User reviews

I learned about this movie from a sidebar to an article on "horror noir" in Films in Review, where it was highly recommended.

It does mix horror and film noir in its own peculiar fashion. It starts off more noir than horror. A woman addresses the camera, surrounded by smoke or fog, to tell us a tale. We're taken to a courtroom, where a stoic man is being tried for murder. The woman from the introduction enters the court as a spectator, and a couple of the other spectators call attention to her.

The man on trial doesn't say much in his defense, speaking in a monotone. The woman jumps up to insist on speaking. She seems like a tough dame, and it turns out she's the man's sister. What she says doesn't help much, and she isn't a credible witness; it's implied she's a prostitute.

Through a flashback to better days, we see the siblings when they were much more animated and happy. She wanted to leave their small town, but when she goes to the city she finds it hard to get work. She meets a man she falls in love with, and gets married, but when she wakes up after a party on her wedding night, he's disappeared. A strange man is in her bedroom informing her how much she owes for the room and party, and offers her work in a cabaret entertaining men...

The brother goes to the city to find the missing husband, and gets framed for murder by a criminal conspiracy by the men his sister now works for. Back in the courtroom, he's convicted, vows revenge, and is executed, but not before he agrees to donate his brain to science.

Post-mortem, his brain is implanted into an ape. It's not clear what the scientist hopes to accomplish by that. Something about evolution, perhaps seeing what the ape's potential is if its brain is upgraded. For some reason, the scientist seems to expect an intelligent ape, rather than a man's mind in an ape's body. It isn't clear to what extent the executed man's brain retains its personality or memories, but the ape does carry out his vow of revenge, and his own dog seems to recognize him.

There were several other primate horror movies Universal made, among them the three titles in the Paula the Ape Woman series: Captive Wild Woman (1943), Jungle Woman (1944/I), Jungle Captive, The (1945), and then the Bela Lugosi film Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). It's a funny thing about primates and horror, they go back pretty far. The Doctor's Experiment, The Professor's Secret, and The Monkey Man (all 1908) are three of the earliest ones, the latter one even involving a brain transplant!

This one's weird in the best way. Starts off like some kind of urban drama about a small town girl (Ellen Drew) who comes to the big city and, as often happens in films, finds herself forced into prostitution. Her brother (Phillip Terry) comes to the city to rescue her and winds up framed for murder. This was all interesting enough but the movie really kicks into high gear when it becomes a horror movie as "mad" scientist George Zucco transplants Drew's brother's brain into the body of an ape. The ape brother then seeks revenge against the men who turned his sister into a hooker and framed him for murder.

Really good cast for this little B gem. George Zucco is always worth the price of admission but you also have Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Robert Paige, Onslow Stevens, Marc Lawrence, and Gerald Mohr! Also Edward Van Sloan in an uncredited part as the warden. This is a pretty amazing lineup for a little-known B horror flick. The bad guys are so completely rotten you can't wait to see them get theirs from the killer ape. Speaking of killer apes, that's often a particularly anemic subgenre of horror. This one's exceptional of its kind. The ape suit is really good. Just compare it to "The Ape" or "The Ape Man," made from around the same time, and you'll see what I mean.

Seedy subject matter mixed with fun horror staples -- the mad scientist and the guy in an ape suit. Very cool stuff. If you're a fan of old school B horror and gangster pictures you should like this one a lot.

1940's THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL, not to be confused with Republic's 1944 THE LADY AND THE MONSTER, was a rare Paramount excursion into Universal horror territory. This was the studio that brought genre fans the 1931 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, 1932's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, 1933's MURDERS IN THE ZOO, 1939's DR. CYCLOPS, and 1940's THE MAD DOCTOR, all quite distinctive and respectable. Leonard Maltin's review praises the originality of the white slavery angle, depicting how poor Ellen Drew is lured into a life of prostitution, while her brother (Phillip Terry) is executed for a murder he didn't commit, donating his brain to Dr. Parry (the great George Zucco) to use in a surgical procedure that puts his mind in the body of a gorilla. Maltin dismisses the mad doctor stuff as clichéd, but the truth is, all the characters are strictly by the numbers; it's quite possible that if it consisted of one storyline over the other, the results would never be remembered today. Like Boris Karloff in Warners' 1936 THE WALKING DEAD, the vicious racketeers are marked for death from beyond the grave, and the second half of the film shows how the gorilla (Charles Gemora) manages to escape detection as it travels around town, executing all the gangsters with virtually no interference, aided by his faithful dog (!). This is not A BOY AND HIS DOG, and it really is better than it sounds, it's only disappointing in that little is made of Zucco's experiment, and his role is very small. Best of all is Charles Gemora's sensitive portrayal of a gorilla with a human mind, and it is excellent; it couldn't have been easy to act in such a costume, but it looks as good as any from old Hollywood, and is light years superior to Emil Van Horn's embarrassment in Bela Lugosi's THE APE MAN. A remarkable cast of familiar faces make this an easy watch, apart from the condescending Paul Lukas, whose accent was no match for Lugosi's (surely Bela would have been available). Look fast for unbilled Edward Van Sloan, veteran of FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUMMY, playing the prison warden who helps Zucco get the plot moving toward its inevitable climax (Zucco proved to be even busier than Lionel Atwill in that department).

Ellen Drew plays a woman tricked into prostitution by Robert Paige and a group of gangsters after leaving a small town for the lights and allure of the big city. Drew's brother comes to her rescue and is instead set up in a murder by the gang led by Paul Lukas. Phillip Terry(her brother) is given the death penalty for his innocence and is executed. Right now you must be thinking...is there a monster? Oh yes! Just before the execution takes place, scientist George Zucco asks Terry is he can have his brain after he is killed. Zucco receives Terry's consent and transplants the brain of Terry into a giant gorilla that will seek payback from the gang of thugs and the attorney that sent Terry to his death. This is certainly not your typical monster film from the 40's. It opens with Drew narrating and then we are immediately thrust into the courtroom. We see everything through the testimony of the witnesses. Very innovative, and well-done. The story gets ridiculous midway, but the director Stuart Heisler never for one moment takes the material as anything less than serious. This attitude really allows the film to work. The story also sheds light on what was at the time a very scandalous subject....prostitution. We are never told what actually happens in so many words with regards to Drew's shame, yet we know through subtle means. The gang is truly repulsive. Each of the actors in it are extremely good playing men with no souls. Gerald Mohr, Paige, Lukas, and Marc Lawrence(isn't he always playing a thug?) do very well also in their obvious demises to come. The rest of the acting in this film is pretty good too. Onslow Stevens has a small part as the prosecuting lawyer. And George Zucco is always a treat to watch. I never have seen him give a bad performance. And the ape?" Not bad...looks fairly realistic..I have seen far worse. A good all around film from Paramount. They sure don't make em like this anymore and ain't it a shame!

..which seemed inspired by the Val Lewton productions at RKO. The story stars off as court room melodrama. Scott ( Philip Terry) is on trial for shooting a gangster- but in one of several flashbacks we can see that he was framed. He was defending the honor of his sister Susan (Ellen Drew) who had been tricked into becoming a prostitute. Scott is found guilty and sentenced to death and now the film becomes a mad scientist movie. Dr Perry (George Zucco )convinces Scott to let him transplant his brain into a gorilla (because this is somehow going to help humanity?!) Scott laughs at the thought but agrees anyway. The censors were not happy with the white slavery angle and it was cut but it's obvious what poor Susan is forced to do.

There is also a subtle gay angle between big city gangster Bruhl (Paul Lukas) and one of his henchmen who he refers to as " his favorite thorn" . The movie has one very effective Lewtonesque scene in which the ape stalks one of his victims with the aid of Skippy the dog. The film is out on an excellent blu ray the Universal Horror collection from Shout /Scream factory.

Scot Webster is looking for his brother-in-law who mysteriously left his wife and left her in at the hands of a racketeer and his mob. Webster is later set up with the murder of a mob enemy, convicted and set to die, but swears revenge on those who set him up. He donates his brain to science and it is later put into an ape, which proceeds to carry out Webster's venegance. The plot sounds pretty good for its genre, but the Webster's trial takes up a little too much time plus the scenes with the ape just seem to be lacking the excitement that this movie should generate. 5 out of 10.

This is one of those films that I was only familiar with up till now via a still in Alan Frank's 1977 exhaustive and entertaining chronicle of the genre, "Horror Films"; a belated Paramount genre entry that was most notable for its unusual mix of noir (the white slavery angle in the first half) and horror (the "gorilla on the loose" segment in the second). The atmosphere (courtesy of Oscar-winning cinematographer Victor Milner) is congenial to both styles but, being just 65 minutes in length, the film kind of crams everything in without giving the disparate elements a chance to breathe! The essential silliness of the plot – a wrongly executed man seeking revenge when revived in an ape's body – brings up several questions in a discriminating viewer like yours truly: how could he have known the addresses of the various culprits, having only been in town for just a few days, and how come the gorilla is never noticed moving about (but then this fault is also borne by Poe's "Murders In the Rue Morgue"!)?; incidentally, the devotion of the hero's pet mutt to its former master – even when reduced to its own, i.e. animal, level – is most poignant. Anyhow, the whole is quite redeemed by a decidedly remarkable cast of stalwarts from both genres: Ellen Drew from ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945), George Zucco as the obligatory mad scientist, Edward Van Sloan in an uncredited bit as a prison warden, Tom Dugan as wisecracking cop, and especially the rogues' gallery: Robert Paige from SON OF Dracula (1943), Paul Lukas as the suave head villain, our very own Joseph Calleia (in one of his rare genre appearances) as a pastor-cum-hit-man(!), Marc Lawrence, Gerald Mohr and Onslow Stevens! In conclusion, the film under review is not to be confused with the later (and superior) THE LADY AND THE MONSTER (1944) which, as it happened, I watched in quick succession myself.

Ellen Drew plays Susan Webster, an ill-fated young woman who leaves her comfortable small hometown to live a more exciting life in the big city, but instead falls into the clutches of a gangster ring(led by Paul Lukas). Her brother Scot(Philip Terry) comes to her rescue, but instead is framed for murder by them, sentenced to death, then executed, until his brain is transplanted into a gorilla by a mad scientist(George Zucco), who then seeks violent revenge...

Despite some baffling good contemporary reviews, this a perfectly awful film, every bit as generic as its title, first half with the trial would bore kids(and the overly complicated adult sublot way over their heads) the second half with the gorilla is so absurd and contrived, it would lose the adult audience who would have scoffed at its silliness! Stuart Heisler directs with little distinction, and only the appealing performance of Skipper the Dog gives this any appeal at all.

Philip Terry is about to be hanged for murder, so mad scientist George Zucco asks him if he can have his brain after he's no longer using it for a project that will benefit humanity. It turns out to be to transplant into a gorilla (played by Charles Gemora), who goes around killing the people who did wrong by him and his sister, prostitute Ellen Drew.

It's a crazy, well-produced Paramount B movie, which also includes comedy cops, actors who specialized in gangsters playing scientists, a faithful dog and noir photography by Victor Milner. With a huge cast of skilled minor players -- Marc Lawrence gets a substantial role -- it looks like a movie that was written seriatim by fourteen or fifteen writers, with enough silly plot points to fill up 150 minutes, let alone a tight, 65 minute under the direction of Stuart Heisler. Credit B movie writer Stuart Anthony, who died 14 months later and who apparently felt a need to cram as many different movies into this one as possible.

Back in its salad days Paramount was a studio that did not go in much for the horror genre. So this film The Monster And The Girl is something of an anomaly for them. I'm sure Cecil B. DeMille, Preston Sturges, or Mitchell Leisen never had this script on their desks.

Philip Terry gets framed by Paul Lukas and his mob for murder and despite the earnest pleas of girl friend Ellen Drew gets sentenced to die. Dr. George Zucco in one of his patented mad scientist roles asks Terry for the use of his brain after he's deceased and Terry agrees to it.

After Dr. Zucco transplants Terry's brain, strange things are happening. Like the gorilla with the Terry brain inside and that brain has some scores to settle. Settle them the Terry gorilla does and in a most gruesome manner.

Perhaps had Universal done this one it might rate as a classic as they knew how to serve these up. Still despite some mediocre production values The Monster And The Girl should satisfy the die-hard fans of the horror genre.

Stuart Heisler's THE MONSTER & THE GIRL begins with a prostitute (Ellen Drew) coming out of the fog to tell her tale in flashback; she had come to the big city to follow her dreams and fell for a homme fatale (Robert Paige) who tricked her into gangland prostitution but when her brother (Phillip Terry) comes looking for her, he's framed for murder. There's a trial, of course, and her brother's sentenced to death -but before he's taken away, he vows that the gangsters who destroyed his family will get theirs one by one. Now this is where it gets really weird -a mad scientist (George Zucco) comes to see him on Death Row wanting his brain for science (!) and after the execution it's transplanted into a gorilla who proceeds to carry out the kid's threats. Whew!

The cast is a classic movie lover's dream -the gangsters on the receiving end of the mayhem are Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Onslow Stevens, Marc Lawrence, and Gerald Mohr while the reporter-cum-love interest (!) is a young and handsome Rod Cameron. The flashbacks, courtroom scenes, gangsters and atmosphere almost (but not quite) make it a proto-noir but it isn't exactly a horror movie, either since the audience is on the gorilla's side all the way. Besides, the kid's faithful pooch from his previous life recognizes him and tags along on the ape's vendetta making this a real tear-jerker at times. I have no idea what target audience Paramount had in mind when Heisler was assigned to THE MONSTER & THE GIRL -the first half was way too "adult" for the Saturday matinée crowd and the second half was far too far-fetched for mature audiences. I was also a bit surprised at the frank depiction of prostitution. Gangsters perform a fake wedding ceremony for Ellen Drew and her slimy beau before the scene cuts to Drew stretching in bed with a sublimely satisfied smile on her face (copied from the one in GWTW where Scarlett purrs like a cat the morning after Rhett carried her up the stairs) when a thug strolls in and informs Drew she'll be working in a clip joint being nice to men from now on. Wow. It was also strange seeing Universal's future singing star Robert Paige as a bad guy. Heisler made AMONG THE LIVING starring Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward & Frances Farmer the same year and in that one I spotted Rod Cameron as an extra in a bar room. His rugged good looks were hard to miss and they must have impressed someone at Paramount when they viewed the rushes because he's 7th billed in THE MONSTER & THE GIRL with a fair amount of screen time. It was released in February, 1941 and AMONG THE LIVING was released 10 months later but because of Rod it looks to me like the last one was lensed first.

A one-of-a-kind cinematic experience, that's for sure. Recommended!

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 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.

At least half of the runtime for The Monster and the Girl consists of courtroom drama: the trial of Scot Webster (Phillip Terry), who has been framed for murder by the gangsters who tricked his sister Susan (Ellen Drew) into a life of prostitution. Scot is found guilty and sentenced to execution; as he is led away, he swears that the villains will get what they deserve.

After 35 minutes or so, George Zucco enters the picture, as mad scientist Dr. Parry, who asks Scot if he can have his brain after he is dead, for use in an experiment that will benefit mankind. From hereon in, things get really daft as Parry transplants Scot's brain into a gorilla. Quite how that benefits mankind, I'm not quite sure, but it does serve to make the rest of the film a lot of barmy B-movie fun, as the gorilla escapes and takes revenge on the gangsters, breaking every bone in their bodies.

Director Stuart Heisler handles proceedings with more style than one might expect and wisely glosses over awkward plot points, such as how a huge gorilla makes it way around the city and into hotel rooms without being spotted. Killer gorillas and crazy apes were popular in horror movies of this time, and the 'man in a costume' monster in this film is one of the better examples - you wouldn't ever mistake it for a real ape, but it's not distractingly bad.

6/10.

This is another movie that I had never heard of until I was working my way through the list of horror films released in 1941 on Letterboxd. I had to do a bit of searching for this and found a cheap physical copy online that came faster than I was expecting. I will admit that I read the synopsis before watching this to figure out what movie to pair this with for my Odyssey through the Ones with a 2021 release. The synopsis I was referring to is after a young woman is coerced into prostitution and her brother framed for murder by an organized crime syndicate, retribution in the form of an ape visits the mobsters.

We start this off with Susan Webster (Ellen Drew) moving through mist and telling us that this is all her fault. It is a million-dollar mistake. Then we go into a court room. Susan enters and takes a seat. We know something is up as a couple of guys in the gallery acknowledge her presence. On trial is Scot (Phillip Terry). He is accused of murder. A bellhop of Leon Beecher Stokes (Cliff Edwards) is called to the stand and he tells how he found Scot with the murder weapon by the deceased. Scot is called in his defense to the stand, but it is multiple witnesses against his word. That is when Susan speaks up. It turns out she is his sister. Much to the dismay of J. Stanley McMasters (Onslow Stevens), the prosecutor, Susan takes the stand to tell her story and how we got here.

Susan and Scot grew up in a small town. She saved money and had dreams of moving to the big city. Scot was supportive, but also worried about her. She does move and has trouble finding work. At the employment office she meets the man of her dreams, Larry Reed (Robert Paige) or so he seems. The morning after her wedding, she wakes up in her hotel room calling out for him. Instead, Deacon (Joseph Calleia) comes into the room. He hits her with a predicament. Larry has disappeared, the bill for the room and the party is due, but Susan has no money. I thought the movie had her working in a cabaret, but the synopsis has it as prostitution. To save his sister, this brought Scot to the city looking for Larry. He encounters W. S. Bruhl (Paul Lukas) instead, who is his boss.

There isn't enough evidence to free Scot and he gets sentenced to death. It is in the prison that the warden, Dave (Edward Van Sloan), brings a Dr. Parry (George Zucco) to Scot's cell. He is asked if he will donate his brain to science after his execution. Scot couldn't care less and agrees. A strange procedure is done that gives Scot a chance at revenge and to save his sister.

That is where I'm going to leave my recap and to be honest, that is about half of the movie. I tried to avoid spoilers, but I think it is obvious the moment we meet Dr. Parry where this movie is going to go. It is an interesting idea and take on the mad scientist film for sure. They really don't focus much on the science here and Dr. Parry really doesn't have that big of a role. He is just more of a catalyst for the second half of the movie to happen.

I'm not up on this sub-genre of ape films that was popular around this era. I originally heard about them from Jamie and Brian from Horror in the House of Sammons podcast. They gone through some for their colossal collection. As I've been seeking out more films from the 1940s, I have seen a handful of them. It really is an odd sub-genre to be honest. What I like here is this different take that we have on it. Gorillas are of course bigger, faster and stronger than humans. By giving them a brain that allows them to reason, they would make a great killing machine. This feels like take on Frankenstein to be honest. I also like when the revenge killings start, it doesn't make sense. There aren't bruises, but all of the bones inside of that person are broken. I'm not entirely sure that is possible. What I will say is the idea works for me.

This movie though does have some pacing issues for me. It runs 65 minutes, but I'm actually bored for a good part. My problem really becomes that there isn't tension. They try to build it with the courtroom aspect in the beginning, which is fine. From there though, events of the movie just happen. I don't feel any of the worry. Susan seems safe and it is the gangsters of the movie that are being killed. The animal in the movie kills with ease. For me, adding like 5 to 10 minutes could have really helped here to build more of this.

Where I think I should shift next would be the acting. Drew is fine as Susan. She is a tragic character that she wants to move to the big city for a better life, but is taken advantage of. After that happens though, I feel she is underdeveloped. I'm wondering if censorship came into play here. It just feels a bit lacking for the development. Paige, Lukas, Calleia, Marc Lawrence and Gerald Mohr are all fine as the gangsters. I also thought Terry was fine as Scot. I did want to give some credit to Tom Dugan and Willard Robertson as Captain Alton and Lieutenant Strickland along with the medical examiner. They did add some comedy. The last shout-out would be to Charles Gemora as the gorilla. He looks to be a behind the scenes, costume and make-up guy in his long career. He looked and moved great as the gorilla.

Then really the last thing to go over would be the effects and cinematography. For the former, we don't really get a lot of them. The deaths are done off screen and I'm assuming part of this was the era as well as censorship issues as well. I will re-iterate though that the gorilla costume looked realistic and how Gemora moved was as well. Aside from that, the cinematography was fine. I had no issues with how it was shot, but it doesn't necessarily stand out.

So then in conclusion here, this movie has an interesting premise to it. It is taking a semi-popular sub-genre for the era and doing something a bit different with it than I've seen. I would say that the acting is solid enough. The cinematography was fine. There aren't a lot in the way of effects, but what they did with the gorilla impressed me. I do have an issue that the story could have been fleshed out a bit more though as it is just lacking tension for me. Aside from that, I'd say that the sound design and track fit without standing out. For me, this is just over average. If they could have added more to the story, I think it could have deepened what we got and make this more enjoyable.

My Rating: 5.5 out of 10

The old story of transplanting a human brain into an ape's skull is an old one that's been done plenty of times in Hollywood. Also the situation of reviving someone wrongfully executed & then getting revenge on those who put him in that spot. This version is ok as a "time waster" & interesting to watch in comparison to an earlier version of this plot, "The Walking Dead" with Boris Karloff, 1936 made at WB. The current 1941 version lacks that certain atmosphere especially in the laboratory scene where everything seems quite normal & this is just another routine operation. George Zucco who plays the scientist seems to have been "held back" by the script and the director from being his usual "mad scientist" persona, not to mention the fact that he has very few lines & screen time in this whole mess. IT all boils down to just a guy in a gorilla suit & even the revenge scenes are not at all dramatic or erie as in the Karloff version. Speaking of that 1936 version, Karloff in some of scenes almost resembles his Frankenstein Monster but without the makeup. Sadly in this 1941 take-off there IS a very good cast but the story just doesn't seem to make any attempts to thrill or scare one making it somewhat of a "yawn" for just over an hour running time. Watch this first then go back 6 years to the Karloff version & compare. Then again, with Karloff in such a role, how could anything go wrong? 1941 was the middle of the second horror film cycle that began in 1939 with "Son of Frankenstein", 1940's "Man Made Monster" with Lon Chaney Jr. & of course 1941's "The Wolfman." Studios would follow Universal Studios horror wave with their own attempts at the genre. As 1945 came to a close & Universal made their last classic monster film "House of Dracula" so did the other studios. For awhile in the late 40's everyone switched over to westerns until the early 50's when monsters, gigantic things, once again would roam the Earth.

This is a great movie, the site review covers it well. The "monster gorilla" is almost just a sub-plot, the real monsters are the bad guys with their inhumanity. This is a movie full of actors you've never heard of and they all do their jobs well. I'm tired of modern movies where the digital image makers can create anything on the screen. I'll take real people, real actors, any day. Even the ape "monster" doesn't go over the top. Just all around excellent, great $1 VHS buy at Kroger!! Fine for the family and kids of any age, kudos to Skippy the Dog and all the other cast members for a fine piece of work. I bought this expecting a humorous, no budget, schlocky affair. I was surprised to find a serious piece of film making that is both entertaining and contains elements of morality and decency that are lacking in modern films and TV. The ape monster doesn't even appear until late in the film, I was actually starting to wonder if the box graphic of the gorilla was just a marketing ploy, selling horror genre tapes for $1 might be easier than selling unknown dramas? But the ape finally appears and carefully claims revenge for the fallen brain owner. Just excellent!

Monster and the Girl, The (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Strange but effective film from Paramount mixes the noir and horror genres. Mobsters frame an innocent man for murder but before his execution he swears vengeance on them all. After his death a scientist (George Zucco) experiments by putting the dead man's brain into the body of a gorilla who goes out for revenge. The biggest problem with this film is its short running time of 65-minutes, which isn't enough time for the two stories to work. We get a fast paced and fun movie but it could and should have been a lot more. This is certainly a very weird film that noir and horror fans should check out.

There are some good things in this film. No, it's not a masterpiece, but director Stuart Heisler worked wonders with the story, which I found strangely emotional and tragic rather than horrific; overall, an offbeat and quite satisfactory way to do a horror movie.

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.

OK, so it's about a human brain transplanted into an ape's body -- it's still a unique, original and stylish film. Director Stuart Heisler treats it all very seriously and the cast does a great job. It's beautifully shot and lit -- and there's even a sub-plot about white slavery and prostitution that's shocking for the time. A first-rate job by all concerned.