Return of the Ape Man

Bela Lugosi plays the scientist who, with assistant John Carradine, travels to Alaska (or, at least, somewhere north where it's freezing cold) in the hopes of finding a neanderthal man frozen in the ice upon which he wants to experiment with a serum to see if he can restore life to him.

What luck, he finds one (did you have any doubt?) but, upon reviving him decides that his brute brain must go or, at least, be altered with the partial brain of a civilized man. From there things go predictably haywire.

This 60 minute quickie has the usual silly script and cheap sets that you only come to expect from Monogram. Lugosi and Carradine go through their paces but neither actor seems particularly inspired (does anybody wonder why?). The film has the usual climax, with a beautiful young woman passed out in the ape man's arms as the police and her fiance chase after them.

Biggest mystery of the film for me was the third billing given to veteran character actor George Zucco as "the Ape Man," along with Frank Moran in the same part. For starters he's not an ape man, he's a caveman. Apparently, from what I read, Zucco briefly appears in the role but darned if I could spot him. It's more like Zucco is playing the invisible man in this film than anything else.

Lugosi had previously appeared in another Monogram "B" entitled The Ape Man. I assume that film did sufficiently well at the box office to inspire this title though it is in no way or form a sequel, aside from the screen presence of its top billed star.

While on an Arctic expedition, two scientists find the frozen body of a prehistoric caveman. They bring him home to their laboratory, but decide that in order to fully utilize (and control) him, they must transplant a more developed brain into the caveman.

I love Bela Lugosi. Not sure if I can say that enough. I have watched five or six films with him in it over the past ten days, and I would gladly watch five or six more. Oh, and I cannot complain about John Carradine either...

What I can complain about is the inclusion of "Moonlight Sonata", but that is just a personal bias. That song has always given me the creeps. There used to be a game called "Alone in the Dark" (a predecessor of Resident Evil) and that song was featured. It has given me the willies ever since.

I should probably write something about the ape man or the actual merits of this film. Let us just say it is pretty much standard. Without Lugosi and Carradine, it would be completely forgettable. But with them, you will enjoy seeing a hairy guy bust out of his cell and have a little prehistoric fun!

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.

Lugosi, Carradine and Zucco all in the same film, but which one plays the mad scientist this time around? The answer to that question is Lugosi, the Dracula star appearing as Prof. Dexter, who performs groundbreaking suspended animation experiments with the aid of his colleague John Gilmore (Carradine).

After successfully freezing a vagrant and reviving him four months later, the pair go in search of a frozen prehistoric man for their next experiment. They find what they are looking for trapped in a glacier; transporting their discovery back to the lab, the pair wake up the 'ape-man' (Zucco, soon to be replaced by Frank Moran due to illness). Dexter reveals that his next move will be to transplant brain tissue from a present-day human into the prehistoric man, an idea that Gilmore finds abhorrent -- little does he realise that it will be his brain tissue that Dexter uses!

Featuring three icons of horror, and a suitably loopy premise, this film should have been a lot of barmy fun, but the whole thing is strictly routine, playing out like so many other cheap B-movies of the day. The script is weak and the direction uninspired, but the biggest let down is the prehistoric creature: a policeman describes it as looking 'more like an ape than a man', but it doesn't... it looks like a regular man in need of a bath, a haircut, a shave and a change of outfit. I guess 'Return of the Dirty Hobo' doesn't have the same ring about it.

In true movie monster fashion, the 'ape man' ultimately escapes and makes off with damsel in distress Anne Gilmore (Teala Loring), her beau Steve Rogers (Tod Andrews) and the police in hot pursuit. Predictably, Dexter dies at the hands of his creation, and the 'ape-man' goes up in flames in the laboratory.

3/10. Does nothing to distinguish itself from countless other poverty-row potboilers. If it wasn't for the participation of three horror legends, the film would have been completely forgotten by now.

Return of the Ape Man (1944)

*** (out of 4)

Extremely entertaining B-movie has Bela Lugosi playing Professor Dexter, a man who discovers a way to freeze a person for months and then bring them back to life. He wants further proof of his genius so he and his partner (John Carradine) travel to the Arctic where they discover a Missing Link (George Zucco/Frank Moran). They bring him back and defrost him and before long he is running wild. Dexter, wanting to make it more human, decides to put the brain of his assistant into the creature.

RETURN OF THE APE MAN is without question one of the most entertaining B movies of the decade thanks in large part to some nice direction by Phil Rosen and a great cast of characters. Obviously if you're wanting high art then you might as well keep on walking but if you're a fan of low-budget horror movies then this one here really delivers on the entertainment factor. At just 60 minutes the movie is extremely fast-paced and a lot of fun.

A lot of credit has to go to the cast who are really amped up throughout the film. This includes Lugosi who delivers another strong performance as the mad scientist who slowly loses his mind more and more. Lugosi is a lot of fun in his typical over-the-top way. Carradine is also a lot of fun here and it's great getting to see the two men act together. Zucco can be seen in only a brief shot but his contract required his name to remain on the title card but it's Frank Moran who plays the ape man the majority of the time. He too is great fun as the wild creature.

As you can tell, there's nothing ground-breaking about RETURN OF THE APE MAN but it's not trying to be. It's meant for some fast, cheap entertainment and there's no doubt that it delivers that and much more.