Battle for the Planet of the Apes

The fifth, and final, installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise hit theaters in June of 1973. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (BPA) is considered by many, even fans of the series, to be the weakest of the five films. Roddy McDowell stars again as Caesar. Natalie Trundy stars as his chimp wife, Lisa. Claude Aikins stars as the gorilla general Aldo. BPA is a proper sequel, in that it picks up the story where Movie 4, Conquest, left off. 20th Century Fox felt the Apes phenomenon had run its course, so produced one more sequel to wrap up what became a confusing story arc. But, Fox was not completely through with Apes.

Quick Plot Synopsis
North America, 2670 A.D. The Lawgiver (John Houston) reads, in psuedo-biblical wording, a recap of the third and fourth movies. He then tells movie five's story as flashback. The war implied at the end of Movie 4, Conquest, has left most apes and humans dead. The cities are bombed out radioactive ruins. Some 12 (or 27?) years afterward, a dozen or so humans live in relative peace among the apes. Caesar is their leader. Aldo, leader of the gorilla faction foments trouble, disliking the humans. MacDonald (brother of the character in Movie 4) says Aldo hates everyone who isn't a gorilla. Mac also tells Caesar that he can hear and see his parents, via tapes in the city archives, and learn what the future holds (since they came from the future). Caesar, Mac and the wise orangutan, Virgil (Paul Williams) set out for the Forbidden City. They find it, and make their way underground to find the old city archives. Their movements are watched, however, by the remnant of humans who stayed in the city. These people wear hood-caps and have facial blemishes from the radiation. Their governor, Kolp (Severn Darden, reprising his Kolp character from Movie 4.) thinks the three are advance scouts for an attack by the apes. He orders them captured, but the three elude capture. He orders them killed, but they escape the city. Back in Ape City, Caesar calls a general council to say they must prepare for possible attack by the city humans. Aldo makes trouble about all humans. He and his gorilla faction walk out. Later, Caesar's young son, Cornelius, goes out at night searching for his lost pet squirrel. Cornelius comes upon a secret meeting of the gorillas, plotting the overthrow of Caesar. They see Cornelius in the tree. Aldo hacks the branch Cornelius is hanging onto. Cornelius falls, badly injured. A human doctor lady tends to him, but it doesn't look good. Meanwhile, Kolp has a ragtag army formed. They set out in a few jeeps, old cars and a school bus to attack Ape City. The attack comes. A long protracted gun battle plays out. Cornelius dies of his injuries. Caesar orders everyone to fall back. The mutants ride in triumphant. Kolp sees Caesar and threatens to kill him. All the not-really-dead apes jump up and overwhelm the mutants. Kolp and a few others escape in the school bus. Aldo and his gorillas ambush them and kill them all. Back in Ape City, there is a showdown between Aldo and Caesar. It comes out that Aldo cut the branch that caused Cornelius's death. The crowd chants at him. "Ape shall never kill ape." Aldo climbs a tree to escape. Caesar follows. They struggle in the branches. Aldo falls to his death. Jungle justice is served. Everyone agrees to live in peace and harmony. Kumbaya. End flashback, the Lawgiver finishes his history tale to a mixed class of ape and human children. Behind them is a stature of Caesar. Zoom in to see that the statue sheds a tear. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
McDowall does a creditable job with the Caesar character. Paul Williams does rather well as Virgil. The story / plot, on its own, better than fourth-sequels tend to be.

Cultural Connection
The Apes series began, in '68, as an allegory on racism, via species-ism. Movies 2 through 5 shifted the theme to anti-militarism. The general anti-war drumbeat, so common in the late-Vietnam era, made anti-war films an easy sell. The villain in BPA is not really the mutants in the city, but the two characters, Aldo and Kolp, who maniacally push for war. The message in BPA is: If we could just get rid of the bad (warrior) people, life would be all flowers and hearts.

Notes
Alternate Timeline -- Move 3, Escape introduced the complexity of alternate timelines. The writers in BPA try to explain it in an easily missed small scene with the Virgil character. He talks of time travel and a situation wherein a performer dislikes a recording of some music he played, so travels back in time to not make that performance. In the Apes series, there are two timelines. The first is Taylor's. He travels to HIS future to see that apes have "evolved" slowly over hundreds of years, to eventually take over Earth. Movie 2 Beneath has timeline 1 earth's destruction. With Movie 3, Escape, a second timeline begins when future apes enter the past. New timeline. Apes don't evolve slowly, but start with Cornelius and Zira. The Alpha-Omega bomb existed before Taylor left, but in timeline 2, it is not used. Hundreds of years of conflict between man and ape does not happen. Instead, everyone lives in peace. That's how the writers wrapped up the series. They all lived happily ever after.

Important Deletions -- For some reason, Fox decided to cut two rather important scenes from the final theatrical release. The first deleted scene has Kolp showing Alma (France Nuyen) the Alpha-Omega missile and how to launch it. This scene comes just before Kolp leads his mutant minions on the attack of Ape City. He wanted her to fire it, if he signaled that the Apes were winning. The second deleted scene came near the end. Alma hasn't heard from Kolp, so feels she must launch the missile. Mendez talks her out of it. Give peace a chance, etc. The first deleted scene is important because it made a link to Movie 2, Beneath. The second deleted scene is important as it mirrors the peaceful resolution in Ape City. Once the mean-old-militarists (Kolp and Aldo) were dead, everyone else could smile again.

Sophomorism -- The husband and wife writing team of John and Joyce Corrington adapted Matthison's "I Am Legend" into The Omega Man ('71) with an undercurrent of biblical themes. In BPA, they seem to have pandered to sophomoric atheists. The Corringtons have the Virgil character repeat two popular "arguments" against Christianity. At one point he mocks the humans' religious idea of a happy afterlife. "If that were so, we'd all commit suicide so we could enjoy it." (ergo, since no one does, that proves no one believes it's true.) The second comes when he asks "how a benevolent god can allow a branch to break and cause the death of an innocent child." The question is left unanswered, as if it were unanswerable. The Problem of Evil is complex and too nuanced for reduction to sophomore levels.

Headed For Prime Time -- The look and feel of BPA is that of a made-for-TV movie. While BPA was not a pilot, Fox Television did launch a Planet of the Apes series in in 1974. It, too, starred Roddy McDowall as the lead "chimpanzee", though renamed Galen and unrelated to Cornelius or Caesar. The basic premise is a recast of Movie 1, but with Galen and the two astronauts as fugitives sharing adventures as they flee (ala, The Fugitive). The series only ran for one season, but sets of episodes were reworked into several made-for-TV movies, just like old Zombies of the Stratosphere serial of '52 was pieced together to make a Satan's Satellites movie in '58.

Never Enough? -- Film critics rejoiced that the Apes series was finally ended, The public seemed to have achieved Ape-saturation too, as the TV series only ran one season. But, satiety fades. In 2001, Tim Burton did a remake of the '68 original (though with less subtlety). In 2011, Rupert Wyatt started a new story line in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Caesar becomes sentient from genetic meddling (not hundreds of years of 'evolution' or future genes in the past). A sequel in this new story line is said to be in the works. Maybe people really can't get enough of Planet of the Apes.

Bottom line? BPA is not an especially good film. Yet, for a threadbare fourth sequel, it is better than one might expect. The sci-fi part present only by inference from the prior films in the series. The low budget makes itself apparent. Fans of the prior films can enjoy a concluding chapter. Viewers less keen on the earlier Apes will find only more of the same.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Twentieth Century Fox had a winning franchise going with the Planet of the Apes series. The fourth film in the saga is Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (CPA). The film is a sequel in that it continues the story thread established in the prior three films. The story begins 20 years after the previous film's story ended. Only Roddy McDowall and Ricardo Montalban carry over from the third movie's cast. McDowall plays the grown son of his former character, Cornelius. Montalban returns as the circus owner, Armando. Natalie Trundy returns, but in a new role. She was one of the mutants in Beneath. She was Dr. Stephanie in Return. In CPA, she plays Lisa, the peripheral love interest for Caesar. There would be yet one more film in the direct series. The 2011 film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, would be "re-imagining" of CPA, but without the Taylor-Mutants-TimeTravel loop story line.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Text-on-screen says: North America, 1991. Apes (dressed in jumpsuits, red for gorillas, orange for orangutans, green for chimps) are herded into a wide concrete plaza to begin training in menial jobs. Ape Management Inc. trains apes for servile work. Armando brings the now-grown Milo (son of Cornelius and Zira from the third movie) into town to post handbills for his circus. Both are aghast at the oppressive treatment the apes receive. Milo breaks his silence. Armando tries to cover for him. "It was I who spoke." Milo melts into hiding. Armando tries to smooth things over, but the oppressive governor has him interrogated harshly. Milo sneaks into a cage of incoming orangutans, gets trained and put up for auction. Ironically, it is the governor who buys him. He lets Milo pick out his own name, so Milo points to the name Caesar in a book of names. Just as the governor's interrogators are about to break Armando , he jumps out of a window to his death, to avoid spilling the truth. Caesar is sad, then enraged at the human oppressors. Caesar organizes an underground rebellion. The uprisings cause more brutal crackdowns. Caesar is captured and tortured via electroshock into speaking. The governor orders him electrocuted, but the governor's aide sneaks off and cuts power to the shock table. Caesar, sensing the lack of shock, fakes it. Everyone leaves. Caesar escapes. He then organizes a full revolt with weapons and tactics. A prolonged hand-to-hand battle escalates. The apes were armed with knives, clubs and machetes, but eventually acquire guns. The apes succeed in breaching the governor's command headquarters. They capture the governor. He monologues about the apes representing the savage nature within man. Caesar orders him taken outside, then monologues about ape revolts rising around the world.. He intended to throw the governor to the mob, but entreaties from MacDonald, and Lisa persuade him to spare the governor. "Cast off your vengeance. Tonight, we have seen the birth of the Planet of the Apes!" Fade to black and roll silent credits. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Even though CPA is the third sequel, the fourth movie in the series, it is a strong film. There is plenty of action, and the pacing is quick. The use of night shots for the revolt and riots works well, making the action feel more claustrophobic and chaotic. Roddy McDowall puts in a good job.

Cultural Connection
CPA beats the same racial-oppression drum as the third movie. The cruelty-to-animals theme was present too, but less flagrant. The struggle for civil equality for the black community had been going on for a long time, but it was still a sensitive issue. CPA was pushing the racial button pretty heavily.

Notes
Alternate Timeline -- Filmed in late 1971, the story is intended to be a look 20 years into the future. Some viewers scoff that their 1991 looked nothing like the movie. This is because it is an alternate timeline. In the third movie (Escape), Zira told how the apes were servants for 200 years. Then 300 years later, turned tables on the humans. This would be the presumed timeline Taylor was in, had Cornelius and Zira not returned. But, they did. When they came back, they brought a "space virus," that killed off all the dogs and cats in less than eight years. Apes were adopted into homes and quickly grew in size and intelligence -- perhaps enhanced by the same virus. In less than 20, the apes were advanced to the point it took Taylor's timeline 500 years to accomplish.

Alternate Ending -- The most common copy of CPA has the more-humane ending. The story is, the original screenplay called for a more brutal, revenge-satisfying ending. Fox is said to have gotten critical feedback from test audiences, so had some reshoots of new lines for a less violent, "humane" ending. Some viewers hanker for that original bloodier version, but the revised ending actually works better. As a (purported) retelling of the struggle for freedom by blacks, having the violent ending seriously undermines the message. Black "in power" would be no better than the whites. New boss, same as the old boss, as the song goes. The humane ending actually enhances the social message -- in much more of a Martin Luther King Jr. sort of way.

Neo-Nazis -- A curious, but no doubt obvious visual allusion, the security police in CPA's 1991 look very much like Nazi SS troopers. The high-peaked cap, the black uniforms with white piping, etc. This makes the symbolism a bit more complex, as the oppressors were not just average white-folks being self-centered. The apes were then somewhat symbolic of the jews -- an oppressed minority with no civil rights. The rapid collapse of the human "empire" in CPA is much more like the fall of Nazi Germany than the slow-fade of progress in racial equality.

Projected Self-loathing -- Very near the end of the film, the captured governor gives an explanation for why the humans oppressed the apes. It is a complex philosophical soup. After the customary evolution error, he gets to the meatier stuff. "Man was born of the ape, and there's still an ape curled up inside of every man. The beast that must be beaten into submission. The savage that has to be shackled and chained. You are that savage. When we hate you, we're hating the dark side of ourselves." There's a lot to chew on in that little speech.

Divine Judgement -- Caesar's closing speech contained a curious reference, especially in contrast to the governor's ego-centric world view. Caesar said it was destiny that apes overthrew man. "Destiny is the will of God. If it is destiny for man to be dominated, then it is God's will that he be dominated with compassion and understanding." This is likely part of the "second" (revised) ending. It makes a much more complex ending than the simpler. We win - you die, ending.

Watts Up? -- The riot scenes could well be re-imaginings of the mid-60s Watts riots that LA suffered. Those riots looked much more like a revolt or a war to those near the scene. The visuals may have been a bit too close for comfort, for LA viewers.

Brutalism -- The predominant shooting locations -- University of California, Irvine campus, and the Century City complex in LA -- were both examples of the architectural style called "brutalism." Vast expanses of concrete, tall patterned concrete walls, a landscape subdued and controlled via geometry. These actually make quite fitting locations for the oppression scenes.

Bottom line? CPA carries on the saga story thread, but is the stronger of the sequels. It's better than the second movie and less silly (at times) than the third. Despite the low budget, CPA manages to tell its story. For fans of the first three movies, CPA is a must. People who've not seen the first three might get a little lost (there are bits of digression to explain backstory). But, CPA is a strong story on its own -- provided one suspends criticism and just accepts intelligent man-sized apes.
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Jungle Captive

Universal's final installment in their ape-woman trilogy was, Jungle Captive (JC). It was released, just a year later, in June of '45. It is a sequel to a sequel in that it picks up the story where the second film stopped. Prior film characters are mentioned in the script, but JC has an all new cast. Vicky Lane plays the ape woman, Paula Dupree, instead of Acquanetta. Otto Kruger plays the mad doctor, Stendahl. The young love interest pair are Amelita Ward, as Stendahl's nurse, Ann, and Phil Brown as Stendahl's assistant, Don. Rondo Hatton plays the classic Ygor role of mad doctor's brutish henchman. There is a trace more science in the fiction, but it is still essentially a "lite" horror tale.

Quick Plot Synopsis
At a busy downtown medical center, Dr. Stendahl has long been experimenting on animals, trying to revive them from being dead. He finally succeeds on a rabbit, with a combination of blood transfusion and electric shock (like a pacemaker) to restart the heart. Congrats all around. Don asks Ann to marry him. He can't afford a ring yet, so gives her his fraternity pin. All seems happy. Meanwhile at the city morgue, a large, disfigured man, Moloch, steals the ape-woman's body from the morgue. He transfers her to a '41 Woodie panel van, then pushes the ambulance off a handy cliff. Driving on, he comes to a gated house and carries her in. The police investigate the missing ape-woman. A torn lab coat was found at the cliff, with Don's laundry mark. Detective Harrigan's questions get Ann nervous. Where was Don last night?. Dr. Stendahl asks Ann to accompany him to meet a colleague. This turns out to be a rouse, as he drives her to the remote gated house. He needs a blood transfusion to revive the ape-woman. Ann will be the donor. Scream. The transfusion and shock therapy work and the ape-woman lives again. Moloch takes a shine to pretty (unconscious) Ann. He notices her pretty pin. Stendahl wants to complete the work, so sends Moloch to get Dr.Walters' notes from Dr. Fletcher's office. Meanwhile, Don is worried about Ann's disappearance. Newspaper headlines tell of Dr. Fletcher's murder and missing files. Stendahl, now knowing the hormone trick, drains yet more blood from Ann. Moloch frets for her. The ape-woman becomes Paula again, but with a blank mind. While Stendahl is in town, Paula escapes and wanders off. Moloch rushes to town to find Stendahl and tell him she's missing. Don notices Moloch wearing his fraternity pin, so follows Moloch back to the gated house. Don is knocked out and tied up. Ann will be the brain donor needed to perk up the blank Paula (who they did find in the woods). After a few twists and turns, Moloch objects to hurting Ann. Stendahl shoots Moloch. Unseen, Paula has morphed back to ape-woman. She rises up and kills Stendahl. Just as ape-woman was going for helpless Ann, Harrigan shows up and shoots ape-woman. Don and Ann are free and cleared. They marry and Harrigan buys them a honeymoon at Niagara Falls. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
If one has accepted the ape-woman / Paula Dupree character, there is curiosity over what will happen to her next. Overall, JC is "lite" entertainment that keeps moving along.

Cultural Connection
One feature that stands out about JC is that the villain defied the usual villain stereotypes -- those clues which signal that he's "mad." No outbursts of emotion, no angry eyes, no maniacal laugh, not even the customary moment of uplighting to make him look creepy. Throughout it all, Stendahl remains calm, almost affable. His evil was virtually invisible. In this way, he presages the coming über-villain -- nuclear radiation -- that would drive so many 50s sci-fi stories. Whether this was intentional, or a lack of artistic flair by director Harold Young, is hard to say.

Notes
New Paula -- Acquanetta does not return for this third film. Instead, a 19-year old actress named Vicky Lane gets the ape-woman role. Vicky doesn't resemble Acquanetta all that much, other than being tall, thin-to-shapely, and brunette. But, this isn't disruptive. JC's Paula is a fairly small role with little screen time, and no spoken lines. All she does is stare blankly, not respond and shamble about like a zombie. Understandably, such roles did nothing to boost Vicky's career. She only did a few movies, mostly with bit parts. JC was one of her "big" one, after which she pretty much retired.

The Brute -- Rondo Hattan plays Moloch, "The Brute", and Stendahl's henchman. Hattan gained fame as "The Brute" and as a serial murderer of "The Creeper" idiom, in several films. Hattan suffered from a form of giantism which gave him his disfigured face and large hands. He was born average and grew up an otherwise average man, but exposure to poison gas during World War One affected his pituitary gland. This led to slow irregular growth of some bones (such as the face and hands). Universal "discovered" him in the early 30s and quickly exploited his looks for various brutish killer roles. This typecasting is said to have displeased Hattan, but a job is a job. Hattan died of a heart attack less than a year after making JC.

Face of Evil -- An interesting study in compare-and-contrast in JC are the two characters: Moloch and Stendahl. Moloch looked evil. He killed, yes, but had a sensitive side. He got all sentimental and protective over Ann. Stendahl, on the other hand, looked kind and friendly. Yet, he ordered the killings and couldn't have cared less. "A true scientist understands the unimportance of a mere life, when it might impede progress." Which was actually the worse evil?

Prop Watch -- Note the movable electro-control console used by Stendahl. This is the same prop as used in Universal's House of Frankenstein ('44) by Boris Karloff as Dr. Niemann. The other equipment, too, keeps up the Universal style for random sparky things being part of a mad doctor's lab.

Bottom line? JC is thin fare for the average sci-fi fan. It's even a bit thin if it's ape women you're after. Young's visual imagery is a bit flat, but the acting is okay (aside from Vicky, of course). There are enough plot twists to keep the story interesting, and enough suspense developed to keep you watching. A triple feature of all three ape-woman films might be fun, but on their own, each would be best watched by yourself.

Jungle Woman

Universal's second ape-woman movie was a "classic" sequel in many ways. Jungle Woman (JW) (1944) continued the story of Paula the ape woman right where the first movie left off. Some of the prior cast carry over, particularly Acquanetta, who remains the titular ape woman. There is virtually no science in this fiction, so the film would normally fall outside of this study of sci-fi cinema. However, it earns a family pass from the first ape-woman movie (in the mad doctor genre) and the animal-woman affinity from H.G.Wells' "Island of Dr. Moreau" (soon to be reviewed here as The Island of Lost Souls. (1932))

Quick Plot Synopsis
The film opens with a man being attacked by a woman (all shown in shadow). He stabs her. Dr. Fletcher is then before an inquest for murder. The trial frames multiple flashbacks to tell the story. Fred and Beth, from the first film, narrate flashback clips condensing Captive Wild Woman into about ten minutes. Fletcher then tells how Cheela the ape wasn't totally dead and he nursed her back to health. Fred tells Fletcher about rumor of an african witchdoctor who turned people into animals. Cheela might have originally been a woman. Cheela goes missing, but Paula appears in the woods. Seeming traumatized, she becomes Fletcher's patient. Fletcher's semi-retarded patient-helper Willie (usually in trouble for something) takes a shine to Paula. Paula, however, takes an instant shine to Bob, boyfriend of Fletcher's daughter Joan. Paula kills the smitten Willie and hides his body in the woods. Paula is jealous of Joan. In a huff and unseen, she topples the canoe where Joan and Bob are smooching. Some local farm animals are killed by something very strong. Willie (a large lad) is suspected since he's now missing. Paula (who now speaks semi-broken english) tries to get Bob to run away with her. She pretends that bruises on her shoulder were from Dr. Fletcher abuse. Caring, naive Bob wants to help. Joan is jealous. Another doctor tells Bob to take her back to Fletcher. Paula, not happy about not getting to run away with Bob, hides in the bushes. Willie's body was found. Fletcher, now knowing the truth about Paula, prepares a hypo with a sedative. Paula tries to break into Joan's cottage to eliminate the competition. Fletcher comes along. Paula attacks him. (opening scene, so end flashbacks) Since a woman is dead, and Dr. Fletcher admits giving the sedative (unintentionally overdosed) the District Attorney calls for a guilty verdict. The coroner (acting as judge), believes Fletcher's tall tale. If true, Paula wasn't really human, so it can't be called murder. At the morgue, they uncover dead Paula to see a mostly-ape/semi-human head. Not guilty. The happy music plays. Bob, Fletcher and Joan walk off, arm in arm. A final text screen reads, "The evil that man has wrought shall in the end destroy itself." The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Mostly, for the continuation of the Paula, the Ape Woman saga. The story is fairly fast paced with some interesting scenes. Acuqanetta is still easy on the eyes.

Cultural Connection
As mentioned before, one of the interesting traits of pre-bomb sci-fi is the underlying reassurance that the evil is (or can be) contained. The final title card hammers this thought home. It was just the accepted norm that the monster died at the end of the movie. Often, the evil scientist died too. If not, he was deeply sorry and repentant. Audiences were reassured that evil was manageable. This all changed when people realized that nuclear radiation was an indiscriminate, pervasive and long-lasting killer. Atomic evil could not be contained.

Notes
Three In One -- A curious quality to JW is that it feels like a stew of three movies (maybe four). The inquest frame recurs enough to take on a story life of its own. The flashback footage from Captive Wild Women is then a second film. Yet another, if one senses the recycling of footage from The Big Cage. Then there is the Bob, Joan, Paula triangle story. This last part is something of a remake of the Fred, Beth, Paula triangle in the first film, but with less depth. Where Cheela's affection for Fred had lots of time to develop, Paula's instant infatuation for Bob has only the depth of a petulant middle-school crush.

Cool Scenes -- Director Reginald Le Borg made the film visually solid, if mostly unremarkable. Two scenes stand out as visually interesting. One is the shadow attack at the start of the film. A slender wild-haired woman jumping on and mauling a man who struggled to stab her with something, is captivating -- all the more so for being shot as cast shadow. The second cool scene is when Paula swims out to overturn Bob and Joan's canoe. She's a human torpedo. This, too, is visually striking.

Woman or Ape? -- Just to muddy the waters, Paula may have been originally a woman, turned into an ape by a witch doctor. That, Fred says, may explain her intelligence and affection. Then Dr. Walters manages to somehow undo the witch doctor's black magic with glandula treatments. (so he really didn't succeed in his quest after all). Now, in JW, Paula is a slender woman with the strength and mood of an ape without having to turn into one. Although, she does occasionally, such as in the off-screen chicken coop affair where she left large ape-like fingerprints. Now, she seems to be able to adopt either form, if not at will, at least without outside "science".

She Speaks! -- Acquanetta gets more of a chance to act than she did in the first film. She had several speaking lines in JW. Her first one, "Hello, my name is Paula," is interesting since it breaks her silence. From then on, however, her simple english and flat delivery ("No. I don't like doctors. Take me away.) don't help the ape-woman role, nor her career as an actress. Her movements are stiff and wooden. Since the other actors and actresses manage more 'natural' movements, her woodenness is not likely director Le Borg's fault. Perhaps Acquanetta was more fluid and charming off screen, to make Universal execs think she had star potential. On-screen, however, tt became fairly apparent that a pretty face and great legs just aren't enough.

Flacid Scientist -- Quite the opposite of John Carradine's mad scientist character, the role of Dr. Fletcher is more like Dr. Milktoast. He had no ulterior motives of creating a super race. He wasn't ruthlessly pushing the ethical bounds of science. He wasn't doing much beyond adopting Dr. Walters' problems from the first film.

Bottom line? JW is not really sci-fi. It's just grandfathered in because the other two films in the trilogy have traces of the mad-doctor sci-fi. It is the weaker of the three, but still moves briskly enough to have entertainment value. While probably not worth seeking out on its own, JW would be worthy of a triple feature Ape Woman marathon.

Captive Wild Woman

Yes, mad scientists and apes were having a run of popularity in the 40s. Only a few months after Monogram Pictures released their "Ape Man" (March of '43), Universal Pictures had their "Ape Woman" in theaters. Captive Wild Woman (CWW) was the story of a mad scientist who turns a gorilla into a sultry young woman. John Carradine stars as the mad scientist. Once again, bodily fluids was the key. It seems unlikely that Universal was copying Monogram, so mad scientists with apes just must have be "the thing to do" at the time. The poster is misleading, by the way. The woman shown in the arms of the ape is wearing "Paula's" circus costume, but Paula was the ape. The only person carried by the ape (Paula/Cheela) was Fred, but that wouldn't have made as good of a poster.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Fred Mason, circus animal trainer, returns from Africa with many lions and tigers, and one big female gorilla named Cheela. He taught her some tricks on the long voyage. Fred's girlfriend Beth, as a sick sister, Dorothy. She takes her to a renowned scientist, Dr. Walters (Carradine). Through Beth, and Fred, Walters gets a tour of the circus. He covets Cheela for his experiments. He arranges with a fired animal trainer to steal Cheela. Walters also discovers that Dorothy has exceptional levels of "sex hormones" (??) He sets about transfusing Dorothy's abundant hormones into Cheela. Eventually, Cheela loses ape-likeness and starts looking more like a human woman. Walters' nurse objects to it all, so Walters decides she will be the brain donor so Cheela will have a human brain. Meanwhile, Fred and circus owner, Mr. Whipple, discuss the big cat act. The hoped for star trainer won't do it, so Fred decides to do it himself. Walters has renamed Cheela as Paula Dupree and made sure she obeys his commands. (she never speaks). He takes her to the circus (for some reason). Fred has his mixed cats in training. A lion and tiger fight and must be broken up with a fire hose. During training, Fred is knocked over by a toppled pedestal. The lions and tigers circle around fallen Fred. Paula, rushes into the cage and stares down the cats who back away in fear. Fred is amazed at her power over the cats and insists that she be part of the act. This goes well. She watches, the cats behave. She smiles at Fred. After the big dress rehearsal, Fred kisses Beth. Paula stomps off in a rage. Her rage starts her turning back into an ape. Ape-Paula climbs into Beth's bedroom to kill her, but a landlady interrupts, screams and gets killed. Fred worries that Paula is nowhere, but show opens that night. He opens without her. Things go well enough, until a storm brews up. Meanwhile, back in the lab, Beth demands to see her sister. Walters thinks he's found a new brain donor for Cheela. Beth releases Cheela from her cage. She kills Walters and runs off. Beth fetches Dorothy off the table. Cheela runs through the dark and stormy night to the circus. The thunder has the cats upset and a lion has Fred down. Cheela roars away the lion and carries hurt Fred out. A policeman mistakes the act as an attack and shoots Cheela dead. A narrator says how Walters was tampering where mortal men shouldn't. The End.

Why is this movie fun
Even MORE mad scientists and apes. Who would have thought? John Carradine does a terrific job as the evil scientist. He's both suave and ruthless. Acquanetta (who plays Paula, the ape woman) is excellent eye candy. The pace is quick, most of the time. The animal act footage makes for a visually active low-budget film.

Cultural Connection
Who knew that mad scientists and gorillas were such a hot item? From the viewing vantage point of late 20th century, sci-fi seems so automatically the realm of flying saucers, big-headed little aliens, rocket ships and mutant monsters. Such a different world it was before The Bomb. After The Bomb, there with an inescapable mood of doom that infused nuclear-angst sci-fi. Those "mad doctors" of the 40s were bad, sure, but they were manageable. In fact, they usually died in the end. Compared to the gloom of post-apocalyptic films, the mad scientist problem was almost cozy.

Notes
Dang Nazis -- Produced during the height of World War Two, audiences had no doubt what "evil" looked like. Mad scientists only had to sound vaguely nazi-like to be assured of an evil aura. At one point, Dr. Walters monologues to his poor doomed nurse about his "dream of creating a race of super men." There ya go. Walters is a nazi. There is no doubt about his evil.

Mixed Monsters -- Universal's ape-woman is a hybrid of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (though sort of in reverse) and like a reverse version of The Incredible Hulk. There is a dash of Frankenstein, in that Walters is the mad scientist tampering with poor lives. There is a bit of Dr. Moreau and his Panther Woman.

Repeated Animal Act -- Modern viewers might not spot it as quickly, but audiences in 1943 were more likely to. Most of the animal/circus footage in CWW was reused from Universal's 1933 film The Big Cage, starring Clyde Beatty (who really was a lion tamer in circuses). CWW's Milburn Stone resembled Beatty well enough, that with some costume matching and careful editing one can easily imagine it is Stone in all the animal shots. But no. The Big Cage was a popular film that got a few re-releases after its initial run. Odds are, the audience of 1943 would recognize that lion-tiger fight that had to be hosed down, etc. as coming from The Big Cage.

Acquanetta -- The film was also Universal's attempt to launch the career of sultry starlet, "Acquanetta". (stars with just one name are not new). Said to have been born Burnu Acquanetta, an Arapaho indian orphan in Ozone, Wyoming, or Mildred Davenport. Her origins were kept mysterious, but mystery can help a career only so much. There's no denying her physical attractiveness, but that can only take an actress so far too. Her film roles never rose above B-films, such as CWW and Tarzan the the Leopard Woman ('46) She dropped out of the film industry in 1951. Perhaps this is partly Universal's own fault. Her role in CWW amounts to little more than standing there, looking pretty. With no lines whatever, and only some close up eyes shots, Acquanetta got no opportunity to project a personality to like. (such as needed for a leading lady role).

Sequel Worthy -- Unlike Monogram, who let their Wolfman alternative  -- Ape Man -- just fade away, Universal pushed Ape Woman into two sequels. The first, Jungle Woman also featured Acquanetta and filled out more back story. The second was Jungle Captive. This also featured the Ape Woman, but played by someone else. Just for the sake of completeness, those two should be up next.

Bottom line? CWW is a low-budget marginally sci-fi film. It's not the bottom of the barrel for the "mad doctor" genre. Director Ed Dmytyk does keep the pace brisk and the many animal shots keep a sense of action, even if they're recycled footage. CWW isn't a high point in Universal's B movie roster, but it's not bad.

The Ape Man

There was just something about apes -- killer apes. Killer apes who are men too. Monogram Pictures put out yet another very low-budget "mad doctor" story with a killer ape and the spinal fluid trope, reminiscent of the 1940 Monogram film, The Ape. As sci-fi goes, The Ape Man (TAM) is as thin on anything approaching serious science as were most of the 40s' mad doctor films. Bela Lugosi stars as the unfortunate mad doctor who has turned himself half-way into an ape and needs human spinal fluid to cure him. Wallace Ford and Louise Currie co-star as the bickering reporters and eventual romantic subplot.

Quick Plot Synopsis
An ocean liner docks amid mystery. Dr. James Brewster has mysteriously disappeared. His associate, Dr. George Randall has little to offer the press. Brewster's sister, Agatha, has come from Europe to help (somehow). Reporter Jeff Carter smells a story in all the mystery. He gets assigned a beautiful lady photographer, Billie. They bicker like siblings throughout most of the film. Carter's instincts were correct, but he doesn't know it yet. Brewster is alive and living in the basement lab of his mansion. One of his experiments had gone horribly wrong. He injected himself with spinal fluid of an ape, but instead just improving physical strength, it turned him into a half-man / half-ape. Nothing else he has tried will reverse the process. Brewster is convinced that injections of human spinal fluid will reverse the process, but Dr. Randall refuses. To take the fluid is to fatal the donor. Brewster, "mad" at the prospect of being doomed to be an ape-man, takes the real gorilla to Randall's home/office and has it kill the butler. Brewster extracts the spinal fluid from the dead butler. Brewster and Agatha force Randall to give Brewster the serum injection. It works, somewhat. Brewster is able to stand erect, but will need more spinal fluid to lose the facial hair, etc. Again, Randall refuses. Brewster and his gorilla go on a killing spree. Brewster eventually has enough spinal fluid for many injections. Randall not only refuses to help, but smashes the jar. In a rage, Brewster breaks Randall's neck. What with all the recent murders, the police are on his tail. He returns to his mansion, where the two reporters are snooping around. Brewster carries off Billie to his lab, apparently to extract some spinal fluid. Carter can't get the secret passage open. Brewster chases Billie around the lab. The caged gorilla is upset by all the chasing. Billie accidentally opens the cage. The gorilla and Brewster fight to the death -- Brewster's. Agatha arrives with the police. She opens the secret passage just in time. Billie escapes. The police shoot the gorilla dead. Billie and Carter decide they should date instead of bicker. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Mostly, it's Bela Lugosi. He brings more class to the film than it would otherwise deserve. Director William Beaudine, famous for "one take" productions, puts out a fairly fast paced (if shallow) story. It's also fun to see someone else's zeitgeist. Apes and spinal fluid. Such a curious combination to be fascinated with.

Cultural Connection
Cheap films had their place. No one feels gypped if they pay a buck for a burger and don't get filet mignon. The same "value" reality worked for movies. TAM was a product of Monogram Pictures, one of the better known of the "Poverty Row" studios. They filled a market need for simple, inexpensive B film entertainment. They weren't making Citizen Kane or Gone With The Wind and everyone knew that. Knowing that you're selling hamburgers, not fancy steaks, means not having to take yourself (or your products) too seriously. Like a Burlesque / Vaudeville show, a Poverty Row film was, often enough, a medley of romance, comedy, horror, action and a bit of exploitation, if they could sneak it in. Audiences didn't mind. They were looking for budget entertainment, not story-telling purity.

Notes
Sequel Worthy -- As shallow and odd as TAM might seem to modern viewers (accustomed to finer fare), it must have been enough of a success at the box office that Monogram decided to ride its coat tails. Their follow up "sequel" the next year ('44) was Return of the Ape Man, also starring Bela Lugosi. In truth, "Return" is not a sequel in any way. The "ape man" is a thawed cave man. Lugosi is all human -- but still ends up getting killed by the "ape" of the story.

Poor Man's Wolfman -- Middle-tier studio Universal Pictures made a splash with their Wolfman film in 1941. Lower-tier studio Monogram seems to have tried to create their own man-beast hybrid with TAM. While it could have had some potential, Monogram didn't steer the writers to leave the sequel door open. A half-man/half-ape resurfacing now and then, killing to obtain spinal fluid to perhaps cure him, might have been a formula for multiple sequels. Sadly, Monogram let it fade.

Unintentional Metaphor? -- In the mid and late 40s, Bela Lugosi's career was in decline. His drug addiction (pain killers for a war wound) and alcoholism required income, so he could not be fussy about acting jobs. The drugs were also taking a toll on his 60-year-old body. Lugosi was unable to rise above his addiction, just as Dr. Brewster continued to hope, but was never able to stand erect for long. In the end, the "monkey on his back" (the Ape) finally beat him.

Why Zippo? -- One of the more curious things about TAM is the Zippo character. He's dressed as a bumpkin, but doesn't function as the usual bumpkin-esque comic relief. Instead, he's omnipresent and apparently all-knowing. He tells the gathered reporters who's on the ocean liner and why they should press for a story. He's peeking the lab window as Brewster experiments. He jumps out of a doorway to tell a hapless woman not to go further -- because Brewster and his ape lie in wait for another victim. at the end of the film, Carter asks Zippo who he is and why he's everywhere. "I'm the author," says Zippo with a wink and a smile. It makes sense, in hindsight, but it is a strange thing to write into a screenplay.

Bottom line? TAM is low-rent entertainment, aimed at a low-rent audience, so expectations of high art are best avoided. Lugosi, as usual, saves the film from being utter dreck. The science fiction is very thin. It's primary interest will likely be fans of the old-school "mad doctor" genre, or Lugosi fans. Viewers seeking a thoughtful script or impressive effects, should probably skip TAM.

The Ape

Boris Karloff did another "mad doctor" film outside of the more famous set of four he did for Columbia between 1939 and '41. In 1940, he made The Ape with low-budget Monogram Pictures. William Nigh directs. Curt Siodmak deserves most of the writing credit. For some reason, killer apes were all the rage (so to speak) for awhile in the 30s and 40s. King Kong ('33) is, of course, the most famous of them. But the killer ape trope was around before Kong and obvious after. The Ape is yet another sci-fi hybrid that is notably weak on the sci-fi part. Spinal fluid plays a pivotal role, and would again in a followup film by Monogram, The Ape Man.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A circus comes to the small town of Red Creek. Dr. Adrian (Karloff) is eyed with fear and suspicion in Red Creek, but he is the only doctor around. So, when a circus ape escapes and injures a trainer who had been taunting him, they bring the wounded man to Dr. Adrian. The trainer dies. Adrian, recognizing an opportunity, extracts some spinal fluid from the dying man for a serum he's working on to help pretty young Francis (paralyzed from the waist down). The ape is loose in the countryside. He killed a farmer named Wilcox. The serum begins to work on Francis. She has feeling in her legs. Adrian accidentally drops the vial, breaking it. He needs more spinal fluid. The ape breaks into Adiran's house (seeing the trainers coat on a chair). Adrian kills the ape, then has an idea. Later, he leaves his house, dressed in the ape's skin. Henry Mason, a disrespected town banker and philanderer, leaves to visit his mistress, but never arrives. His body is found. A coroner notes a similar puncture at the spine. Adrian pretends not to have noticed. The coroner recognizes Adrian as a shunned, but brilliant researcher from 25 years go. After additional serum treatments, Francis can move her legs a little. The coroner sees that Adrian was right after all. The sheriff, his men and dogs have concentrated their search around Doc Adrian's house, where most of the sightings place the ape. Adrian, encouraged at Francis's progress goes out one more time for more spinal fluid. He attacks one of the guards, but is chased off by another guard. On the way back to his house, he is seen and shot. A crowd gathers around the ape body on the porch. The sheriff lifts off the head to reveal Adrian. Francis wheels up in her wheelchair to show the dying Adrian that his serum's worked. She stands and takes some wobbly steps. Adrian dies, but vindicated. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
As usual, it is Boris Karloff who pulls an otherwise drab B movie higher than it would have on its own. The premise is a bit strained, but has some interesting roots. It is also interesting to see the "mad doctor" turn out to be right, for a change.

Cultural Connection
In the years before nuclear radiation dominated sci-fi thought, medical science got a lot more screen time. The "mad doctor" trope was a sort of flip-side to cultural optimism about what medical science could do.

Notes
Less Madness -- Karloff plays yet another "mad doctor" with the customary tension between his altruistic desire to help and his ruthlessness as to the methods. In The Ape, Dr. Adrian is almost the most mild-mannered of the mad doctors. He is so driven to help poor beautiful Francis to walk again that he's willing to push the ethical envelope. Unlike most of the mad doctors, it turns out Adrian was right and actually does the good he set out to do.

Just Desserts -- In the spirt of Occupy's "Eat the Rich" mindset, the one man that Adrian does murder is sort of a small moral loss. He is the banker Henry Morgan. No one in town much likes Morgan for the interest rates he charges. Nor does Morgan join any community efforts to find the ape. "Thats your job." Further, Morgan is cheating on his wife. Even worse, he is mean-spirited to his poor mousey wife. She pleads with him not to carry on his affairs so flagrantly near home. "If you don't like it, you can leave," he says. She says she has no relatives, no friends, nowhere else to go. "There's always the river," he sneers. Adrian murdering Morgan is not quite horrible. Poor little Mrs. Morgan may be better off with the insurance money and someone else.

Broadway Roots? -- The credits list the story as coming from a play by Alan Hull Shirk. (Screenplay by Kurt Siodmak) While this play may not have been filmed, an earlier movie is also said to have been based on the play. House of Mystery (1934) credits Shirk's play. Interestingly, HoM was also directed by William Nigh. The '34 film and Siodmak's '40 screenplay are very very different stories. House of Mystery is a more pedestrian murder mystery with many people in a spooky mansion, seeking an inherited fortune, dying off one by one. The murderer turns out to be a gorilla, trained to stand stiff like a stuffed ape, but kill on command. There is one small scene where one of the lesser characters has dressed up in an ape suit in order to sneak around the house looking for the treasure. He gets shot by nervous policemen. The setting and camera work in House of Mystery suggest stage roots, so may be closer to Shirk's play. Siodmak's story is almost completely unrelated -- except for the man dressed in an ape suit getting shot and an actualy killer ape.

Rapid Taxidermy -- Dr. Adrian is supposed to have stripped the entire skin off of dead Nabu, including hands, feet and face. And, tanned them all sufficient to be worn. And, he did it in a day or less. Granted, Adrian is supposed to have been a brilliant doctor, but this bit of the plot strains credulity beyond what movies like this usually do, if one knows even a little bit about taxidermy.

Bottom line? The Ape has very little science in its fiction. It does have some of the classic elements: a shunned brilliant doctor who secretly works on some boon for mankind, and it even has an angry mob. It is low on production values, but par for poverty row studio Monogram Pictures. Karloff fans will enjoy it. Those with expectations not too high, can be entertained. Modern tastes may only be annoyed.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

The third installment in the Planet of the Apes saga sidesteps the inconvenient truth of how the second film ended -- with the nuclear destruction of Earth. Handily, three of the chimpanzees: Zira, Cornelius and a Dr. Milo, fly Taylor's ship back in time to 1973 to start up a new parallel storyline. This story amounts to the first movie's scenario told from the other side. In Escape From the Planet of the Apes (EFPA), Roddy McDowall returns as Cornelius. Kim Hunter continues on as Zira. New are, Sal Mineo in a brief role as Dr. Milo. Eric Braedon (from Colossus) plays the brooding Dr. Otto Hasslein. Ricardo Montalban plays the flamboyant circus owner, Armando.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Taylor's pointy spacecraft floats off the California coast. When hauled ashore, the army brass are shocked that the three astronauts are human-sized chimpanzees. Presumed to be "just" animals that somehow got aboard, Zira, Cornelius and Dr. Milo are taken to a zoo infirmary. They are studied by Dr. Lewis Dixon and Dr. Stephanie Branton. Zira eventually speaks. A gorilla in the next cage strangles Dr. Milo. He's dead. Lewis presents Cornelius and Zira to a presidential committee. They are all astounded too. The two become guest celebrities around Los Angeles for awhile. Zira faints at a museum. She's pregnant. Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braedon) suspects there is some ominous untold story. He gets Zira drunk on "grape juice plus". She tells some incriminating backstory from the prior movies. Hasslain later gives her 'truth serum' and gets more worrisome backstory. The future in which apes eventually subjugate humans worries him deeply. He lobbies with the president (William Windom) to abort the baby and sterilize the parents to prevent the dark future. The president refuses on moral grounds. Meanwhile, Cornelius unintentionally kills their hospital orderly. So, he and Zira escape into the night. Zira becomes too disabled with contractions to continue. Cornelius finds Stephanie. She and Lewis take them to a circus run by Armando (Ricardo Montalban). There, Zira gives birth to her baby chimp. Just before the police close in, Zira, Cornelius and baby Milo escape again into the night. Before they leave, Zira says goodbye to Heloise (a "real" chimp) and her baby. Lewis directs them to an abandoned oil tanker to hide in until the search subsides. Eventually Hasslein finds them on the ship. He corners Zira and shoots her, then shoots the bundle of "Milo". Cornelius shoots Hasslein with a gun Lewis gave him. Police sniper kill Cornelius. Zira drops dead Milo into the harbor, then goes to die on dead Cornelius. Cut to Armando's circus striking camp for the winter. Heloise's baby is wearing the St. Francis medal Armando gave him. Baby chimp speaks. "Mama, mama." Fade to black, roll credits.

Why is this movie fun?
Turning the by-now-classic original Planet of the Apes plot inside out, is kind of fun all by itself. Director Don Taylor, with much experience directing for television, keeps the pace brisk and action moving. Some of it may be predictable, but it's never stale.

Cultural Connection
There is a steady undercurrent of commentary on racism throughout EFPA. This, it shares with the prior two films. The allegory is made even more apparent when Cornelius describes how (in the first timeline) apes were slaves of humans, doing their menial work, etc. But the apes of the year 250 (or so) organized themselves and revolted. Many of the scenes where the humans are condescending or insulting or prejudiced to Cornelius and Zira can easily be seen as racism allegory -- still a touchy issue after the Civil Rights clashes of the 60s.

Notes
Role Reversal -- The story in EFPA is rather intentionally the mirror image of the first film -- to a large extent, but not completly. Strangers land on a planet, pretend to be mute amid "lower" animals who can speak. The planet's authorities are philosophically disturbed by the newcomers and want them dead. There is a grand chase. There is a recast of the scene where words are first spoken. There is a council who refuse to accept the inconvenient truth. There are a couple of sympathetic doctors who help the newcomers escape.

Sequel Certainty -- The ending of EFPA is clearly constructed to allow a sequel. Zira swapped her advanced-chimp baby with the chimp Heloise's plain-baby chimp. Veteran movie watchers usually see this twist coming. The fourth film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ('72) would, indeed, pick up on the grown offspring of Cornelius and Zira 20 years later, though he would be renamed "Caesar". He would be played by Roddy McDowall, though, so son sounds like father.

Plot Holes? -- Some viewers find it too much of a stretch that Dr. Milo could fix up and fly Taylor's space ship, AND that they'd be thrown back in time to very near Taylor's time. Granted, Milo is a bit of a Dies ex Machina character, but a necessary one to get the plot role reversal. Cornelius does describe Milo as extremely intelligent. Consider too, that the backwards technological state of the Apes' world of 3952 may be due more to brutish "gorilla" influence than the chimps' lack of ability. Two years are said to have elapsed between Taylor's mission and Brent's. Ample time for the science chimps to have salvaged Taylor's ship (which did land intact), and figure it out. They didn't have to invent it, just figure out how to fly it. Given the deadly war that loomed in the second film, it's not too surprising that Milo opted to escape in the ship. Perhaps the plan was to set down on some other part of the planet -- far from the war. Instead, the shock wave from the nuke blast is the magic catalyst that hurls the ship back in time. Incredible, yes, but no less incredible than the never-explained force that brought Taylor there in the first place.

Pre-Terminator -- Hasslein argues with the president, that they (the humans of 1973) must kill the unborn baby to prevent the rise of the planet of the apes (and subjugation of humans). The president objects that he's promoting assassination. Hasslein counters that the Allies tried to assassinate Hitler (so it must be an okay tool whenever desired -- a curious logic there). The president then quips, would it have been okay to kill Adolf in his childhood, or kill his mother before she bore him, or Hitler's ancestors before her? In this exchange, we get a glimpse of the time-convolutions to come in movies like The Terminator and many more.

Pre-PETA -- Much of the film tries to be a wagging finger of shame for how people treat animals. While implied subtly in the first film, the drum is beaten loud and several times in EFPA.

Holes in Darwin -- As much as the Apes movies are thought to be pro-evolution, just about everything about them undermines the comfy classic darwinist construct. In the original movie timeline, apes were taken in as pets (since all the dogs and cats were killed by a plague). In 200 years they were speaking. In 300 they were a slave class that revolted. This is not the slow-and-steady mutation model at work. Then there is the quasi-divine interjection in the new timeline. Plain chimps, when bred with Milo's future-chimp DNA, become the super chimps. They didn't evolve either. There was an outside intervention. Slow-and-steady does make for boring movies, but perhaps writers (and viewers) also secretly have trouble accepting the classic model.

Bottom line? EFPA is a cut above most sequels and far above most second-sequels. The story is familiar, since it is the first movie told in an alternate universe sort of way. There is little in the way of special effects. EFPA is not especially science-y for a fiction, but plays as more of a suspense drama. Fans of the franchise seem to enjoy this third installment. It does require familiarity with both prior films, though. Seen out of sequence, it won't flow as well.