Dr. Bernard Adrian - Boris Karloff!
The local town physician and social outcast, Dr. Adrian uses all of his free time pursuing a cure
for paralysis. The only problem is that the miracle drug he can in fact make needs a secret
ingredient: human spinal fluid! Late at night, this quiet and seemingly harmless man of science
dresses in the skins of a gorilla and kills people in order to get the precious spinal fluid he
so desperately needs. Sadly, poor Dr. Adrian is shot and killed during his final masquerade
as a killer ape.
Frances Clifford - The "guinea pig" of Dr. Adrian's experiments. This young
girl hasn't walked in years but has suddenly regained some feeling in her long dormant legs thanks
to Dr. Adrian's experimental serum. In a happy turn of events, Frances is fully cured of her
affliction and can walk again by the end of the film. Gee, I guess Doc Adrian wasn't such a
bad guy after all.
Danny Foster - A grease monkey and Frances' boyfriend. He's a little leery
of Doctor Adrian's treatments but even he can't complain about the results. Now he doesn't have
to lug around the love of his life in a cumbersome wheelchair!
Jane - Doctor Adrian's housekeeper (and keeper of all his dark secrets). Actually
I don't know why the Doc keeps her around because the house looks pretty damned dusty all the
time. Maybe he keeps this old biddy around for sexual favors? I shudder to think so.
The Ape - Ray "Crash" Corrigan! After an accident at a circus, this massive
gorilla escapes, only to be (easily) killed by Dr. Adrian. "The Ape" still sees some action
on the screen after its turned into a cheap Halloween costume by the good doctor!
Originally, I hadn't planned on reviewing this
movie (or The Alligator People). In fact, I was going to review The Fly and
Return of the Fly which both star Vincent Price
and The Ape Man which stars the great Bela Lugosi,
but as you can see I changed my mind. Driven by some powerful and unknown force, I was compelled
to review this particular movie. Was it because the spirit of Boris Karloff called out to me from
the great beyond, or was it because the movie was only an hour long? (Probably the latter reason.)
In any case, I had a fun time watching this flick. The plot is downright ridiculous but somehow
The Ape manages to retain a high degree of
dignity, probably due to the screen presence of Boris Karloff.
The film opens in a small and very quiet Midwestern(?) town where the daily silence is suddenly
broken by the arrival of a circus! The town is buzzing with excitement, however there is one lone
man who could care less: Doctor Bernard Adrian. This seemingly gentle mannered
medical practicioner is on the verge of a breakthrough in his quest to cure humanity of paralysis. The
good doctor has been using some of the local pets to obtain spinal fluid for his experiments, and in
doing so he has made a medical breakthrough. Now he's ready to try testing his theories on human beings!
All he needs now is some human spinal fluid to make his miracle drug.
As luck would have it, Dr. Adrian manages to obtain some much needed spinal juice from the corpse
of an unlucky circus animal trainer. You see, the trainer constantly abused and teased the
circus' mighty gorilla and accidentally got too close to the cage. Seconds before the mighty sapien
finishes him off, the trainer dropped a cigar which started a fire. During all the confusion,
the gorilla broke loose from its cage and wandered out into the countryside. (So let this be a lesson
to all of you ape handlers out there. Do not abuse a giant monkey, then stand near his cage with
a lit cigar. You are just begging for trouble!)
Once things calm down a bit, the authorities (i.e. Sheriff Jeff Halliday and his posse) start
searching the area for the fugitive gorilla who ends up paying Dr. Adrian a visit late
one night. This scene is absolutely hilarious because the gorilla, after seeing the coat of the
deceased animal trainer in Adrian's lab, bursts through the cellophane windows and enters
the room! (Hahahaha. I guess the budget went to renting Crash Corrigan and his ape suit?) To further add to
the hilarity, Dr. Adrian easily murders the gorilla! He tosses some chemicals into the gorilla's
face to blind it, and then circles around the flailing beast and stabs it in the back!
I'm not
an expert or anything, but I think that the gorilla would've put up a much bigger fight and
wouldn't have went down after sustaining such a seemingly minor injury. Then again, the gorilla
did pick a fight with Boris Karloff. As harmless as Karloff looks in this film, I know
that the man in fact had special powers far beyond human understanding. I mean, he'd have to be
more than a man in order to kill a creature that could easily have ripped his arms out of his
sockets or snapped him in half! Anyway, rather than immediately reporting to the
Sheriff that the loosed ape has been taken out of commission, Dr. Adrian does the most
ludicrous and insidious thing I've ever seen.
Within days of defeating the mighty gorilla in battle, Doc Adrian manages to completely gut the ape
and turn it into a costume! Using said gorilla costume, the mistrusted town doctor begins a small
murder spree in order to get the spinal fluid he needs to complete his experiment. And speaking of which,
his guinea pig is a young girl named Frances Clifford. Frances has been stuck
in a clunky wheelchair her entire life and thanks to Dr. Adrian, she's actually starting to
get some feeling back into her once lifeless legs. Everyone seems to be excited about this little
revelation except for Frances' boyfriend, Danny Foster.
He's quite suspicious about Doctor
Adrian's practices and begins to question if Adrian's treatments are actually helping poor Frances.
Regardless of that though, Frances legs are beginning to work again, and even better, Dr. Adrian
may be able to gain recognition for his huge medical breakthrough. Unfortunately things go
downhill for the Doc from this point on because he simply refuses to hang up his ape suit and
stop killing people for their spinal fluid. During his final escapade, Dr. Adrian gets
shot by a small child (i.e. one of the town brats that really deserved to be crushed by a gorilla)
and is further wounded when trying to choke the life from an armed man (one of many posse
members still out searching for the "killer ape"). Doctor Ape-drian
(a.k.a. Karloff Kong) then stumbles painfully home only to be seen by Frances.
She starts freaking
out and screams for help and that seals Doc Adrian's fate. Sheriff ('Doc') Halliday and his posse
arrive on the scene and pump a few rounds into their furry target. Doctor Adrian crumples to a heap
on his front porch and pulls off the gorilla mask. Doc Adrian then watches with mixed sorrow and
joy as Frances gets out of her wheelchair and walks a few steps. Seconds after seeing the success
of his scientific achievement, poor Dr. Adrian succumbs to his fatal wounds. Some time after Dr.
Adrian's tragic death, we see that Frances is fairly mobile and has in fact torched
her wheelchair. In the film's final moments Frances embraces Danny and kisses him, leading us all
to believe that they will live happily ever after.
The Vault Master Presents - THE BITTER END
But things are only temporarily perfect in Fran and Dan land. About a year after Doc Adrian's death,
the two young lovers decide to get married. However, one fateful day, Dan leans over to kiss
his bride-to-be while cruising down a winding road in his little hotrod. Suddenly, he
loses control of his vehicle and ends up wrapping it around a tree. In an awfully ironic
twist, both Danny and Frances become paralyzed and live sad, broken lives in their matching
wicker wheelchairs. The real stinger of this sad turn of events is this: If Frances hadn't screamed her
head off when she saw Dr. Adrian in his ape costume, he probably would have still been alive
to cure both she and Danny of their paralysis. Wow... fate can be so cruel.
Film Review: Interestingly enough, The Ape was originally
a stage play and was later adapted into a screenplay by Curt Siodmak. Curt's name probably doesn't ring a bell,
but I'm sure you've seen or at least heard of some of the films he wrote screenplays for, which include
The Invisible Man Returns,
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The Wolf Man (1941 & 1960),
Son of Dracula, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers,
and many other genre films. However, the main attraction in this film is clearly Boris Karloff, who does
a fantastic job as Dr. Bernard Adrian. Even though the film's premise is utterly ludicrous, Karloff
manages to lend some credibility to his role as a tragic hero. Doctor Adrian is doing all the
wrong things (i.e. murder) for all the right reasons, and you actually feel bad for him
when he dies at the end of the picture.
Also starring in this film is Ray "Crash" Corrigan, who portrays the title creature. Ray was
the king of the gorilla impersonators in his time and played furry monsters in a variety
films, like Nabonga,
The White Gorilla, and Unknown Island.
(Talk about typecasting!) If you're looking for a fun, classic mad scientist thriller, and have
a full hour to spare, then I highly suggest you watch The Ape.
Though the film is played straight, one can't help but chuckle at its absurd plot. I
had a good laugh every time Boris Karloff's character donned his ape-suit and went out for a late
night stroll, and I think you will too!
So how radioactive is this tragic tale of a misguided scientist?
Geiger Counter Reading:
- THREE 'RADS' -
WARNING: This movie is radioactive! Boris Karloff in a "monkey suit"
is definitely worth the price of admission!
DVD Review: The Ape is currently available
on DVD from several companies (not a surprise since it's now in the public domain). I
personally own the Alpha Video release. The picture and audio quality aren't that great (the
transfer was probably made from an old VHS tape) and there's no extra features on the disc, but one
can't complain too much since the disc retails for about five dollars or so.
Street Urchin: "We've got enough money to go to the circus, but not to the sideshow."
Danny: "Save your money. Plenty of freaks around here."
Danny: "Just the same, I don't like it! I don't like things I can't understand!"
(Reviewer's Note: I have a hunch that Danny dislikes algebra and calculus,
despises philosophy and quantum physics, and totally hates women! I mean really, no man on this planet truly
understands the opposite sex, right?!)
- Beginning - Is this jubilant circus music really appropriate for
a mad scientist film?
- 2:00 - Hey! It's "Our Gang!"
- 3:00 - Bernard Adrian, Medical Deviant.
- 10:10 - Oh man, wasn't this illegal back in the 1940's? One wrong turn and Frances is gone!
- 12:31 - Egads! The local sheriff is using his badge to extort roasted peanuts from a vendor!
- 14:34 - Louis Armstrong plays "Auld Lang Syne" for an elephant.
- 16:11 - The Gorilla Redemption!
- 24:55 - Urge to kill... rising...
- 26:08 - Hahahaha! I guess Doctor Adrian is hard up on cash because his windows are made of
cellophane!
- 26:40 - Huh?! Doc Adrian just killed the gorilla without breaking a sweat!
- 44:19 - "Karloff Kong" is shot by a little kid!
- 57:15 - And Doctor Adrian would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids!
- 60:13 - Mein Doktor! I can walk!
- 62:13 - The End.
Recommended Viewing:
- Apes have played an integral part of America's cult and b-cinema history, beginning with King Kong (1933).
Giant apes aside, if you're in the mood for some killer ape action then check out this mixed bag of films:
Bela Lugosi stars as the title character in The Ape Man (1943);
an orangutan with a bad attitude terrorizes Elizabeth Shue in Link (1986);
killer gorillas protect a king's ransom in diamonds in Congo (1995); Jungle
Jim ventures to Africa and battles a murderous ape-man in Killer Ape (1953);
a parapalegic suffers the wrath of the angry monkey that loves him in George A. Romero's
Monkey Shines (1988).
- Ray "Crash" Corrigan has been an ape or ape-like creature in a variety of films (as I mentioned
earlier in this review), starting with Darkest Africa (1936)
,
where Ray played Bonga the Gorilla. Here's the rest of "Crash" Corrigan's ape movie resume:
Flash Gordon (1936) as an Orangopoid;
The Ape (1940) as the gorilla... but you
already knew that; The Strange Case of Dr. Rx (1942) as Nbongo, the gorilla;
Dr. Renault's Secret (1942) as the Ape;
Captive Wild Women (1943) as Cheela the Ape;
Nabonga (1944) as Nbongo the gorilla;
The Monster and the Ape (1945) as The Ape;
The White Gorilla (1945) as "The White Gorilla;"
White Pongo (1945) as "White Pongo;"
Unknown Island (1948) as the Monster Sloth;
Zamba (1949) as Zamba, the gorilla;
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) as, you guess it, the gorilla!
Ray would also star in 1953's Killer Ape (mentioned above), but oddly
enough, he wasn't the ape in question!
- Boris Karloff became an icon of horror and science-fiction films shortly after starring as
Im-Ho-Tep in The Mummy (1932)
. Some of his
most notable genre films include Frankenstein (1931) in which
Karloff played Frankenstein's Monster (a role he'd take on twice more), The Terror (1963) where
Karloff starred alongside a very young Jack Nicholson, The Comedy of Terrors (1964) which also
starred classic horror legend Vincent Price, and how could I forget Karloff's wizardry duel with
Vincent Price in The Raven (1963)?! While
these films (and many more I haven't even mentioned) helped make Karloff a legend, I think most
(if not all) of us will always remember him as the narrator of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966).
Useless Trivia:
was based on a stage play that was written by Adam Shirk. The
play opened in Los Angeles, California on December 13, 1927!
Curt Siodmak wrote the screenplay for The Ape
and was involved in writing various classic genre movies. However, there is one interesting
failure on Curt's resume, namely Tales of Frankenstein (1958)! Curt wrote and filmed
the pilot episode for this TV series that never was! (Note: Tales of Frankenstein
is actually available on DVD, courtesy of Alpha Video!)
Ray "Crash" Corrigan ("The Ape") died in Brooking Harbor, Oregon of a heart
attack on August 10, 1976. Rest in peace you masterful ape actor!
Boris Karloff's real name was William Henry Pratt and he appeared
in roughly eighty films before hitting it big with his role as Frankenstein's Monster in 1931.
He continued actively starring in films (despite serious back problems) up until his
unfortunate death (caused by emphysema) on February 2, 1969.
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Review posted on March 15, 2005.
(Review last updated on November 17, 2007.)
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