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The Ape is a 1940 American horror film directed by William Nigh. The film is based on Adam Hull Shirk's play The Ape, which was previously adapted by Nigh as The House of Mystery (1934). The film stars Boris Karloff as Dr. Bernard Adrian who is seeking to cure a young woman's polio through experiments involving spinal fluid. Meanwhile, a vicious ape has been terrorising the towns locals, and breaking into Adrian's lab. A battle ensues between the two leading to the destruction of, leading to Adrian deciding to skin the ape and disguise himself as the beast in order to get more spinal fluid which was destroyed in the battle.

The Ape
Directed by	William Nigh
Screenplay by	Richard Carroll Curt Siodmak
Based on	The Ape by Adam Hull Shirk
Produced by	Scott R. Dunlap[1]
Starring	Boris Karloff
Cinematography	Harry Neumann[1]
Edited by	Russell Schoengarth[1]
Production company	Monogram Pictures Corp.[1]
Distributed by	Monogram Pictures Corp.
Release date	September 30, 1940 (1940-09-30)
Country	United States[2]

The Ape was made by Monogram Pictures Corp. after making several Mr. Wong films with both Karloff and Nigh. According to actress, it was filmed within a week. The film received mixed reviews from critics on its release, with positive reviews from The Hollywood Reporter, Kinematograph Weekly, and the Los Angeles Times while receiving negative reviews from The New York Times and Variety. Retrospective reviews generally have commented on how ridiculous they had found the film or how a reviewer felt it did not work as a thrilling story.

Plot

Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. All he needs is spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape has broken out of its cage and is terrorising the townspeople. The ape eventually breaks into Dr. Adrian's lab. The Doctor manages to kill it before any harm can come to himself. However, the spinal fluids he requires to perform his experiments have all been destroyed during the struggle between him and the Ape.

Doctor Adrian then concocts an idea: he will tear off the ape's flesh and use its skin to disguise himself as the escaped circus animal and murder townspeople in order to extract their spinal fluid. Thus the murders will be blamed on the Ape and he, himself, will manage to avoid any suspicion. During one of his attacks towards the film's ending, Adrian fatally shot and the Ape's "true identity" is revealed to the town.

Cast

Cast adapted from the book Poverty Row Horrors!.[3]

Production

Boris Karloff had previously worked at Monogram Pictures playing the role of the detective James Lee Wong, based on Hugh Wiley's stories published in Collier's magazine. Karloff appeared in five films as the character within two years.[3] After the success of the horror film Son of Frankenstein (1939), Keye Luke took over for Karloff as the detective in Phantom of Chinatown (1940) while Karloff was cast in the horror film The Ape.[4] The film's director was William Nigh who had worked with Karloff on the five Mr. Wong films.[5] On July 9, 1940, Curt Siodmak was hired to for Karloff for Monogram.[4] The Ape was based on the play of the same name by Adam Hull Shirk.[2] Along with screenwriter Richard Carroll, the two wrote a story for him similar to the mad doctor films Karloff had made with Columbia Pictures.[4]The Ape was a remake of Monogram's The House of Mystery (1934), which was also adapted from The Ape which was also directed by Nigh. The two films only follow the plot point of a character disguising themselves as an ape.[5] Siodmak spoke of the adaptation, declaring that "whether it was The Ape, The Climax (1944), or I Walked with a Zombie (1943), I never used the original material. I used my own stories."[5]

Among the cast was Maris Wrixon who was on loan to Monogram from Warner Bros. Pictures. Wrixon recalled that she received the script for the film one or two days before shooting. She declared that she enjoyed working with Karloff and Nigh, but that working for Monogram was like "living in a poor apartment. It was like living in a foxhole."[6] Gene O'Donnell also spoke positively about working with Karloff and Nigh, while echoing that working at Monogram and other poverty row studios were "very frugal and awful careful about what they did."[5]

Production on The Ape started on August 6, 1940.[5] It was filmed in the city of Newhall, Santa Clarita, California.[7] While the film was promoted as being a larger budget production for Monogram, film historian Tom Weaver stated that the circus footage in the film appeared to be taken from another film and some shorts of Karloff's character leaving and entering his house are repeated.[8][9] According to Wrixon, the film finished filming within a week.[5]

Release

The Ape was released on September 30, 1940, and was distributed by Monogram Pictures.[2][1] The film has received numerous home video releases from various publications including Roan Group, Alpha Video, Millcreek Entertainment, and EchoBridge.[10]

Reception

From contemporary reviews, The New York Times gave a dismissive review, declaring that "Perhaps if you are under 12 or just like to be frightened and try very hard, "The Ape," now at the Rialto, will scare daylights out of you." and that Karloff "is properly baleful" while the rest of the cast displayed "dark looks about in the best 1912 style of acting."[11] A reviewer in Variety also gave the film a negative review, declaring that "ultimate weight of the flick as a suspenser is nil, and most of the footage is extremely boring."[12]

Kate Cameron of New York Daily News stated that the film's plot "doesn't bear scrutiny at close range, but it does get over some good horror effects."[13] Irene Therer of the New York Observer gave the film a "FAIR" ranking, stating it was "not awfully exciting" at that Nigh directed the film "rather tamely."[13] The Los Angeles Times reviewer "K.G." praising Boris Karloff's performance stating that "No matter how far-fetched the story, he always makes it believable."[14] K.G. concluded that "a few loose ends mar the film", noting an unnecessary fire sequence and the lack of explanation of what happened to the villain.[14] A reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter found the film to be a better production from Monogram, noting "well-made, interesting and notable for excellent performances", specifically highlighting Karloff.[13] In the United Kingdom, Kinematograph Weekly also praised the film as "first class thriller fiction" and that Karloff "acts with conviction and sincerity."[13]

From retrospective reviews, Phil Hardy's The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies found the film to be "agreeably dotty" but "distressingly tacky."[13] Michael Weldon's The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film declared the film to be "probably the silliest movie in Karloff's entire career...and you thought only Bela Lugosi made films this dumb."[13] A review in The Motion Picture Guide specifically found that the film "never finds the right groove, veering between odd thriller and ridiculous mad scientist tale."[13] Vic Pratt wrote for the British Film Institute, and found that The Ape "may be the most ludicrous [of Karloff's career], but it’s no less wonderful for that."[15]

See also

• Boris Karloff filmography
• List of American films of 1940
• List of horror films of the 1940s
• List of Monogram Pictures and Allied Artists Pictures films
• List of films in the public domain in the United States

References

Sources

• Boston, John (March–April 2013). "Frankenstein's Monster in the SCV". The Heritage Junction Dispatch. Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. 39 (2): 6–7.
• G., K. (October 17, 1940). "'Ape' Engrossing Picture". The Los Angeles Times. p. 11. Retrieved October 12, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
• Pratt, Vic (October 9, 2012). "Boris Karloff: 10 Essential Films". British Film Institute. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
• Weaver, Tom (1999) [1993]. Poverty Row Horrors!. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0798-0.

External links

• The Ape at IMDb
• The Ape at the TCM Movie Database
• The Ape at AllMovie
• The Ape is available for free download at the Internet Archive

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