IMDb RATING
4.6/10
2.1K
YOUR RATING
Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum.Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum.Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum.
Gertrude Hoffman
- Jane - Adrian's Housekeeper
- (as Gertrude W. Hoffman)
Jessie Arnold
- Mrs. Brill
- (uncredited)
Billy Bletcher
- Short Mustached Posse Man
- (uncredited)
Harry C. Bradley
- Quinn
- (uncredited)
George Cleveland
- Mr. Howley
- (uncredited)
Ray Corrigan
- Nabu the Gorilla
- (uncredited)
Pauline Drake
- Young Girl
- (uncredited)
Mary Field
- Mrs. Mason
- (uncredited)
Gibson Gowland
- Posse Member
- (uncredited)
Julia Griffith
- Townswoman
- (uncredited)
I. Stanford Jolley
- Ape Trainer
- (uncredited)
Stan Jolley
- Boy in Soda Shop
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe final film in Boris Karloff's six-picture contract with Monogram. Filming began 7/29/40.
- GoofsWhen the doctor is showing off his 'cured' guinea pigs, one of the poor critters falls off the table, at the end of the shot.
- Quotes
Danny Foster: I don't like things I can't understand.
- ConnectionsEdited from Under the Big Top (1938)
- SoundtracksSobre las Olas (Over the Waves)
(1887) (uncredited)
Written by Juventino Rosas
Played at the circus for the trapeze act
Reprised as background music on the circus grounds
Featured review
If it weren't for the presence of Boris Karloff, this would be pretty bad. Apparently there has been a bout with polio in the community (paralysis) and there is a pretty young victim who the doctor fancies as looking like his late daughter. He makes it his life work to cure her. Unfortunately, he needs the bodily fluids of others to bring about that cure. Of course, he chooses the base, the outcast, for his work because the young pretty girl has more worth in the society than these others. He chooses his victims by judging this worth. He kills them by dressing in the skin of an ape that he killed and skinned. If this sounds silly, it's hard to defend. There's also a subplot of the jealousy of a young man who loves the young woman but may feel if she recovers she will reject him. Karloff's doctor is the constant victim of the community. They don't know what he's doing in that house and so he is victimized by the local kids (your garden variety brats), and looked on with suspicion. He is such a kindly man, it seems odd that there is such venom when it comes to him. Anyway, it's a small town and people do need their preoccupations. It just seems that a doctor with this much imagination could be a little more creative in his methods than the one he chooses. Imagine how lacking in dexterity if you were about 60 years old, running around in an ape pelt. It's rather forgettable and predictable, but it's fun to see Karloff's character.
- How long is The Ape?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 2 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content