The Ape Man (1943)

This is not Bela Lugosi's best film but it's not a total snore either - quite a fun little flick. It's worth watching if you like Lugosi, stories surrounding primates or sci-fi films.Lugosi is Dr. James Brewster. Dr. Brewster & Dr. Randall are conducting experiments concerning humans and primates. Dr. Brewster turns himself into an ape man and decides he does not want to live the rest of his life like that - he feels he must be cured at any cost.This movie make a good afternoon film - something to kick back to and enjoy a few giggles with. Quite fun to watch Lugosi as an ape man - he did a pretty good acting job with this character.8/10

Wow some of these low budget "b" movies are so wonderful, this one is at or near the top of the spectrum, Bela Lugosi is just charming in this one, he has to get some kind of serum from people that he needs to turn back into full human. But he can't do the killing himself he has his Ape do it for him,, I just love all the back and forth banter that he has with the Ape. the part I loved the best was when the Ape looks at his empty bowl on the floor, looks up at master shakes his head and then looks at the bowl again in utter disgust. the Ape is cheerful to follow his master whenever the chance arrises every once in awhile he's a little disagreeable as far as listening to master, but the two are a pleasure to watch together, I love the plot. the characters, and the Ape,, what's not to love from this 40's classic horror movie.

While Bela may have appeared in worse movies, he was never more embarrassed than in his work here. While a bit of the hijinks is good for unintentional laughs, this has less the fun tone of "The Devil Bat", and more the bone crushing boredom of "The Corpse Vanishes." While it mostly served the purpose of cheap laughs, can we just note now that George Barrow's much employed suit did not look much like a real Gorilla?Your heart also has to go to the excellent Wallace Ford, whose crack comic timing was often put to use in moviessuch as this. The writers even seem to be halfway spoofing the tired, tired, "screwball" button of a dame trying to make it in a man's world. In fact, I sort of like the self referential gag of the films writer, a stammering dimwit, occasionally appearing to move the plot along. Obviously, however, the joke at the closing credits is whoever sat through this thing.

I'm thinking this is the fourth one i've counted. There might be more.Anyway this is another of Lugosi's sad Poverty Row outings. Bad sound, cheap sets, implausible script. Probably one of the best arguments AGAINST film preservation. The storyline is that Lugosi is a mad scientist (wow, how many times has he played THAT role?) with an Anglo name who inexplicably has a foreign accent even though his sister doesn't. (You get the feeling that they didn't write this as a Lugosi vehicle until he came by looking for drug money.) Lugosi injects himself with a serum that gives him ape like qualities, but has to kill people to get back to normal.The thing was that Lugosi was not a bad actor, but his thick accent, typecasting after Dracula and inability to learn English better limited his ability to get good work. So while he occasionally got supporting roles in big studio features (often working opposite his nemesis, Boris Karloff), more often than not, he was working for Poverty Row or Ed Wood, with sad results.