The Ape (1940 film)

Plot summary

Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. All he needs is 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 the townspeople.

The Ape eventually breaks into Dr. Adrian's lab. The Doctor manages to kill it before any harm can come to himself. However, the spinal fluids he requires to perform his experiments have all been destroyed during the struggle between him and the Ape.

Doctor Adrian then concocts an idea: he will tear off the ape's flesh and use its skin to disguise himself as the escaped circus animal and murder townspeople in order to extract their spinal fluid. Thus the murders will be blamed on the Ape and he, himself, will manage to avoid any suspicion.

However, one of his attacks towards the film's end is unsuccessful; he is fatally knifed and the Ape's "true identity" is revealed.

Cast

Original play

The film was based on a play by Adam Hull Shirk. It made its debut in 1924 by the Paul Gershon drama school in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times praised a 1926 production saying "it has thrills galore and rather more of a plot than average." Critics claimed it was in the same genre as the plays The Cat and the Canary and The Bat, noting its similarities to The Gorilla and the Kipling short story The Mark of the Beast (Kipling).

The play had a prologue set in India, where an Englishman has killed a sacred ape and a Hindu priest puts a curse on him. Thirty years later the Englishman has become a nervous wreck and sent to Los Angeles to be looked after by his family.

Film rights were bought by Monogram Pictures who filmed it as The House of Mystery (1934).

Development

The film was to be one of Monogram's "top bracket productions" for the 1940-41 year.

Curt Siodmak was hired to write the script on 9 July 1940. Siodmark later argued the only element he kept from the play was of a character disguising himself as an ape; the notion of fluid taken from the spine to cure a crippled girl was all Siodmark's.

Shooting

Filming began August 6, 1940, the final feature in Boris Karloff's six-picture contract with Monogram, returning only once for Frankenstein 1970 (1958). Filming took a week.

The Ape was filmed in the city of Newhall, Santa Clarita, California.

Release

The Los Angeles Times called the film "engrossing... [Karloff]shows himself the skilled player of slightly eerie but really kindly character roles for which he is famous."

Legacy

According to an article for the British Film Institute:

Karloff made his fair share of ludicrous B pictures. This may be the most ludicrous, but it’s no less wonderful for that. No matter the material, Karloff gave it everything, bringing dignity to his performance as a surgeon who impersonates an ape in his quest for spinal fluid for an experimental serum. Don’t stop to think, just watch and enjoy.