Movie Review: The Ape (1940)
Synopsis: After losing his wife and daughter to polio, Dr. Bernard Adrian is determined to find a way to reverse the paralysis caused by the disease. However, because his process is considered controversial, he only has one patient, Frances Clifford, a young woman who is confined to a wheelchair. When a circus trainer is mauled by an escaped ape, Adrian takes advantage and steals some of the man's spinal fluid and learns his theory about using the substance to regenerate the nerves is correct. Needing more, Adrian kills the ape and dressed as the creature, commits murder.
Who's in it? The movie stars Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon, Gene O'Donnell, Dorothy Vaughn and Henry Hall.
Review: I've had The Ape on my watch list for several years but just never found the time to watch it until finally doing so this morning. Ultimately, the film wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be, but it wasn't a terrible movie either.
I think, at least by today's standards, this movie is misclassified as a horror film. I don't think there was much about it that was overly scary and, if I would describe it as anything, it would be a film that better fits the drama category.
Dr. Adrian (Karloff) wasn't someone I would consider a villain. He was a guy who was trying to do good things, both for Frances (Wrixon) and mankind but was greatly hindered by people who didn't understand his work and found it offensive. As the movie progresses and it became clear his theory was correct and provided a simple solution to a wide-spread problem, it made me wonder why he was ostracized to the point he had to commit crimes to do his work. I mean, I get the uneducated people in his town, but he was even forced to leave a prestigious research group that you would think would be more open-minded.
In fact, it was actually kind of refreshing compared to most of the "mad scientist" characters you find in movies like this. Adrian had a clear purpose and solution rather than just conducting experiments for the sake of conducting them.
This, in turn, did make the movie surprisingly interesting as a result, probably more so than if it had been more of a horror movie. Since Adrian was tempting fate by dressing up as an Ape despite an armed posse searching for the creature, I figured things probably weren't going to end well for him, especially since he would also potentially be facing murder charges. At the same time, however, I wondered if he'd at least reach a point where Frances could walk again.
At minimum, while the movie's ending was a bit predictable, the Frances story did add a bit more emotion to it than I would normally expect from this genre. That alone made it more memorable.
Final Opinion: It falls a bit short in the horror movie category, mostly because there isn't any real villain (other than maybe the guy who is cheating on his wife) or monster. It is, however, an intriguing film that is helped considerably by its star.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other movies from the 1940s:
Movie: Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Movie Review: The Mark of Zorro (1940)
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