Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Quite a far way off its predecessor, even if 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' is still a good film.

Charlton Heston reportedly wasn't initially interested in returning for a sequel, though, to his credit, did in the end return briefly to tie up his character's loose end - and apparently even gave his fee to charity. That's why we don't see much of him here, which is a shame but given the aforementioned it came out well enough.

James Franciscus takes over from Heston and does a fine job, the latter is definitely the better of the two but Franciscus is passable. Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans and Linda Harrison do return, though the first two basically play second fiddle to others - including newcomer James Gregory's bunch of characters; Gregory is solid, fwiw. As for the film's other parts, make-up etc., it's basically the same as the original. The plot even feels similar for a fair chunk of this production, though it eventually goes its own way.

I'm even more interested to check out the subsequent sequels, given the ending to this 1970 film was apparently intended - by those on the ground, so to speak - to be the final entry; the studio evidently wasn't in agreement.

I guess you could say that this first sequel to PLANET OF THE APES is a nostalgic pleasure for me; I got hooked on it as a child and while I still think it's an interesting followup to the original, as an adult I'm naturally more aware of its flaws. Yet it still works out as a good adventure film; less of a cerebral experience like PLANET OF THE APES, and more of a comic book story.

James Franciscus plays astronaut Brent, sent along the same trajectory as Taylor's (Charlton Heston's) old ship in an effort to rescue him. He crash-lands in the same vicinity as his friend, and goes through a similar nightmare when he comes to discover that the planet he's stranded on is dominated by intelligent, talking apes with a decidedly low opinion of mankind. General Ursus (James Gregory) is a war-hungry gorilla leader who's anxious to investigate strange unearthly occurrences in the Forbidden Zone with the aid of the ever-skeptical scientist Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans in a reprisal of his role from Part One). Luckily, Brent runs into Taylor's mate, Nova (Linda Harrison looking prettier than she did in PLANET) and she is able to lead him to kindly chimpanzee couple, Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (David Watson this time; Roddy McDowall was busy directing a film). The pacifistic simians try to help their human friends along their journey to find Taylor, but Brent and Nova only succeed in getting themselves captured by gorillas anyway.

Up to this midway point in the film, all we're really seeing is a rehash of the first APES movie, which feels obligatory to set up the scenario. Where this chapter starts to develop its own identity and really take off is in its second half, as Brent and Nova escape and find themselves going underground (literally) in the Forbidden Zone and discovering the ruins of a ravaged city, along with a community of radiation-scarred mutations who have mastered mental telepathy and worship an atomic bomb as their god who has "created" them. And they know it won't be long before the Ape Army will invade their sanctuary.

Charlton Heston felt that sequels were not very challenging for an actor in those days, so at first he resisted appearing in this movie. He eventually agreed on what gradually evolved into a more extended "cameo" in BENEATH as a favor to Richard Zanuck, since the producer had taken a gamble on making the original film when Heston asked him to. The resulting sequel can be a downbeat and unusually pessimistic viewing experience, but in an odd way that actually helps to work in its favor. The next entry was ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971). *** out of ****

This film is a direct follow on from the original as we follow the journey on horseback by Charlton Heston (Taylor) and Linda Harrison (Nova). At the same time, astronaut James Franciscus (Brent) and his captain crash land on the Planet of the Apes, also in the Forbidden Zone. Only Franciscus survives to explore the territory and meets up with the solitary Harrison. They ride together as we see flashback memories from Harrison as to the fate of Heston and Franciscus discovers where he has landed and sees the local residents. This duo are captured but eventually discover another society living beneath the Planet of the Apes.

I like how this film follows on directly from the original but it doesn't make sense for Franciscus to be part of a search party looking for Heston. I assumed he was part of a fleet that set off at the same time as Heston. That's the way it would make sense. In this film the gorillas take charge from the orangutans (or however you spell it) and force a military campaign. The chimpanzees, who were the intelligent group of doctors and scientists in the original, have now been down-graded to student-type time-wasters who carry out sit-down protests. That was obviously meant to mirror the anti-Vietnam war protests going on in real life at the time, but I found it a crass touch to be put into this movie.

However, the ending, once again, makes you think. Whilst the original film left you wondering about the origins and timeline of mankind, this film guides you specifically to what our destiny is. It has a very strong impact, especially in these times with lunatic leaders like Putin and Little Rocket Man from North Korea in possession of nuclear missiles, and other societies like Pakistan on the verge of developing them for themselves. I'm afraid the outcome for the human race is inevitable as, in time, it just takes one maniac to take everyone out. I just hope it is not during my lifetime.

I watched this film and then realized there is no point in denying yourself things that you like or that you may never get the opportunity to experience again. So, I immediately ordered a Chinese take-away as I like the crunchy water chestnuts that you get. It could be my last!

James Franciscus gets top billing on this sequel, but producer Arthur Jacobs fortunately entrusted this (and the instalment that came after) to the sophisticated imagination of writer Paul Dehn, who nearly twenty years earlier had already shared an Oscar for his previous nuclear nightmare 'Seven Days to Noon'; and also wisely brought in Leonard Rosenman to write the new score.

'All Things Bright and Beautiful' will never be the same again once you've heard it chanted by the telepathic, cave-dwelling, bomb-worshiping mutants ("Glory to the Bomb and the holy fallout") who bear an eerie similarity to the ghouls Charlton Heston soon afterwards had to deal with in 'The Omega Man'.

Direction is by Ted Post, who also a good job on the underrated Harry Callahan dystopia 'Magnum Force'; while Linda Harrison once again resembles Raquel Welch's chic sixties cave girl in 'One Million Years BC'.

Very high quality sequel to the original. No, it was not quite as good as the original but the performances and the story were both strong. Just watched it on DVD and forgot about how creepy the underground mutant people were. Especially when they were chanting to their "god". James Franciscus gave a very good performance and Linda Harrison is simply HOT! The ending was a little too abrupt but the movie is well worth seeing and owning on DVD.