The Ape Man (aka Lock Your Doors) is one of my favorite B flicks and as such, one of my favorite Bela Lugosi movies.
This 1943, Monogram submission was directed by William (Billy the Kid vs Dracula/Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter) Beaudine, produced by Sam (The Corpse Vanishes) Katzman and Jack (The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) Dietz, and scripted by Barney (Voodoo Man) Sarecky, based on Karl (White Legion) Brown's short story, "They Creep in the Dark."
As part of the mad-scientist/monsters-on-the-loose parables of old, Ape Man invests its villainy in Lugosi's Dr. James Brewster, who's strengthened himself to a fault by simian-serum injections, and in order to reverse the process, must kill to attain human, spinal fluid. Brewster is aided by a hairy accomplice, played by noted, gorilla-enactor, Emil Van Horn.
Ape Man invokes Robert Florey's Murders in the Rue Morgue and Erie C. Kenton's Island of Lost Souls, each starring Lugosi, but the film plays a lot like Jean Yarborough's Lugosi-helmed, The Devil Bat, in that both B fables feature investigative reporters.
For Ape Man, they're played by Wallace Ford, best known to horror buffs from The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Freaks and Night of Terror (the latter with Lugosi) and Louise Currie of Citizen Kane and The Adventures of Captain Marvel.
To texture the plot, Minerva Urecal's distressed Agatha, Brewster's sister, and Henry Hall's Dr. George Randall, Brewster's coerced colleague (both performers having starred in William Nigh's The Ape with Boris Karloff), promote the tale's tremulous angle to a reasonable degree, furthering Ape Man as a beguiling gem.
Ape Man also employs an additional character, listed as Zippo in the credits, though never called such in the film, who's remembered for his breaking-the-fourth-wall, "screwy idea" revelation at the movie's end. Zippo is portrayed by Ralph Littlefield, recognizable as silver-bullet provider, Jim Blaine, in The Lone Ranger 1949, but also holds fleeting roles in Lugosi's The Corpse Vanishes, Voodoo Man and Bowery at Midnight, as well as Beaudine's zombie chiller, The Living Ghost.
Littlefield's Zippo has proven a polarizing figure, with some accepting him as a nifty novelty (a precursor to Sam Elliot's "Stranger" in the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski), while others dismiss him as too diverting for Ape Man's intended menace.
In a daring exercise, Sinister Cinema's owner, Greg Luce, has trimmed most of Littlefield's scenes in what's marketed as "The Definitive, Final Cut," thus granting the story a seamless, ominous ambiance, unhampered by vague levity. (To appease the curious, Littlefield's earliest sequence remains mostly intact, while his ensuing, snooping moments have been excised.)
Purists may find Littlefield's reduction blasphemous, but the tactic only makes one more curious about the actor's background and career. I, for one, couldn't help but scan Littlefield's remarkable resume, and because of this, I'm now a staunch fan, something I'd have deprived myself if not for Luce bringing attention to the actor by editing his performance.
For those interested in the refurbished Ape Man, which by the way, sports a crisp, DVD transfer (and comes with a special feature of its edited scenes), visit Sinister Cinema's homesite, and why not order a simultaneous copy of the original cut for comparison sake?
https://www.sinistercinema.com/product.asp?specific=54860
No comments:
Post a Comment