Watch The Ape For Free

How sad is this?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

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

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is one of those lesser known Boris Karloff films that is an underrated horror classic! Worth watching if you enjoy the films concerning "a mad scientist", older horror classics and/or Boris Karloff.Yes Karloff is finding a cure for polio in this underrated classic - but is he really a "mad scientist" or a man desperate to help humanity? What does a circus, an ape, a mad scientist, a woman with polio and murder have to do with each other? If you are curious then I would recommend you watching the Karloff film "The Ape". The copy of this film I have is clear and I can hear the movie quite well but it does jump around a little bit. I would guess the film was not preserved all that well but that has NOTHING to do with the original film before the wear and tear of time. If you want a fairly decent copy of this film like I have then I would recommend getting the horror film pack called "Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection" (with Phantom of the Opera on the cover). It's a fairly clean/decent copy although their might be a better copy of this film floating around out there that I am unaware of. "The Ape" is a good old fashioned horror film that I do recommend to others. 8.5/10

Boris Karloff stars as a doctor attempting to cure paralysis. To continue his research, he needs to collect spinal fluid, but there just aren't enough corpses from which to harvest it. Thankfully, he has just killed an escaped circus gorilla, so he hollows out its corpse, puts on its skin and goes out at night to murder townspeople for their precious, precious spine juice. This movie is pretty retarded. Why exactly does Karloff need an ape costume to kill his victims? I mean, he knows that the sheriff has organized hunting parties that go out every night looking for the ape. It seems that an ape costume is probably the least safe thing to be wearing. And it's not like wearing a gorilla costume is going to give him super-strength or anything. It's more likely to make it much more difficult to murder your victims, as it's got to be hot as Hell in there and your maneuverability and vision have to be severely diminished. The film is also painfully slow, and the characters are as dumb as the plot. Not Karloff's finest hour, but at least it provided some good laughs.

Very minor and frankly dull Boris Karloff vehicle, one of the "mad scientist" roles he specialized in during this phase of his career. The plot takes pains to render the idea of how despised his character is, presumably because of his unorthodox experiments, but I cannot fathom why – surely what he was engaged in would prove exceedingly beneficial to mankind if successful (as readily acknowledged by an authority brought in from out of town to investigate him)! A measure of the film's ambivalence in this respect is that both views will be accounted for at the very end – as Karloff's miracle cure does work, but he has had to resort to the despicable act of murder in order to procure specimens!; incidentally, this latter business and the fact that one of the protagonists is wheelchair-bound would both resurface – to infinitely infinitely greater effect – in a later Karloff picture, the Val Lewton classic THE BODY SNATCHER (1945). The titular creature, then, is seen prowling about a number of times – even after having watched Karloff stab it: where we supposed to know that he was behind subsequent killings?; my brother actually arrived at this conclusion about three-quarters of the way in…but I just could not believe Karloff would go to such extremes for Science (after all, he failed to save the immediate members of his family and had kept up the fight for a good 10 years afterwards – why should he bother so much with the rest of the world, especially since they hated him for it?!) and, in any case, being a doctor does not automatically give one a propensity for taxidermy, does it?! All things considered, this is watchable but inessential – and not nearly as much fun (in a guilty pleasure kind of way) as when Bela Lugosi did something similar i.e. in THE APE MAN (1943).

Macabre tale with quite an interesting moral conflict at it's center regarding a small town doctor, Bernard Adrian(Boris Karloff), who is also a brilliant scientist determined to create a serum which can cure paralysis. This driven desire is fueled by the loss of his wife and daughter at the hands of a crippling disease caused by a "paralysis outbreak." His experimental subject is the darling Francis(Maris Wrixon), a gentle soul confined to a wheelchair, with crippled legs. Francis' auto mechanic boyfriend, Danny(Gene O'Donnell)worries about her well being disapproving of Adrian's methods because of how unorthodox they are. A carnival gorilla breaks free from it's cage after attacking it's abusive trainer, and both wind up at Adrian's home, one brought by the town's sheriff and other helpers, while the primate introduces itself rudely by ripping through the window of his laboratory. Adrian discovers the key ingredient needed to perfect his serum and it's spinal fluid..fluid extracted from the dying trainer, mauled beyond help. After killing the gorilla, Adrian(..whose serum's flask falls to the floor shattering accidentally)makes a very shocking decision..in order to get the spinal fluid he needs, he'll don the skin and head of the slain gorilla, attacking citizens in order to get a supply to help cure Francis. Meanwhile, Sheriff Jeff Halliday(Henry Hall)and locals search tirelessly for the gorilla not knowing that Adrian is responsible.The film has an unnecessary sub-plot featuring a slimy, sleazy banker, Mason(Philo McCullough), establishing how corrupt and vile he is(..he cheats on his wife without remorse, cares for nobody but himself, and hypocritically balks about how much a detriment Adrian is to the town, when his behavior is anything but harmonious)..his story is abandoned half-way into the movie and we never hear about him again. At the very least, Adrian could've killed this loathsome bastard, since the only good use he is to mankind is the spinal fluid which could help a far better human being walk again. The film presents quite a disturbing sub-text regarding the determination of one individual to find a cure which could rescue those cursed with paralysis, only to question his diabolical methods, while still maintaining a humanity about him. It kind of reminds me of the current debate of stem cell research..in order to find a cure for some diseases, the ingredients needed often come from human embryos. And, fascinating enough, the results for Francis are positive, giving the audience a heart-warming conclusion..the doctor's experiment is a success, but comes with a price:human life for a paralysis cure. Food for thought, for sure. Despite being typecast, Karloff shines yet again, creating a character we can sympathize with, while at the same time disagreeing with his ways for achieving success..it's not an easy task to pull off. You can identify with his driven obsession for defeating the paralysis while also feeling mortified at his willingness to take human life in order to succeed. This was another film, made on the cheap, featuring a man in a gorilla suit challenging the viewer not to kind of chuckle. Karloff's sincere performance and a story-line that's anything but conventional, makes THE APE an interesting curiosity item.I'm pretty sure many viewers might find the whole thing appalling with a rather tasteless central theme of murdering innocent people for their spinal fluid in order to help one person walk again, with a finale concerning the person actually standing from her wheel chair walking to a fallen scientist beckoning/inspiring her to come towards him.