This short film from 1940 features Boris Karloff as Bernard Adrian a doctor who is determined to find a cure to help a young woman, who has been paralysed by polio, to walk again. His animal experiments have only had him so far; now he needs human spinal fluid. When a gorilla kills its brutal trainer before escaping from the circus he sees an opportunity. The trainer is taken to Dr Adrian's lab, where he dies. Dr Adrian extracts the needed spinal fluid and injects it into his patient; early indications shows that it is working but after an accident he needs to find a new source of spinal fluid. Meanwhile the people of the town are hunting for the ape which has killed again and shows no sign of leaving the area.This film was quite a bit better than I expected; Dr Adrian may be using methods that can't be considered ethical by any stretch of the imagination but he isn't an unsympathetic character; he clearly really wants to help his patient rather than wanting the glory of finding a cure. The townspeople are less sympathetic than one might expect with children throwing rocks at the doctor's house and one man having an affair and treating his wife more poorly than one would expect of a film of the era. The ape is obviously a man in an ape-suit but it is better than one might expect to see in a B movie. There are some good twists before the end; the final one nicely explains certain things that seem a little off earlier. Boris Karloff does a solid job as Dr Adrian and the rest of the cast, who were unknown to me, were okay. Overall this might not be a classic but it is a fun way to pass an hour if you are a fan of older films.

Boris Karloff once again plays a scientist. Whether this one is mad or not I'll leave for you to decide. A circus ape has recently escape and attacked a man. Karloff treats the man and uses his spinal fluid on a young crippled woman. When she reacts positively to the treatment, Karloff realizes he must have more spinal fluid. So he dresses as the killer ape and seeks victims for his experiments. Cheap Monogram effort with Karloff effortlessly playing the role of the kindly scientist doing the wrong things for the right reasons. What's there to say, really? It's a guy-in-an-ape-suit movie. There's a pretty low ceiling on how good it could be. Karloff fans will like it most.

This dull time-waster is a delirious drag from start to finish. The twisted plot involves Dr. Bernard Adrian (Boris Karloff), who is conducting crazy experiments involving spinal fluid. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape breaks free and starts murdering townsfolk. The animal soon enters Adrian's lab, but the elderly scientist kills the monkey and then comes up with the devilish plan of wearing it's skin and killing more people so that he can get the desired amount of spinal fluid for his experiments. While the cheesy ape effects have some cheap charm, this typical example of forties B-grade horror is nothing but a badly-constructed bore and should therefore only be viewed by the most die-hard Karloff fans.

The Ape (1940) ** (out of 4)Boris Karloff plays a kind-hearted doctor trying to cure a woman who is paralyzed from her waist down. When a giant ape escapes from a local circus the doctor sees a woman to continue his experiments but this leads to murder. THE APE comes from Monogram and I think it's the perfect example to use if one wanted to compare the "straight" Boris Karloff to the more "over-the-top" Bela Lugosi. Lugosi would appear in Monogram's THE APE MAN, which is a very silly film that has several silly moments but it's actually entertaining thanks to the campy stuff. This film here is just incredibly stiff, lacks any real entertainment and really comes across as boring. The film seems constantly worried that they're going to hurt Karloff's good guy image and no matter what happens through his character, the screenplay is always quick to give some sort of excuse to make him look good. The character is basically a murderer but instead of just being a bad guy, the screenplay is constantly making him look better and all the excuses just leads to a rather boring story. Karloff offers up a good performance but it's certainly not enough to liven up the film or make it more interesting. The supporting cast is mostly forgettable but I'm sure some of this is due to the screenplay simply not giving them much to work with. THE APE has a pretty forgettable story and there's just no life, energy or passion to be seen anywhere. The film is certainly better made than most Monogram movies but that doesn't lead to any sort of entertainment value.