Memorable, crazy movie

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Hollywood was still enamoured with the German cinema - even in this little Action Pictures thriller from 1932. An eerie corpse lies in a candlelit room, outside a storm rages and all is presided over by movie's most sinister housekeeper - Martha Mattox. Meanwhile whisperings are going on between wheelchair bound Robert Earlton (Sheldon Lewis) and his menacing hireling Hanns (Mischa Auer).Ruth (Vera Reynolds) has arrived from Europe to learn her father is dead. She is due to inherit the estate, that is, if she lives - if not, it will all come to her Uncle Robert. From the interesting beginning, quite clearly derived from "The Cat and the Canary", the film suffers from massive doses of over acting, Lewis pointedly exclaiming "If only I were not so HELPLESS" and "If only I could WALK" with plenty of shots of Hann's rolling eyes and Ruth saying every ten minutes "Oh Ted, take me away from here"!! Through it all is the maddening screams of Yogi, the ape, caged in the cellar, which is a bit of a problem as it is supposed to possess superhuman strength and be bitterly unforgiving of those that have taunted it but when you finally see it, it is only a chimpanzee and because of all the jungle films around at the time in which chimps were cute and funny, Yogi just doesn't convince.There is also a family secret which Hanns is forever on the point of revealing, especially when he realises that he and his mother, Mrs. Krug, were not that well provided for in the will. Ruth's fiancée, Dr. Clayton (handsome Rex Lease) is also staying there and he is convinced Ruth's hysterics are real and the whole mystery has something to do with the myriad of secret tunnels in the house that Ruth says confused her as a child. Unfortunately another red herring as the viewers see none of the subterranean passages. When Mrs. Krug is murdered it is obvious Ruth was the intended victim and Clayton is determined to get to the bottom of Robert's affliction. I just love the way, in these old chillers, two o'clock in the morning is no deterrent to performing an examination to see if Robert really is wheelchair bound or only "putting it on"!!!There is some awful racist humour involving Exodus (Sleep 'N Eat, which is the name Willie Best originally went by), including a joke about being descended from apes!!! Also Vera Reynolds, a former Cecil B. DeMille star who had seen better days, to me seemed a bit too matronly to be the innocent and easily excitable heroine.

The Monster Walks (1932) ** (out of 4) It's rather amazing at how many films would follow after The Bat was released in 1926 and kicked off the "old dark house" genre. This time a daughter returns to her father's house after his death so that she can hear the will being read. Everything starts off okay but soon a killer is stalking everyone with the help of a gorilla. I'm still rather curious why every "old dark house" from this period featured a gorilla. I'm going to guess that movie crowds back then were scared of them as I don't see why they should play such an important part in these films. Nothing really stands out in this film, although the running time is just over 60-minutes. The performances are decent but nothing special and the story itself doesn't offer enough twists to be entertaining. God knows there are far worse than this out there but then again there are much better ones. The racial humor from a servant (named Sleep 'N Eat) is off base and doesn't really help matters.

This is an old black and white film from the early 1930's.The setting is an old house and at night with a storm brewing outside.It has some good elements but in the end it's ruined by just not being very exciting.You get all the elements of a horror film from that time---stormy night,old gloomy house ,skulky characters and ,of course,the reading of a will from a dead man and the ensuing darting eyes after each learns of what he got ,or didn't get, as the case may be.A young women returns to her childhood home after her father dies.She ,along with her doctor boyfriend,arrive on a stormy night for the reading of the father's will at the old darkly lit home.The young woman's crippled uncle,her dad's bother,still lives there along with a tall weird bony old housekeeper/nanny and her equally creepy bony son.Also in the mix is the dead man's lawyer who is there to read the will.And the doctor's driver is also there.One of the unfortunate things about this film is the driver is a typical black character of that era.....slow shuffling bug-eyed fellow with the horrid name of Sleep N' Eat ,altho he is also called Exodus.To top it all off the weird dark old house consists of a nasty dirty looking chimp locked in a cage in the basement.So after the will is read and they all learn the daughter gets everything they all are forced to stay there since the storm is so bad.The nanny and the weird son are peeved cause they got pretty much screwed in the will after many years of drudgery in this old house taking care of two old sick men. During the night murder and mayhem ensues and they suspect the ape in the basement but each time they run downstairs he seems to be locked in his cage cage,or is he? Then they start to suspect each other of the attacks but then next time something happens they suspect the ape again.The doctor and lawyer naturally lead the investigation into the choking attacks and murders.I'm not sure why but it seems always in these old horror films a doctor ,lawyer or newspaper reporter is always doing the crime solving.Altho it's creepy looking and not an absolute waste this film doesn't make much sense.Why would the family keep a pet ape? The young woman is terribly scared of the ape and says it would surely kill her if it escaped it's cage.And how did this young woman grow up normal after being raised in this dark gloomy old house by a gloomy old nanny with the constant fear of being killed by some screaming howling ape locked up in the basement?Why wasn't the police called? All in all this wasn't a complete waste but it doesn't have much to recommend it either.It's totally a period piece,implausible and silly, and the last few unfortunate scenes involving Sleep N' Eat will make your skin crawl more than the rest of the film does put together.The horrible racism in this film was a normal and accepted part of films from that era and that is the really scary thing.The usual bad acting and bad script is here, and I was prepared for those things, but to see a human being degraded for the amusement of the movie goer isn't something you get used to.It ruined what otherwise would have been just a silly little schlocky movie turning it into a sad reminder of how far we've come but how so very far we have yet to go.

A wealthy man dies, causing his family and lawyer to reunite in his home and have his will be read. Who will get the money? While the natural answer would be his only child, daughter Ruth (Vera Reynolds), two factors make this a bit more complicated. First, a chimpanzee that has a violent streak and a dislike for Ruth. Second, the possibility that an illegitimate child may exist and be living in the house.The actual plot of this film is not very exciting and you may have to work to keep your interest. Stories of an inheritance being fought over by family members is nothing unique, and for some reason stories with chimps and apes weren't particular rare in the first half of the 20th century. I'm not sure why -- there's nothing menacing about the ape in this picture. Nothing. There are a few plot devices I found clever (such as secret panels in the house), but overall this is child's play.The acting is also, to put it politely, subpar. The lawyer, Herbert Wilkes (Sidney Bracey), was very hackneyed. Worst of all was Hanns, the maid's son. His mannerisms were exaggerated and he had a broken speech that didn't seem natural. Another reviewer commented that he may have been reading from cue cards, and I wouldn't be shocked. Sure, this was 1932 and America was going through a depression... but couldn't we afford better talent than this? (Believe it or not, just a few years after this film, the actor who played Hanns -- Mischa Auer -- was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He didn't win.) The only thing about this film that makes it maybe worth watching -- and I stress maybe -- is Willie Best, the actor who plays Exodus the manservant. There is a strong undercurrent of racism in this film that I cannot tell if it was meant to be intentional or not. Best (credited as "Sleep N Eat") talks and acts like a white supremacist's vision of the stereotypical black man. He mumbles, waves a gun around (even pointing it at himself) and generally seems highly unintelligent. The most memorable part of the film is when Exodus asks about the ape and the resident doctor explains that Darwin's theory states the ape is related to Exodus (said in such a way as to imply blacks are more closely related than whites). Rather than defend himself, Exodus says something to the effect of, "I had a grandpa that looked like that... but he wasn't as active." Wow.Anyone into the classic black and white films might give this one a chance. It's alright once you get into it. But unless you have a really strong attention span (and this film is only an hour) I'd suggest you try something a little more lively. It's safe to say that if this film wasn't being distributed in copyright-free box sets, it would have faded into obscurity decades ago.