'The Ape Man' is another Monogram minor B-movie collaboration with Bela Lugosi from the early 40's and far from the best of the bunch.
Lugosi is hidden by fury costume and makeup, and his character spends the entire time in his apeman configuration so it is very difficult for the audience to get it's necessary quota of a Bela Lugosi performance, which at over 75 years removed from this films release, would be the only reason to tune in.
The rest of the principle cast do sufficient work with their characters however so 'The Ape Man' is just about watchable for it's one hour runtime.
The plot and premise however are risible and fail to attach themselves to the viewers imagination in any way except 'this is another guy in a gorilla suit movie and a tormented mad scientist situation.' I think that this is the loosest and least formed of all Lugosi's Monogram horrors.
On top of this the technical credits are worse than normal even for this series of infamous films and the scenes are more static and boxy than any other director's work on the series that I've seen.
I rate a 3/10 but I can't give a recommendation because I think that few movie fans will appreciate this film as anything but an historical curiosity unless they are a very dedicated viewer of thus kind of material, in which case they won't need telling by me; otherwise for a slightly more average viewer find a different Lugosi vehicle to watch.
Lugosi is hidden by fury costume and makeup, and his character spends the entire time in his apeman configuration so it is very difficult for the audience to get it's necessary quota of a Bela Lugosi performance, which at over 75 years removed from this films release, would be the only reason to tune in.
The rest of the principle cast do sufficient work with their characters however so 'The Ape Man' is just about watchable for it's one hour runtime.
The plot and premise however are risible and fail to attach themselves to the viewers imagination in any way except 'this is another guy in a gorilla suit movie and a tormented mad scientist situation.' I think that this is the loosest and least formed of all Lugosi's Monogram horrors.
On top of this the technical credits are worse than normal even for this series of infamous films and the scenes are more static and boxy than any other director's work on the series that I've seen.
I rate a 3/10 but I can't give a recommendation because I think that few movie fans will appreciate this film as anything but an historical curiosity unless they are a very dedicated viewer of thus kind of material, in which case they won't need telling by me; otherwise for a slightly more average viewer find a different Lugosi vehicle to watch.