Overrated and overhyped

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A Brilliant Conflict

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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.

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.

After the horror revival of the late thirties, Paramount decided to get in on the act with this rare excursion into "monster movies." But this is a weird hybrid, as if a film about a white slavery ring was in production and the powers that be decided to tear off the last half of the script and graft a ham-fisted (or banana-fisted) monster subplot onto it. It certainly makes for fascinating viewing, as long as you know what's coming. A tenuous similarity could be considered with 'From Dusk Til Dawn' wherein a story about two hostage-taking killers on the run suddenly switches gears half-way and becomes an outlandish vampire gore-a-thon. This 1941 release does have a resemblance to Karloff's 1939 'The Man They Could Not Hang' (Karloff a hanged scientist brought back to life with electricity proceeds to kill off the jurors that convicted him.) Nonetheless, this film's bifurcated storyline is almost delightful if only from the sheer crackpot audacity of trying to pull it off.No need to recount the plot, it's simple enough. It's thirty minutes of trial and flashback to the white slavery set-up, then thirty minutes of Frankenstein-ian ape-crazed nonsense with a quick wrap up. The only hurdle to overcome is the amateur performance of Phillip Terry as the condemned man Webster. He drudges his way through as if told he was in a zombie movie, then behaves like a Stepford Wife in the flashback, then later does an over-the-top hysteria jag in his last scene. Inept. But he doesn't play the ape, thank goodness! That job is performed by Charles Gemora (who played the martian in 1953's 'War of The Worlds') and he does it subtly and effectively. Considering the highly-charged second half, it's too bad the writer and director didn't take advantage and really play up the tension and the murder scenes. Here's a case where a film could have run a little longer for a change. And thankfully the ape doesn't talk and Webster's sister (Ellen Drew) doesn't do that "I recognized him by his eyes" nonsense that it looks like it was heading for. There's also a terrific cast of familiar second-tier actor faces employed including Marc Lawrence, a young Rod Cameron, Joseph Calleia, Abner Biberman, Cliff Edwards and even Bud Jamison (Jamison familiar to Three Stooges fans). Granted the film's short running time doesn't give them much screen time (but oddly enough, the faceless unknowns Robert Paige, Terry and Drew get most of the camera-time). And one last enjoyable note is seeing George Zucco as the transplant doctor hovering throughout the film. In the first part of the film he is just hanging around, given little attention, as if waiting like the rest of us to get to the 'monster' part of the story. Then after he does his movie-changing brain transplant, he once again hangs around mostly in the background (at each murder scene), with no one really asking him why he's always there. It's all part of the oddness of this little curio.

This Paramount film has the kind of outlandish plot often found in minor studio cheapies of the same period: Phillip Terry's sister (Ellen Drew) foolishly falls for a gangster and ends up sold into "white slavery." Her brother tries to rescue her but ends up getting framed for murder by the mobsters. Convicted and sent to die in the electric chair, his body ends up stolen by mad scientist George Zucco, who puts his brain in the body of a gorilla. The gorilla now with Phillip Terrys brain, escapes and proceeds to kill off the mobsters one by one. Along the way his dog instinctively knows the gorilla is his (hers?) old master and tags along on his murderous rampage of vengeance. If one view this film ignoring the outlandish plot, this actually a very well made film with good Paramount production values, good stylish direction by Stuart Heisler, good atmospheric photography, and good performances by most of the films cast. Charlie Gemora's gorilla costume is more realistic looking than the cheesy moth eaten suits worn by George Barrows or Ray Corrigan in minor studio pictures. Also Gemora manages express real feelings and emotions underneath that gorilla suit. Also Gemora's gorilla actually walks and gestures like a real gorilla. THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL is an incredible film and is recommend if you are looking for something really outlandish but not trashy.