***SPOILERS*** It's when the master of the house Mr.Earlton passed away that all his relatives as well as servants were gathered to hear his will read with his daughter Ruth Earlton,Vera Reynolds, getting the lion share of his holding including the house itself. That's when things started getting a bit weird with the pet monkey Yogi that her father kept locked up in the basement getting very excited and unnerve by just seeing or even picking up Ruth's scent. It's Ruth's late father a follower of the Darwinist theory of the Evolution of man descending from apes or monkeys was using Yogi in his experiments. It was Yogi who developed a strong dislike of Ruth when she, in being afraid he'd grab her arm, didn't hand him over a banana as a treat.It's soon become apparent that Yogi is on the loose in strange things happening at the house that's connected to him. Even though he never once left his cage when these things were happening. Even when Ruth as well as her uncle the wheelchairs bound Robert Earlton, Sheldon Lewis, were almost strangled by what looked like a hairy and monkey-like hand while asleep in their bedrooms. With all the attention on the maligned monkey Yogi it turned out that the butler or monkey's attendant Hanns Krug, Mischa Auer, and his mom the house maid Mrs. Krug, Martha Mattox, were behind all this monkey business to ice out or do in Ruth from getting her share of her father's money and property.****SPOILERS**** It's soon found out that Hanns is actually Ruth's step brother or first cousin, it's not quite sure which one he is,who together with his mom Mrs. Krug feel that they were left out in the cold by the old man leaving them almost nothing, but $50.00 a month for life, in his will. Hanns in trying to murder Ruth and make it look like Yogi did it, by using a Halloween gorilla hand or paw,in trying to murder her strangled his mom, who was sleeping under the covers, by mistake. That has a very unstable Hanns go completely banana's and attempt to do the same to his what turned out to be father the crippled Robert Earlton without much success. In the end completely out of his skull Hanns drags Ruth down to the basement and tries to get Yogi to do her in who turns out to be a lot smarter then he or anyone else thought he was. And instead Yogi put the squeeze or end on Hanns' insanity by, in what he attempted for Yogi to do to Ruth, ringing his rotten neck.

I have an original Mexican lobbycard of this oldie-but-not-goldie dark house thriller with a terrific illustration (not seen in American publicity materials as far as I am aware) of a very scary giant (King Kong-size!) ape, but, alas, no such monster appears in the movie. The on screen credits are superimposed over an illustration of a gorilla carrying a damsel-in-distress, but, alas, no such scene is in the movie either! There is only a chimpanzee locked up in a basement cage. The opening scenes when a potential heiress is awaited in a mansion where a will is to be read seemed somewhat promising with one or two nicely lit compositions and the actress playing the housemaid was a welcome presence. Yet it turned out that, 95 percent of the movie's brief running time (one hour), until a meaningless but mildly exploitative climax, consisted of people talking standing or sitting in rooms or moving in between rooms where they will talk sitting or standing!.. It would have helped if the "ape" in the basement cage was a man-in-gorilla-costume and not a chimpanzee. I have a feeling that at some stage, the original screenplay entailed something more than it was filmed. Who was the housemaid referring to when she told her son to lock up all the doors and windows against? To whom did the hairy hand belong? Not the killer as it is revealed.. It should also be noted that there is a pretty racist portrayal of a black driver as a foolish and timid folk, made worse by a pun where he acknowledges that he is related to apes. Worth looking only for those studying racism in American cinema, falls flat on all other departments, so boring that not even so-bad-so-good.

This is a popular title among the "old dark house" thrillers (often given a comic slant) which flooded the market from the 1920s through to the mid-1940s or thereabouts, but I was sorely disappointed by it. For one thing, characterization is inadequate (even when considering the thing is just 60 minutes long) so that what plot development there is feels largely mechanical – and, regrettably, even the treatment proves too stolid to render this an entertaining film (with little genuine atmosphere to help matters). For the record, the same director's follow-up – THE VAMPIRE BAT (1933) – has an intriguing cast and uses leftover sets from James Whale's sublime spoof THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) but is not otherwise that more of a success in putting across the various genre conventions! Anyway, the would-be thrills here involve a couple of attempts on the heroine's life (typically, the sole heir of a vast fortune) made, we are led to believe, by a caged ape kept – for no very good reason – in the basement (except that the assailant's hairy arms are visibly longer than those of the rather squat mammal concerned!). As for the comedy, despite the presence of Mischa Auer (who actually plays it straight, Leonard Maltin's comments notwithstanding) and Willie Best (unflatteringly billed as "Sleep 'N' Eat"), it is quite sparse – and so mild as to barely raise a smile! Also involved is Sheldon Lewis (as the heroine's invalid and indignant uncle) who had played the dual role in the 1920 version of "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" that fell far short of the rival production designed as a vehicle/showcase for the great John Barrymore.

The owner dies and leaves his fortune to his daughter (Vera Reynolds), but the brother (Sheldon Lewis) wants it for himself and the son (Oscar nominee Mischa Auer) he is hiding. He plans to have the son eliminate everyone so he can grab the riches.The plan goes awry when the son kills his mother (Martha Mattox) by mistake. He turns on his father and tries to kill the daughter.It was a weird little film, just out of the silent era, and there was more talking than anything.Of course, they have the stereotypical black chauffeur (Willie Best, who was listed in the credits as Sleep 'n' Eat). I kid you not! I last remember Best from High Sierra. He has a long career with numerous roles, probably many of them doing that stereotypical frightened black man.Not very scary for a haunted house.