Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

GL84 After being wrongly accused of murder, a condemned man takes up a scientist' plea to be used in his experiment to swap his brain into an ape, and with his new body sets out on a course of vengeance to get the criminal gang who initially set him up while saving the girl he loves.There wasn't a whole lot to really like with this one. Among its main positives here are it's rather fun stalking scenes showing the actual effects of his successful experiment and going out seeking revenge. These here are actual horror scenes that feature something creepy happening as the exploits of the ape-monster going around actually attacking and ambushing his accusers gives this one some solid stalking out in the courtyard around the house where it picks off the gangster by dropping down from the trees onto them, a rather fun stalking scene outside of a hotel lobby where it strikes a couple of henchmen hanging around and really only gets close to the fun of this in the finale where it scales their hotel through the fire ladders outside and then breaches into the room to attack her captors that finally settles the score on his vengeance in fine fashion while delivering a nice enough action scene as well. Given that these are all that's worthwhile here which all involve the killer ape, there's not a whole lot to really like here which is what's the case here. The film's main problem is the fact that there's very little of interest here in the first half as this one plays more on the courtroom drama than any kind of true horror effort here. There's very little interest in these scenes as there's just endless repetitions of people sitting in a courtroom recounting what happened before it goes into a lengthier, more detailed flashback of events that shows in detail what they just talked about, as not only does this one feature the scene they just got done explaining but also going into the setup for the scene to make sense and the result is just really overlong and bland for an introduction to be about. These are completely uninteresting and the fact that it holds up the entire first half of the film is what does hold this one back as much as the film's rather low-budget tone and feel. The process of the body-swap shows this off rather nicely here with the whole surgery glossed over and shown as frantic close-ups without any kind of on-screen help as to what's happening which makes it look so cheap and low-budget that it really stands out compared to other such scenes, and along with the ratty ape-suit used for the creature it really adds to the overall weak look of this one. Overall these are what really hold this one back.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence.

JoeB131 This is an interesting film where they took a film noir plot and transplanted it (pun intended) into a monster movie. So a nice guy from a small town goes looking for his sister who has been tricked into a 'white slavery' ring (They never do outright say, "Prostitution" because Hayes Board and stuff) and ends up getting framed for the murder of a gangster by rival gangsters. The hilarity begins when Mad Scientist George Zucco transplants the nice guy's brain into the body of a gorilla, because that never goes badly in these kinds of movies. The movie then proceeds as the gangster's henchmen are slowly picked off by the Gorilla, which has mysteriously acquired stealth ninja skills in addition to being, you know, a gorilla. Kudos to the guy in the monkey suit, as he pulls off his scenes with a bit of pathos, like when he encounters his old dog who knows its him. This movie has a lot of really nice touches like that, but it's mostly just fun cheese. I also think it is interesting as a snapshot of how society was back then, not being able to talk frankly about sex but lots of smoking scenes.

utgard14 This one's weird in the best way. Starts off like some kind of urban drama about a small town girl (Ellen Drew) who comes to the big city and, as often happens in films, finds herself forced into prostitution. Her brother (Phillip Terry) comes to the city to rescue her and winds up framed for murder. This was all interesting enough but the movie really kicks into high gear when it becomes a horror movie as "mad" scientist George Zucco transplants Drew's brother's brain into the body of an ape. The ape brother then seeks revenge against the men who turned his sister into a hooker and framed him for murder.Really good cast for this little B gem. George Zucco is always worth the price of admission but you also have Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Robert Paige, Onslow Stevens, Marc Lawrence, and Gerald Mohr! Also Edward Van Sloan in an uncredited part as the warden. This is a pretty amazing lineup for a little-known B horror flick. The bad guys are so completely rotten you can't wait to see them get theirs from the killer ape. Speaking of killer apes, that's often a particularly anemic subgenre of horror. This one's exceptional of its kind. The ape suit is really good. Just compare it to "The Ape" or "The Ape Man," made from around the same time, and you'll see what I mean.Seedy subject matter mixed with fun horror staples -- the mad scientist and the guy in an ape suit. Very cool stuff. If you're a fan of old school B horror and gangster pictures you should like this one a lot.

Michael_Elliott Monster and the Girl, The (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Strange but effective film from Paramount mixes the noir and horror genres. Mobsters frame an innocent man for murder but before his execution he swears vengeance on them all. After his death a scientist (George Zucco) experiments by putting the dead man's brain into the body of a gorilla who goes out for revenge. The biggest problem with this film is its short running time of 65-minutes, which isn't enough time for the two stories to work. We get a fast paced and fun movie but it could and should have been a lot more. This is certainly a very weird film that noir and horror fans should check out.