Alicia I love this movie so much

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Red-Barracuda The Ape Man is best remembered as another of the multitude of poverty row pictures which have been given historical interest as vehicles for horror acting legend Bela Lugosi. This one was directed by William Beaudine who was nicknamed 'One Shot' on account of his habit of shooting everything once and not presumably being too concerned about the quality of what he put in the can. Like many cheap potboilers that Lugosi and Beaudine worked on, this one was released by the notorious low budget studio Monogram. With all this in mind, it's hardly surprising that this is no classic or under-appreciated gem.Like countless horror films from the period it focuses on a mad scientist. In this case his experiments involve spinal fluid extracted from a gorilla, which he naturally uses on himself which turns him into the title character. In all honesty he looks more like a member of the indie band Oasis than an actual ape man. He is a pretty low budget monster to say the least. Unsurprisingly his sidekick is a gorilla played by that ever present staple of 40's movies, namely a man in an ape suit. This pair of villains goes around murdering poor unfortunates for reasons that I can actually recall but simply cannot be bothered typing out. Needless to say, they find themselves up against that other staple of 40's potboilers – a wisecracking duo of male and female sleuths. They don't provide much successful comedy and Lugosi isn't very scary, so the result is a film that can only be appreciated if you take it with a pinch of salt and can get on-board with its campy nonsense value. It's pretty poor overall, but not exactly painfully so and will offer something to those who like to seek horror movies in the old style.

Amber Kovach Bela Lugosi fans should suffer through this hour long flick, just to get a good laugh. Bela, dressed as a gorilla and belting out apish roars at his beastly partner in crime, is too good to pass up. The story follows a reporter/photographer duo, who lack chemistry and exhibited only forced charisma, and the unfortunate scientist, Dr James Brewster, whose risky experiments with apes configured himself into a part-ape, part-man monstrosity. The reporter, played by Wallace Ford, threw so much rampant sexism and so many shrewd comments at the photographer (Louise Currie) that it was almost comical to behold. They spend their screen time trying to figure out what is behind some of the strange occurrences surrounding Dr. Brewster's alleged disappearance. The doctor, instead of accepting his beastly fate, commits a string of murders in order to retrieve spinal fluid from his victims, which he believes is the key to returning himself to his full human form. Dr Brewster's sister, portrayed by Minerva Urecal, adds some needed eeriness to this horror scifi by playing a ghost hunter, complete with recordings of ghostly shrieks and dressed in garb as grave as her profession. Her strong performance as a dedicated sister is one of the best performances of the movie, besides Bela's, who in my opinion is always golden. All in all, this movie was entertaining, especially if you are a fan of bad vintage scifi/horror. Not as good as Bela's Dracula (1931), or as entertaining as his Devil Bat (1940), but certainly one to see and enjoy.

JohnWelles "The Ape Man" (1943), directed by legendary hack William Beaudine (the man who gave us "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter" [1966] and "Billy the Kid versus Dracula" [1966]), this b-movie gives us a deliciously hammy, over-the-top performance from Bela Lugosi, who had gone down a long way since his myth-making role in Tod Browning's "Dracula" (1931). The plot is the usual hokum: a crazed scientist, Dr. James Brewster (Bela Lugosi), with help from his more sane counterpart, Dr. George Randall (Henry hall), injects himself with spinal fluid that turns him into an ape man. But at sixty-nine minutes, the film moves so fast that plot logic is never anything you spare a great deal of thought on. Wallace Ford (who apart from having minor roles in a few Hitchcock movies and featuring in lots of TV shows, is most famous for starring in the brilliant "Freaks" [1932]), Ralph Littlefield and Louise Currie are decent and the whole movie on the technical side, is quite competent. A fun film for people who enjoy the works of Edward D. Wood Jr.

lugonian THE APE MAN (Monogram, 1943), directed by William Beaudine, with original story by Karl Brown, is a fine example of a bad movie becoming a "camp" classic. Not exactly in the class of Universal's finer products as THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) or THE WOLF MAN (1941), for example, THE APE MAN was to be one of many in a series of horror films from Monogram capitalizing on the past success of Universal's chill package resulting to pale imitations with low budget results. Acquiring Universal's very own Bela Lugosi, whose name alone was the selling point of films such as this, THE APE MAN, coming twelve years after his breakthrough performance as "Dracula" (1931), is simply a comedown from his wide range of films, with some of the worst yet to come. The story opens on the pier where a group of reporters, headed by Jeff Carter (Wallace Ford) of the Globe Tribune, awaiting for the arrival of spiritualist Agatha Brewster (Minerva Urecal), sister of the famous Dr. James Brewster (Bela Lugosi). Also on the pier is a mystery man (Ralph Littlefield) seen reading a front page story about the disappearance of Doctor Brewster, whose to do some coming in and out throughout the narrative himself. Shortly after-wards, Agatha, greeted by Brewster's friend, Dr. George Randall (Henry Hall), informs her that Jim never really disappeared, but due to his discovery of a substance that has changed him into an animal similar in power and danger to an anthropoid ape, he's now hiding in an old mansion in Springdale. Taken to the mansion, Agatha witnesses the experimental results of her brother, locked inside a cage with an ape (Emil Van Horn), dressed in black, walking in hunchback position and sporting facial hair. Aside from controlling the ape with a whip, Brewster even howls like one. In order to return to human form, Brewster will need spinal fluid from a living person, resulting for Randall committing murder to get it. When Randall refuses, Brewster goes on the murderous rampage with his ape, leading Carter and his assistant, Billie Mason (Louise Currie), to enter the scene and get the scoop for the next edition.Others members of the cast include Wheelar Oakman, Jack Mulhall and Charles Jordan. Ever reliable J. Farrell MacDonald appears as the typical Irish police captain, and "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, Scruno in the "East Side Kids" film series (1940-1943), doing cameo duty as the copy boy. Regardless of its "mad scientist" theme hinted during its opening credits with overflowing test tubes and the head of an ape seen behind the titles, THE APE MAN is one not to be taken seriously in spite of serious overtones and acting from the principle players. Lugosi's make-up, basically long hair and beard pre-dating that of a hippie of the 1960s, lacks the reality of his ape-like appearance from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (Paramount, 1933) that starred Charles Laughton. Minerva Urecal is properly cast as Lugosi's sister, looking both sinister and mysterious as Lugosi himself, especially during her talks about communicating with the dead during her interview with the reporters (Ford and Currie). In the "mad scientist" tradition, however, THE APE MAN contains secret doors and panels; a televisor where scientist can get a glimpse of visitors at the front door, in this case, nosy reporters. In true Monogram tradition aside than cheap sets, bad dialog and repetitive underscoring, there's also a running gag involving a mysterious rube-type character mentioned earlier coming in and out of the story for no apparent reason, finally revealing himself after being spotted by Carter sitting in the front seat of his car. Wait till you hear who he is! This gimmick would be repeated again in VOODOO MAN (Monogram, 1944) featuring "Ape Man" co-stars of Lugosi, Louise Currie and Henry Hall.During the wake of home video in the 1980s, THE APE MAN was one of many public domain titles to either be distributed through various companies on VHS (and DVD two decades later) or be broadcast or "Star Club" from Channel America prior to 1992. Because of its availability and overplay of THE APE MAN, it's rarely mentioned that Lugosi also appeared in a non-sequel titled THE RETURN OF THE APE MAN (1944). Though not essentially scary or high art cinema, THE APE MAN is worth while mainly for watching Bela Lugosi going bananas once in a while. (*1/2)