Mad scientists just aren’t like the rest of us.
Just to give you an example, most of us aren’t willing to test out some new scientific development on ourselves, no matter how sure we are that it is going to work.
And if we do, and we end up as some half-man, half ape thing, then we’re likely to start blaming ourselves, instead of shrugging and going out to kill people for their spinal fluid in the hopes that it will cure us.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this one is that, years ago, I saw a still from this film — of Bela Lugosi in the grip of an ape — and completely failed to recognize him. The half-man, half-ape makeup is not really all that extensive — mostly a wig and beard, with a set of fangs — but he doesn’t at all look like himself. We’ve all heard the story about how he was too vain to play Frankenstein’s Monster because his face would be hidden by all the makeup: whether that is true or not, only a few of the roles he played ever required much makeup. One doesn’t expect to find him hiding behind a beard. Particularly when he’s playing yet another mad scientist.
I suppose it was the very minimal nature of his makeup that inspired Bela to give one of his best performances. His Ape Man has a distinctive, hunched over posture, and he’s captured a lot of the familiar behaviors of apes, from the way he lets his hands sort of dangle from his wrists, with the hands swinging back an forth as he walks, to the way he holds his hands as if he was about to start knuckle-walking at any moment. His artistry becomes even more obvious when he returns to normal in one scene. It seems almost a shame that he put in this level of work in a film that never deserved it.
The basics here are familiar — the hard boiled reporter, the brash young girl photographer, the spooky mansion. The sister who just happens to be a ghost hunter probably belongs in a different film, but I have to admit I do find the notion a tad bit amusing. If any of the other members of their family went into equally strange professions, then their family reunions must have been quite interesting!
There are a few other outstanding details — like the phonograph record of a ghost the sister just happens to have — although the best by far is the moment when we first meet Bela as Dr. Brewster and find him sleeping in a cage with the big ape!
Now, that old familiar scene of the guy and the girl stumbling around in the spooky mansion and barely avoiding each other shows up at the end and goes on for far too long. But in a film this short, even that isn’t too long.
The strangest element here, however, is the mysterious character who shows up early and keeps dropping hints for the hero. He wanders in and out of the rest of the story, spying on the villains and occasionally offering a critical piece of info without ever explaining who he is. Not, that is, until the very end, where his final revelation turns the whole story upside down in a weird and entirely absurd sort of way.
Oh, let’s be honest about this: this is a fast, breezy and wildly absurd film and I enjoyed it enormously. It moves rapidly, crams in a lot of weirdness in just over an hour and even has a guy in an ape suit.
And you can’t ask for more from one of Bela’s horror films from the Forties.
Particularly not when they were made by Monogram.
(While Bela appears in the “sequel” a year later, that film has nothing whatsoever to do with this one!)
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