There's no doubt that on the surface Monogram's 1940 horror entry, The Ape, was simply one of their swiftly made, released and re-released items so identifiable with the quickie Poverty Row company. But closer scrutiny supplies genre fans with more than just mere morbid "highway accident" interest.

The bizarre plot (some critics found it distasteful), involving that Monogram/PRC staple - the escaped gorilla and the mad scientist - is given an extra twist by having the fanatical physician spurred by good intentions: a cure for polio. That his research involves assuming the guise of a missing circus simian and murdering innocents for their spinal fluid is probably not procedure condoned by the AMA. Much of the weird science stuff is due to co-scripter Curt Siodmak (1902-2000), writer of such horror classics as The Wolf Man (1941), Donovan's Brain (1953) and Son of Dracula (1943); directed by his brother, film noir specialist Robert Siodmak.

The evolution of The Ape from script to screen was guided by Monogram's prolific house director William Nigh (1881-1955) whose career began in the silent days. He honed his craft on both sides of the camera as an actor, writer, editor and producer (often wearing all hats at the same time) before launching his directorial debut with Salomy Jane (1914). His fast-paced assembly-line method of getting the job done endeared him to the lower echelons of filmdom, where he belted out virtually every kind of movie thrown his way - action, westerns, musicals, mysteries, comedies, dramas, horror, war stories and even film noir. Directing such cult favorites as Bela Lugosi and The East Side Kids has made Nigh's work more visible to modern audiences on TV and video than that of his many higher profile contemporaries like Frank Lloyd and Clarence Brown. Perhaps this ironic fame is fate's payback to the industry majors for virtually shunning him, especially since one of Nigh's earliest efforts, My Four Years in Germany (1918), is the picture that put the struggling Warner Brothers on the map.

And now for the really important question - who is that man in the gorilla suit? Well, the title role in The Ape is impersonated by the aptly dubbed Ray "Crash" Corrigan (1902-1976). Corrigan, an agile stunt man, often donned the primate skins, threatening to give The Flicker's Number One ape-man extraordinaire, Charlie Gemora, a run for his money. Corrigan, who could also play heroic leads (see the Republic 1936 serial, Undersea Kingdom), went "bananas" in such neo-classics as Tarzan and his Mate (1934), Captive Wild Woman (1943), Nabonga (1944), White Pongo (1945) and The Monster and the Ape (1945) before reaching immortality as the extraterrestrial bloodsucker in 1958's It! The Terror From Beyond Space - the chiller generally acknowledged as the inspiration for Alien (1979).

One of nine pictures Boris Karloff made in 1940, The Ape is probably not considered one of the crowning achievements in his long career. Yet, as usual, the wonderful actor gave his all to this modest effort, the conclusion to his Monogram contract which was dominated by his Charlie Chan-esque Mr. Wong detective series.

During the production of The Ape, Karloff was basking in both personal and professional joy - the former being the celebration of his daughter Sara Jane's second birthday, and the latter his profitable relationship with producers Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse on their new Broadway play, Arsenic and Old Lace. The role of the sinister Jonathan Brewster, the deliciously evil member of an oddball homicidal family, was written expressly for the actor, and would prove to be one of Karloff's biggest successes on the stage.

Producer: Scott R. Dunlap, William T. Lackey
Director: William Nigh
Screenplay: Curt Siodmak, Adam Shirk (play), Richard Carroll
Art Direction: E.R. Hickson
Cinematography: Harry Neumann
Film Editing: Russell F. Schoengarth
Original Music: Edward J. Kay
Cast: Boris Karloff (Dr. Bernard Adrian), Maris Wrixon (Frances Clifford), Gertrude W. Hoffman (Mrs. Clifford), Henry Hall (Sheriff Jed Halliday), Gene O'Donnell (Danny Foster).
BW-65m.

by Mel Neuhaus