RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

mark.waltz No matter how noble his scientist characters may seem, poor Lugosi always ends up on the wrong side of the Bunsen burner. He's studying the similarity between man and their Neanderthal ancestors, and along with partner John Carradine, ends up in the North Pole where they actually find one. This is the supposed "ape man" of the title, and back home, once the ancient being defrosts, he becomes the proud owner of a new brain thanks to Mr. Lugosi. Carradine is a noble family man who tries to stop Lugosi, only to receive his revenge in return. The absolutely dreadful Teala Loring plays Carradine's niece, whose fiancée (Tod Andrews) becomes the desired brain donor by Lugosi for his thousand year old man who looks absolutely hysterically funny playing the piano. While the Neanderthal does commit a few murders, one of them makes no sense considering the brain it ends up in. This is not a very scary movie, or very scientific with the laboratory even dumber looking than the one Lugosi had in "Bride of the Monster". Inappropriate marching music decorates the dramatic sequences. As a result, it is very boring and features some of the dumbest police officers on film. Even worse is the fact that George Zucco, billed as the ape man, doesn't appear at all, that honor going to Frank Moran. Cheap sets and horrid direction by Phil Rosen (best known for the Monogram Charlie Chan films) make one long for the skills of Monogram's busiest director, William Beaudine.

zardoz-13 Far-fetched but fast-moving, "Return of the Ape Man" qualifies as hilarious hokum. Of course, the horror here is similar to "Frankenstein." Mere mortals struggle to appropriate powers that belong to the gods. Predictably, our mad scientist heroes take themselves very seriously in "Spooks Run Wild" director Phil Rosen's black & white epic about suspended animation and brain transplants. Not even the suspension of your disbelief will make this low-budget, Monogram Pictures melodrama appear less dreadful. Indeed, "Return of the Ape Man" fits the description of a "so-bad-it's-good" movie. "Voodoo Man" scenarist Robert Charles gives a better account of himself with "Return of the Ape Man." At least, this Lugosi opus boasts some scope and spectacle, part of the narrative transpires overseas as our protagonists travel aboard with serviceable B-roll and adequate back projection. Comparatively, "Return of the Ape Man" surpasses "Voodoo Man." "Return of the Ape Man" casts Lugosi again as an insane scientist. He is a scientist who sacrifices everything on the altar of research, including his closest colleague. Mind you, the teaming of Bela Lugosi with John Carradine makes this almost essential viewing for anybody who craves bad horror thrillers from the 1940s. Previously, Lugosi and Carradine appeared in "Voodoo Man," with Carradine in a supporting role as one of his goons. After the two scientists restore a homeless man to life who they have had in suspended animation for four months, they grow very ambitious, obtain funding for an Arctic expedition, and ten long months later excavate a caveman preserved perfectly in ice. Of course, media attention is confined to newspaper stories while our protagonists toil in secret. Professor Dexter (Bela Lugosi) and Professor John Gilmore (John Carradine) thaw the caveman out. The sight of Lugosi wielding a blow torch to melt the block of ice encasing the prehistoric man is amusing. "A perfect specimen of pithecanthropus," quips Gilmore to Dexter after they inspect the body, adding, "Neither man nor ape." They restore the Ice Age man to life. "It's alive," breathes Dexter in awe. No sooner has the cave man regained life than he threatens both Dexter and Gilmore. Like the Frankenstein monster, the "Ape Man" fears fire. Dexter brandishes the blow torch to control him. Dexter backs the brute into a cell and locks him up for safe-keeping. Dexter confides in Gilmore that he wants to remove half of a contemporary man's brain and implant it into the Ape Man. Dexter wants to "endow him with just enough understanding" so he can communicate with him. He refuses to remove the cave man's entire brain. Dexter says "that would remove his entire connection with his former life." Dexter wants his patient to retain his memories. "I must leave in him enough of his old brain to stimulate his memory." At this point, Dexter goes off the deep end. Gilmore assures him he will never find a willing subject who will donate half of his brain. Nevertheless, this setback doesn't deter Dexter from recruiting reluctant subjects. He goes after the fiancé of Gilmore's niece Anne, Steve Rogers (Michael Ames), and tampers wit his drink so Steve will be more amenable to his designs. During this episode, Dr. Gilmore plays the "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano for Anne. Presumably, this display of musical virtuosity makes Gilmore more sympathetic. When he notices that Steve has left, Gilmore rushes to their laboratory. Gilmore catches Dexter before he can mangle Steve. Gilmore calls Dexter "despicable" to harm somebody dear to him. He refuses to continue with their research and says he should have heeded his wife's advice. After Gilmore leaves, Dexter has trouble with the Ape Man. The hairy brute pulls the bars of his cell far enough apart to slip through, eludes Dexter, and hits the streets. Not only does the Ape Man mug a woman, but he also struggles briefly with a uniformed cop before killing him. Later, Dexter lies to the gullible Gilmore about disposing of the Ape Man, and he convinces Gilmore to help him. Instead, he paralyzes Gilmore and implants part of Gilmore's brain into the Ape Man. When Dexter awakens Gilmore after surgery, he speaks to the Ape Man, and the latter responds to his words. "I have advanced his brain 20-thousand years in a few hours," Dexter marvels at his own success. When Dexter suggests a second operation may help matters even more, the Ape Man bursts from the house. Naturally, after Dexter has implanted half of another brain, the Ape Man really goes on a rampage with predictable "Frankenstein" results. He flees to Gilmore's house, plays "Moonlight Sonata," and then in response to his wife's summons, he strangles her to death. Steve sees him leave the bedroom and pursues him, but he doesn't get far before the Ape Man slugs him. Anne alerts the cops, and they arrive to find Hilda dead in her bedroom. The Ape Man returns to Dr. Dexter, and Steve leads the police to Dexter's house. The authorities search the premises. Initially, they find nothing until the Ape Man smashes through the wall concealing his cell. He breaks out and takes about five shots from a cop before he seizes Dexter. The Ape Man escapes again, and Dexter admits to Steve and the cops that he transplanted Gilmore's brain into it. "In the interest of science you must destroy that thing," says the dying Dexter. Predictably, the Ape Man retraces its steps to the Gilmore residence. The Ape Man abducts Anne after it tells her that she is beautiful. The police issue an alarm for a maniac on the lam with a woman. "Return of the Ape Man" turns into "King Kong" with the Ape Man using high power wires to elude the authorities. He takes Anne to a theater and then to Dexter's home where he ignites a fire by accident. Michael runs into the lab and rescues Anne. The Ape Man dies in the blaze.

gavin6942 While on an Arctic expedition, two scientists find the frozen body of a prehistoric caveman. They bring him home to their laboratory, but decide that in order to fully utilize (and control) him, they must transplant a more developed brain into the caveman.I love Bela Lugosi. Not sure if I can say that enough. I have watched five or six films with him in it over the past ten days, and I would gladly watch five or six more. Oh, and I cannot complain about John Carradine either...What I can complain about is the inclusion of "Moonlight Sonata", but that is just a personal bias. That song has always given me the creeps. There used to be a game called "Alone in the Dark" (a predecessor of Resident Evil) and that song was featured. It has given me the willies ever since.I should probably write something about the ape man or the actual merits of this film. Let us just say it is pretty much standard. Without Lugosi and Carradine, it would be completely forgettable. But with them, you will enjoy seeing a hairy guy bust out of his cell and have a little prehistoric fun!

MARIO GAUCI Having now watched some 12 of Lugosi's "cheapies", I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed some of them - but others are just so silly that, for me, it hampers rather than enhances their entertainment value! Unfortunately, RETURN OF THE APE MAN happens to be one of them.Let's begin with the good stuff: Lugosi and Carradine interact well together and I'd say that their roles here are equally important, despite the latter's below-title billing (though he's not interesting as a straight man, and I obviously prefer him when he goes over-the-top). Well, that's basically it - somehow, I felt that this one fell below the standard of the other films I've watched. Apart from the usual plot contrivances (not the least of which is Lugosi mounting an Arctic expedition, with a million-to-one chance of discovering the 'Missing Link', just so he can prove his theory about 'suspended animation'!) and the fact that, once unearthed, the 'creature' is given very little to do, the film suffers from listless pacing - where everybody apparently takes his sweet time about everything (witness Lugosi's calm and composed reaction at the Ape Man's escape from his laboratory, or the sheer amount of time it takes two cops to break down the door to the lab at the climax) - which really drowns any effort to get involved in the story!I truly wanted to enjoy this one for what it was and not examine it unduly but the script was so lazy and the handling so uninspired that it was awfully hard for me to excuse its deficiencies simply because it was Poverty Row stuff. Do you want examples? O.K...although I agree that the best line in the film was the one uttered by Lugosi - "Some people's brains would never be missed" - that very sequence is actually where my heart sank and I knew that it was going to get worse from that point on. Why on earth would Lugosi choose, of all people, his own assistant's future son-in-law as his 'guinea pig'?! As I said, the creature itself did nothing but commute from one house (Lugosi's) to another (Carradine's). Oh, yes...he did give us an unprecedented glimpse of his bare buttocks during his climb out of Lugosi's laboratory window! I have to say, though, that the image of Lugosi chasing the Ape Man into the streets with a blowtorch did put an effortless smile on my face! Worst of all, perhaps, is the hurried way in which the sequence where Lugosi traps Carradine is shot: rather than milk the scene for all the suspense it obviously contains by judicious cross-cutting, the director chooses to shoot it in one bland, medium-shot which, if one blinks long enough, would probably miss it!! Similarly tossed away is the sequence where the Creature (now with Carradine in control) goes back to his house and starts wandering about and even sits down to play the piano; one only has to recall how moving Freddie Jones was (in similar circumstances) under Terence Fisher's direction in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969). Sure, these programmers were made fast and cheap (as were Hammer's, after all) but how costly would it have been for the film-makers to pour some real effort into their work?