Return of the Ape Man

Moviecut—Return of the Ape Man

source: Return of the Ape Man

'Return of the Ape Man' teams up two horror stars to appear in a mess that hardly merits their efforts; in fact they don't seem to be making very great efforts. The remaining cast is so saddled with unworkable dialogue and directions that they barely give an impression on the screen. The acting is necessarily awful. The story starts quite marvellously, and for the first quarter hour it's crash bang wallop; jumping from scene to scene and madcap ideas to bonkers situations. Also Lugosi and Carradine have the most screen time together in this first part of the film, with very few other speaking parts to share with, so the actors portrayals are most clear whilst the plot is at it's most hyperactive. By the midway point the characters blur out and the narrative loses pace, the plot becomes a back and forth and the tone becomes actually comedic. To compound this by the latter stages of 'Return of the Ape Man' both Lugosi and Carradine have 'exited stage left' and George Zucco never gets past the opening credits so there is no further interest in what is being put up on screen. The main laboratory set appears to be a redress of that from 'The Ape Man' which is probably appropriate considering. Apart from a mad first 15 minutes and a couple of joke throw away lines for Lugosi there is little other interest. I rate 3.5/10 and, frankly, if poverty row b-movie Bela is what a viewer fancies try 'Voodoo Man' from the same year; or 'Invisible Ghost' or the utterly screwy 'The Devil Bat' from a couple of years earlier.

Bela Lugosi made more than his share of low-budget stinkers during World War II, but "Return of the Ape Man" might be the worst. In fact, it might be the worst film he made prior to his teaming up with Ed Wood, Jr. Lugosi plays an amoral scientist with a special interest in cryogenics (though that word is never actually used). After abducting, freezing and reviving a bum, with the help of fellow scientist John Carradine, he ups the ante by sponsoring an expedition to find a frozen prehistoric man, which he does find, in about three minutes, thanks to dynamite. He revives the "ape man," who of course is a murderous brute, controlled only by waving fire in his face, but wants to go further by implanting part of a modern brain in him, allowing him to remember what it was like living in Bedrock. When Carradine objects, HE becomes the unwitting brain donor, and further chaos ensues. This is one of those films that is so cheap you can see the sets wobble. Carradine somehow manages to retain his dignity (more than he would in many other trash films), and Lugosi is...well, Lugosi. The scene in which Lugosi traps Carradine on an electrified plate in his lab, and then lassos him and ties him up, while the two are holding a philosophical conversation, has to rank high in the annals of bad cinema. George Zucco was supposed to play the ape man, and he's there literally for a couple seconds, but he took ill and was replaced by an actor named Frank Moran, who's actually not bad. But the script is awful, the direction non-existent, the prolonged ending involves the ape man carrying the heroine around, and around, and AROUND, in what at one point looks like a parody of Universal's "The Mummy's Tomb," and the canned musical score is ludicrously inappropriate to the action in just about every scene. The musical highlight comes early on during a stock footage sequence of the ship carrying the expedition, which is accompanied by a sprightly "Rosie O'Grady"-style waltz tempo. Sometimes these Monogram epics are so bad they're enjoyable, but the enjoyment wears out quickly in this one, leaving nothing but people running back-and-forth on cardboard sets to ridiculous music.

How can I not like this film? Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, & George Zucco stars in this fun poverty row quickie. The film lasts around an hour and it's an enjoyable watch. We have Bela Lugosi as the mad scientist Prof. Dexter who is experimenting with a the frozen body of a prehistoric caveman (George Zucco) - that is thawed out and now living. Prof. John Gilmore (John Carradine) is right beside Dexter but Dexter has plans of his own! Everything becomes a fun romp as we usually expect from these films. Really a good way to enjoy and hour three classic horror favorites . 7.5/10

RETURN OF THE APE MAN was one of nine films Bela Lugosi appeared for the Poverty Row studio Monogram between 1941 and 1944. In this film, he plays mad scientist Professor Dexter who with the help of his colleague Professor John Gilmore (John Carradine) revives a prehistoric man (Frank Moran) from an ice block. Dexter schemes to kill a modern person to use part of his brain in the newly thawed brute. Thus, the savage ape man will not only become manageable, but he'll have the speech and intelligence to describe his prehistoric life. Why not a WHOLE brain? Because Dexter believes that if he removes all of his subject's old brain, the ape man won't have any knowledge of his former life. This synopsis suggests the film's silliness. The plot is more coherent than in most of Lugosi's other Monogram films, but it still has its share of inexplicabilities and inconsistencies. Monogram's typically poor production values further enhance the film's cheesiness. The sets are sparse and threadbare. An Arctic sequence where the scientists find the ape man is especially phony looking; one expects the curtain to come down when it ends. The music, consisting of randomly selected stock scores, is dull and often inappropriate, such as a marching band tune during action sequences. Still, one can derive legitimate pleasure from Bela Lugosi's performance. Ever the trouper, he acts as if he's in one of his Shakespeare productions in his native Hungary and the film is all the better because of it. Lugosi emotes his standard mad scientist part with passion and conviction. He delivers such lines as "Some people's brains would never be missed" in his sonorous Hungarian accented voice with an air of sinister elegance. Such a unique delivery elevates his dialogue from stale cliches to arcane parlance. Lugosi fans should savor RETURN OF THE APE MAN. It's a letdown for John Carradine's fans, however. As Dexter's sane and ethical partner, he just goes through the motions. His performance is so listless that one perversely roots for Lugosi's far more vibrant character when the scientists argue. Overall, RETURN OF THE APE MAN exemplifies the situation of an outstanding performer (in this case, Lugosi) rising above his unpromising material.

Professor Dexter and his assistant Professor Gilmore (Bela Lugosi and John Carradine) are busy experimenting on homeless winos, freezing them solid for months at a time in order to defrost them later. Next, they're off to the arctic to find a frozen caveman. Once one is located and chipped out of the ice, they haul him back to their laboratory and bring the troglodyte back to life. Naturally, Dexter and Gilmore plan to transplant a normal human brain into the caveman's noggin. A subject is found, drugged, frozen, and prepped for the implantation process. What could possibly go wrong? RETURN OF THE APE MAN is every bit as ridiculous as the original film, perhaps more so. Lugosi and Carradine are in rare form, as is George Zucco. Everyone takes turns devouring the scenery, making this a wonderment to behold!...

John Carradine completed "The Mummy's Ghost" at Universal on Sept 9 1943; by the 27th his long planned Shakespeare company debuted doing boffo box office at the Pasadena Playhouse, with the actor playing the title role in OTHELLO, then by Oct 5 as Shylock in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, and finally as HAMLET (Oct 12-17). This was the short-lived period when Monogram offered him the princely sum of $3000 a week as part of a trio of horror players to star in two Sam Katzman potboilers, along with Bela Lugosi and George Zucco; from Oct 1 Carradine was billed under Lugosi in "Return of the Ape Man," with Zucco's disastrous casting in the bearded, prehistoric title role quickly rectified by replacing him with former pugilist Frank Moran (both actors listed on screen), previously seen opposite Bela in both "The Corpse Vanishes" and "Ghosts on the Loose." Scripted in typical hurry-up-and-shoot-it mode, loaded with reams of ludicrous dialogue, Lugosi's dynamism largely held in check by the sadly one dimensional Prof. Dexter. Carradine, like Zucco clearly miscast, plays Dexter's assistant, Prof. John Gilmore, as straight laced and naive as Dexter is hard boiled and obstinate, an all too trusting associate easily duped by his partner's machinations. Distressingly tacky, confined to one simple basement set, yet still fun to some extent, the actors all hamstrung with little to work with. Zucco wisely bailed out after appearing comatose in the Ape Man's initial sequence, while Carradine braved his insipid lines with a small measure of conviction: "Dexter you're a dangerous man, I believe you're quite mad!" Helpless to prevent sacrificing his own brain to Dexter's mad experiment, Gilmore essentially shrugs, deserving of his fate; after the operation, the creature is able to speak (a little) and reason (not much), leading the hapless authorities on a madcap chase across the city before meeting his demise right back in Dexter's lab. It remains Bela Lugosi's show all the way (or at least 49 minutes), Carradine's screen time at 18 1/2 minutes, for once playing a rational, if spineless, scientist rather than a crazed one. One has to wonder if the role of halfwit Toby in the next Monogram feature "Voodoo Man" shows us what's left of Gilmore? It could very well be!

"Return of the Ape Man" is a very low energy movie with all the expected 'thrills'...including a mad scientist, a monster (of sorts), fainting ladies, brain experiments and murder. Yet, oddly, despite these story elements, the movie itself is surprisingly dull and low energy...mostly due to lackluster writing and acting from this Monogram release. The story begins with two scientists, Professors Dexter and Gilmore (Bela Lugosi and John Carradine), experimenting on a hobo...keeping him frozen for several months and then reviving him. Dexter is convinced he can replicate this on folks frozen far longer...perhaps many years longer. So, the pair go on an expedition to the Arctic and return with a cave man who was frozen for many thousands of years. Dexter IS able to revive him...but the cave man (who is not ape-like at all) is uncontrollable. So, Dexter, being the great humanitarian, decides to steal someone else's brain, or at least part of it, and transplanting it into the cave dude....with expected results. Monogram Studios was a very low budget affair. Not as bad as PRC nor Ed Wood Jr., , for which Lugosi made some truly awful films,.....but pretty poor. To me, this movie felt like a dozen other Lugosi films where he played an evil mad scientist...and several of which were MUCH better, such as Universal's "Murders in the Rue Morgue". By the numbers and offering little that is novel or exciting...it's mostly a film for Lugosi fans and perhaps my score of 4 is a bit generous.

Return Of The Ape Man which has nothing to do with the original Ape Man which was no Oscar winner either boasts in its cast three players who apparently had no standards by which they chose projects. Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, and to a lesser extent George Zucco probably in the aggregate can count on more dreadful films than any other three players you can name. Starting off with the fact that a product from Monogram Pictures ought to carry a warning label, Return Of The Ape Man is one horrid ripoff from the Frankenstein story. Lugosi and Carradine are a pair of scientists experimenting in cryogenics before its time and travel on an Arctic expedition to find hopefully a frozen caveman from prehistoric times to experiment on. What Carradine doesn't know is that eventually he winds up part of the experiment as a bit of his brain winds up in the caveman's body. After that it's George Zucco who takes over the caveman part from former boxer Frank Moran. Zucco gets to talk guttural monster talk like both Lugosi and Boris Karloff did playing the Frankenstein monster. Biggest hoot in the film is when the caveman with new enhanced intelligence breaks into Carradine's house plays Moonlight Sonata on the piano and then strangles Mary Currier who is Carradine's wife. I split a gut with that one. For a few laughs check out Return Of The Ape Man.