi evokes more pity than anything in Dracula.

Brewster (the filmmakers should have changed the character's name when they got Lugosi to play the part) injects himself with serum from living victims' spinal columns. (I saw the movie two days ago and I've already forgotten why he needs it.)

We watch Bela Lugosi, by this time fighting drug addiction in real life, shoot up. Then, even through bad monkey makeup, we see the shame and horror on his face as he realizes what he has become.

"I can't fight it," he says.

There's one other interesting thing in the movie. Low-budget pictures made during World War II dealt more explicitly with the fact of men going off to fight than ostensibly better movies with bigger stars. In Holiday Inn (1942) everyone wears dinner clothes and dances and drinks champagne on the Broadway Homefront, while in The Ape Man (1943) the cliché girl photog razzes the cliché cynical reporter about being 4-F (in one month he'll be Seaman Cyncial Reporter and kick Tojo's butt).

The last scene makes it clear the producers had no respect for themselves or their audience. Most of the movie is unspeakably bad. But if you get a chance, watch the first half hour to see one truthful moment with Bela Lugosi.

Rating:
Summary: Uniquely silly Forties horror.
Review: The only thing that saves this effort from a one-star rating is its enjoyable silliness, which is pretty extreme even for poverty row Forties horror flicks. This time, Bela Lugosi is "Dr. Brewster" (yet another Anglo-Saxon name for the exotic Hungarian!), whose unholy experiments with apes have given him a face-encircling beard, a slouching gait, and a tendency to sleep in a cage with his pet gorilla. He needs fresh spinal fluid (human only, please) to restore him to normal, so many complications ensue. His only ally is his sympathetic sister (Minerva Urecal), who addresses him as "you poor boy!" (Lugosi was about 60 at the time.) The film was aparently not even intended to be taken seriously, which is its one small saving grace. Even Lugosi is not as charismatic as usual.

Rating:
Summary: Uniquely silly Forties horror.
Review: The only thing that saves this effort from a one-star rating is its enjoyable silliness, which is pretty extreme even for poverty row Forties horror flicks. This time, Bela Lugosi is "Dr. Brewster" (yet another Anglo-Saxon name for the exotic Hungarian!), whose unholy experiments with apes have given him a face-encircling beard, a slouching gait, and a tendency to sleep in a cage with his pet gorilla. He needs fresh spinal fluid (human only, please) to restore him to normal, so many complications ensue. His only ally is his sympathetic sister (Minerva Urecal), who addresses him as "you poor boy!" (Lugosi was about 60 at the time.) The film was aparently not even intended to be taken seriously, which is its one small saving grace. Even Lugosi is not as charismatic as usual.

Rating:
Summary: Hilariously bad horror film
Review: This cheapie Monogram flick produced by Sam ("Never lost a buck because he never spent a buck")Katzman looks like it was written by script writers bombed out of their minds on cheap whiskey. This is not Lugosi's worst film (Ed Wood was yet to come along) but it probably comes close. Make sure you're a little intoxicated while watching this, it may heighten your enjoyment. Or you can go on a tremendous ego trip, snickering and sneering at every turn of the plot. 1 1/2 stars.