The Ape: 1940

   Welcome to my second gorilla-based review.  Today I will be focusing on the first installment of my last review simply entitled, "The Ape". Enjoy.

   Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs 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 terrorizing town’s people.

   

   "The Ape", is the mentally ill older sibling to "The Ape Man".  This film seemed promising enough during the exposition.  I noticed that there seemed to be much more going on plot-wise.  A gorilla breaks out of a Circus and runs wild throughout the small town of which the Circus happened to be residing in.  It seemed simple enough, and there was also famous actor Boris Karloff to look forward to.  However this was merely the use of the same sales strategy as this movies sequel.  They took a very famous actor, and put him in a film that didn't deserve him.  Fortunately, like this movie's sequel, the actor they put in did the best with what he had.  I admit that their strategy to get more views for this film worked, but it was wrong.  If you want to make a film successful, focus on the actual film.

  

   

   The opening credits for this film compared to my last review, is very poor.  Now, I know that whoever composed it was trying to go for a circus theme, but that must have meant that this person only saw the first twelve minuets of this movie because, after that, we never see the circus again!  So, although it's overused, I would go for the Lugosi score over the Karloff score any day.  Another aspect that is not used well in, "The Ape”, is the editing.  There are moments where you can tell there's a cut so well, that it's annoying.  Remember that back then; editing was not done on a computer.  Instead, the film had to be cut and reattached to the film.  This technique of editing is called splicing, and if you've ever wonder where the proses of editing began, than I just taught you something new.

   The very last thing I would like to criticize about this film, are the sub-plots.  There were too many!  This film suffers from a compulsive need to keep you interested by adding new things, and this technique backfires horrendously.  It is for this reason that there are so many ends that are not tied at the end of this movie.  Sometimes, the only thing you should do to a movie is give it one consecutive timeline.  You don't need to branch off into all these different tangents, because in the end you'll lose the viewers interest.

   

   In Conclusion:  Less is sometimes more, or at least as much as you need.  "The Ape" was unsuccessful at pulling me in, because there were one too many things that this film wanted me to care about.  In effect, I lost interest.  The remake of this film, in my mind, was a bit more reserved and in turn, I was able to follow it from beginning to end.  I don't think at this point the actors matter anymore.  Both of these films didn't utilize their abilities at all, and though I do think of Boris and Bela to be the two greatest horror icons of their time, these weren't films for either of them.  This was also not a horror film!  I've been tricked once more!  It seemed to be coming from a Mystery and Science Fiction side.  "The Ape" was a thoroughly unenjoyable film, and the only thing that you'll lose by watching it is your attention span.

Verdict:

                     

I give this film 3 gorilla doctors out of 10

Next Review:  The Monster Walks 1932