User reviews

The 3rd film in the Apes series (after "Beneath..."), this one is easily the most whimsical, at least in the first half. The writers had to stretch believability in getting the two primary apes of the 1st 2 films into our present times from the future, when Earth is destroyed by a doomsday bomb, but the first few scenes are almost classic farce disguised as science fiction storytelling. We view our central characters first as 'ape-onauts' and then stuck in a zoo, followed by a brief turn at celebrity when our populace becomes enamored of the two as the latest fad. The best and most clever thing about this sequel is that it utilizes the already well-known captivating characteristics of the chimps, delightfully performed again by McDowall and Hunter. They're kind of like old friends by this time and seeing them get acquainted with our modern-day culture is just good times. It's also a neat reversal on the ape society of the first two films, which was visited by aberrant intelligent humans.

Things turn grim in the 2nd half, as the fad wears off and our leadership begins to take the threat of possible future ape domination rather seriously. The most interesting character becomes the chief human scientist, played by Braeden, who starts out typically dispassionate but soon reveals an intense personal desire to preserve the human race and society, to the point of fanaticism. In his coldly intelligent eyes, only he sees the truly apocalyptic threat presented by the chimps' pregnancy. He's the nominal villain, but he sees himself as the only one who gives a damn. Some of the sf plot lines regarding time travel are very clever, while others are a bit clumsy. It's clever that the two evolved time-traveling chimps may now be the cause of the future time-line ruled by an ape society. But they reveal to have a knowledge of their history that did not exist in the previous two films. Also, rather than letting events evolve over a century or more following what happens here, the next film accelerates everything to change the world in the next 20 years - see "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes."

After "Planet of the Apes" was completed, its star, Charlton Heston, argued strongly that there should not be a sequel. The original film was complete in itself, and any sequel would only dilute its impact and tarnish its reputation. In the event, a sequel was made and Heston was reluctantly persuaded to appear in it. He suggested, however, that it should end with the destruction of the Earth, a denouement that, he hoped, would put paid to any attempt to extend the series beyond two films.

In one respect Heston was to be proved right. "Planet of the Apes" is a classic, one of the best science-fiction movies ever made and one that combines an exciting plot with philosophical depth. It is frequently said that sequels are generally inferior to the original films, but seldom is this is as true as in the case of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", a hopeless mess of a film. Neither its lack of artistic merit, however, nor its explosive ending dissuaded the filmmakers from making a third "Apes" film. An ingenious device was found to avoid the problems posed by planetary destruction; it is explained that shortly before the Earth was destroyed three of the apes found the wreckage of Taylor's spacecraft, repaired it and used it to travel back in time to 1970s America.

Although one of the apes is killed in an unfortunate incident shortly after arrival, the American public take to the two survivors, Cornelius and his wife Zira (both of whom played important parts in the first two films). The two intelligent, talking chimpanzees become media celebrities, and the early scenes are much lighter in tone than the two earlier films, at times even comic, as the two apes become after-dinner speakers and discover the joys of alcohol. The tone, however, gradually darkens. Figures in the government become alarmed by talk of a future in which men are dominated by apes, and Dr Hasslein, the President's sinister Germanic adviser, (based on Henry Kissinger?) is convinced that Zira and Cornelius represent a threat to the human race, especially after it is discovered that Zira is pregnant.

My disappointment with "Beneath...." had hitherto dissuaded me from watching any more of the later episodes in the "Apes" canon, so I was pleasantly surprised by "Escape.......". Although it lacks the depth and brilliance of "Planet of the Apes", it is considerably better than its immediate predecessor. The reason for its relative success lies with the fine contributions of its two stars, Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter. Their characters played important supporting roles on the original film; here they take centre stage. The original had Heston's character Taylor at its centre, a human in danger from the apes. In "Escape......" the roles are reversed, with two lovable, and deeply human, apes in danger from humans. There is, however, a difference between the two films. The danger to Taylor came largely from ignorance; the apes, particularly Dr Zaius, saw him as a brute beast, like the other humans of their planet, and refused to listen to the evidence that suggested that he was, in fact, an intelligent being like themselves. Cornelius and Zira are in danger because of both their human and their non-human characteristics. Hasslein knows that they are intelligent beings who seem human and yet are not, and hates and fears them for precisely that reason. Just as they pitied and befriended Taylor, so they are in their turn befriended by two human scientists who try and save them from Hasslein.

There are a couple of inconsistencies between this and the earlier films, where the apes' society is shown as being technologically less advanced than ours, on a par with sixteenth or seventeenth century Europe. It is not explained how individuals from such a society could have succeeded in repairing and operating a spacecraft. Another inconsistency is that Cornelius and Zira know how the apes came to seize control of the Earth from humans and even state that this story is told in the Sacred Scrolls, the holy books of the apes' religion. In "Planet of the Apes" we are to understand that the Scrolls explicitly deny that humans ever had the powers of speech and reason, which is why Zaius is so reluctant to admit that Taylor can speak. These inconsistencies, however, are not really plot-holes as such and are unlikely to worry those who come to "Escape......." without having seen its predecessors. "Escape......." can be seen as a film in its own right rather than as a mere sequel, a film which starts out as a comedy and then turns into a serious thriller as the apes try to escape from their human enemies. Although it is less philosophical than the first film, it can perhaps be seen as an allegory of racism as Hasslein's paranoia leads him to treat as enemies those who bear no ill-will to him and his kind and whose only crime is to be different from him. It is significant that his name is derived from the German for "hate". 6/10

I've always had mixed feelings about ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES. As a kid forty-five years ago, I saw all five original films on television and I loved them all. ESCAPE I enjoyed because I had a huge little boy crush on Kim Hunter, and I thought Dr. Zira was so brave, funny, and even sexy. On the other hand, this is the one movie in the series with no battle scenes, no gorillas on horseback, and no epic excitement or adventure. So on that level I'm sorry to say this was my least favorite Apes film . . . Forty five years ago.

So the other day I got all five films on Blu Ray for about 15 dollars. And when I watched ESCAPE as a 55 year old I was very impressed. It's not really a kid's adventure film, or even a science fiction spectacle. This movie is a tragedy, in the most profound sense of the word. In spirit it's much closer to CHINATOWN than the original PLANET OF THE APES.

Everyone remembers Zira and Cornelius as a cute, fun couple. That's how I remembered them too. But when you actually watch the film you see that they are really tragic heroes. When they flee the hospital with their baby there are Biblical overtones. (The President actually compares himself to Herod!) But what's still more disturbing is the way Zira herself owns up to the savage things that went on in her own laboratory in the future world. Her self-knowledge is a grim component of her eventual tragic fate. Her insistence on truth only makes her more admirable after she reveals some truly terrible secrets.

It's a waste of time to point out that Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowell both give career best performances as Zira and Cornelius. But what astonished me after forty-five years was the incredible intensity of Eric Braeden as Dr. Otto Hasslein. (He was just as spectacular as the doomed werewolf in a classic episode of KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER.) Dr. Hasslein is clearly meant to remind us of Nazi scientists and doctors who did unspeakable things in World War II. But at the same time he's like the tormented Christian heroes in THE OMEN movies, searching for the Anti Christ before the earth runs out of time. Each chilling thing he does is made more chilling by the fact that he's sincere in trying to stop what he thinks of as real evil. On the other hand, William Windom is surprisingly affable and humane as the President of the United States. STAR TREK fans will remember his epic meltdown in "The Doomsday Machine," but here he plays the voice of reason, a decent man who refuses to become hysterical in the face of mankind's doom.

Superb script, intense, haunting drama, beautiful tragic characters . . . All that's missing is the action, excitement, and gorillas on horseback!

You have Ricardo Montalbon, you have Soap star Eric 'mustache' Breaden, and you have Sal 'Rebel without a Cause' Mineo. How can you go wrong? You have guys in Chimp suits. You have Roddy. You have Kim Hunter from the first flick. It's great.

My chief memory/image of the flick is seeing them, the trio of apes, being given the Star treatment, getting outta a limousine in front of a crowded city street, etc. That is very much a part of the flick. It was made in '71, and yeah it really, really looks it-but ya gotta like it. William Windom as da Prez is pretty cool too, def. a knockoff of hostile Nixon in places I would say.

This sets up the next two fine, though its both better than them and better than #2 in the run also. I think you can do worse than to sit through this.......

**1/2 outta ****

No, this film is not as awe-inspiring as the original but it still maintains the viewer's interest despite the scaled down approach which was due to budget constraints. For much of the film the there is a humorous tone. Good performances were turned in by familiar faces (Braeden, Montalban, Mineo). The story, despite some holes, was quite riveting. I'm looking forward to the fourth installment. The sense of adventure and exploration (this time by the apes) and the continued presentation of parallels between this fictional world and our world still make for worthwhile viewing. 7/10.

This is the 3rd chapter in the McDowell ape films this 1971 film stars Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter & Bradford Dillman. Roddy McDowell & Kim Hunter continue their roles as Cornelius and Zira in this film they travel to present day at first they are feared and imprisoned but at their court hearing they become sensations where they are taken from the zoo to a 5 star hotel, they are wined and dined and treated like celebrities until Zira falls pregnant then they have to fight for their lives but they have the help of Dillman and his colleague Natalie Trundy. A good entry to the ape saga much better then the 2nd one beneath the planet of the apes but for me the stand-out in the series is the 1968 classic Planet of the apes.

***/*****

In a brilliant solution for continuing the storyline after the ending of BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, three intelligent chimpanzees from Earth's future take off in Charlton Heston's salvaged spacecraft just prior to Earth's destruction; they wind up hurled backward in time to 1973 California and - in an interesting twist on the original theme - now find themselves the strange visitors in a strange world ruled by bombastic human beings.

Lovable simians Zira and Cornelius (expertly played by Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall) lose their friend Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo!) early on in a tragic accident, and find themselves in a strange situation when mankind first welcomes them as celebrities and garnishes them with gifts, but ultimately begins to fear when it is learned that Zira is pregnant with an ape offspring that could grow to overtake humanity.

We really grow to sympathize with the plight of the chimpanzee couple, and we fear along with them and the safety of their child when they become hunted fugitives later in the story. Eric Braeden is very good as the quintessential villain out to kill the ape family at any cost.

Some people enjoy picking on the APES sequels as they continued, but I've always felt this series consistently remained very intelligent and had something powerful to say about race relations and prejudice. People want to know how apes could ever manage to send Taylor's ship into orbit; I say that if you can suspend disbelief long enough to accept the notion of intelligent apes, then it shouldn't be that far a reach to accept that Dr. Milo was the genius of his time who just could pull it off; the Thomas Edision of his type, if you will.

The timeline in the five apes films is often admittedly contradictory, but there are ways that fans of the Apes movies have been able to make them work. For example, in this film Cornelius seems to talk about Ape History and Evolution in a way that actually doesn't follow suit during the next two installments. That's because the very arrival of Zira and Cornelius onto present-day Earth of 1973, and the subsequent birth of their baby, will accelerate the procedure from how Cornelius remembered it, as we'll see in the next two chapters. The circumstances for the future will be sped up and changed, and the apes will evolve at a much quicker rate.

Some of the other dubious complaints are aimed at the "lesser budgets," or supposed "TV Movie Look" of the sequels from this point on -- but this story in ESCAPE does not require mind-numbing special effects or hordes of CGI-rendered ape figures swarming Los Angeles to make it effective. It's got a lot of heart and good writing with characters we care about, and that's all it needs. ***1/2 out of ****

After the world ended when Taylor pressed the Doomsday button in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" Zira, Cornelius and Dr. Milo managed to get Taylor's spaceship working again and launched themselves into space and through time. They crash-land on Earth in 1973, two-thousand years before their own time and two years on since Taylor left Earth. They are found by the US military and taken to the zoo, but when they start talking to the humans they become celebrities and are wined-and-dined throughout the country. Dr. Hasselein, advisor to the President of the United States, is sceptical, however, and wants to know more about the world that the apes came from, something which they have been elusive about. When he discovers the truth, he believes that it would be in humanity's best interests if the apes were exterminated.

Where the first sequel was a carbon-copy of the original, up until the end that is, "Escape..." is certainly different. It would have been difficult to predict what they could have done with another sequel following the ending of the last one but they certainly did do a good job here. As likable as Zira and Cornelius were in the first two instalments, it is here that we truly start to care for them as characters. McDowall and Hunter are brilliant together. Bradford Dillman (Who would later take the lead in "Piranha") also stars. The last ten minutes came out of nowhere and were shocking and this time, we were left with no doubt that another sequel would follow.

Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), Zira (Kim Hunter) and Milo escape the Earth's destruction in Colonel Taylor's spaceship. They travel back in time 2000 years and arrive in present-day Earth 2 years after the spacecraft's disappearance. The military are shocked to find the apes in the space capsule and place them in the Los Angeles Zoo. Dr. Dixon and Dr. Branton are shocked when they start talking. Milo is killed by the gorilla in the next cage. They become media sensations. Senior White House scientific adviser Dr. Hasslein takes them on a tour around town. A drunken Zira lets out the truth about the future and Hasslein advises the President to kill the apes. Branton and Dixon help them escape and find shelter in a circus run by Señor Armando (Ricardo Montalbán). Zira gives birth to a son she names Milo.

This is very silly compared to the first two movies. The comedic turns are fun. The initial testing of the apes is really funny. The switch in tone does make this a campy follow up. The flip between humans and apes is pretty good. However the logic of the space traveling apes is questionable. Also the humans need to be played by better actors. The decline in budget probably has a big hand in that. Eric Braeden plays the only human that is truly compelling.

The third -and unexpected,considering the ending of the second part-sequel of the apes saga is probably the best of the four, thanks to Kim Hunter's and Roddy McDowall's characters Zira and Cornelius,who play a prominent part here. Here ,Pierre Boulle is more present than in "beneath the planet..":the reason can be found ,I think, in the Baby,the menace for the human race. In Pierre Boulle's book,Ulysse Mérou(Taylor) and Nova have a baby,and that's why they cannot continue to live peacefully with the simian race;had Cornelius and Zira not intervened,the trio would have been slain ruthlessly.Thanks to them,they can escape from the planet and go back to earth where they.... (No,I won't tell you anything more,please,read the book!) Here,it's the same situation ,a monkey baby instead of a human one.And the humans act like the monkeys in the book.There's a good original idea in the screenplay :the using of a circus as a place to hide .Taylor should have thought(should think!) of this when he was (or is!)in the apes society.

MORD39 RATING: *** out of ****

This third APES film ingeniously manages to keep the franchise alive and produces what is arguably the second best film of the five originals.

After the ultimate ending in BENEATH, who could have believed a new story was possible? Here the tables are turned from the original film with a remarkable twist: now three of our chimpanzee characters take off in Charlton Heston's spaceship and wind up going BACK in time, to "present Day" Earth (1973 A.D.) Once it is learned that Zira (Kim Hunter in her best performance in the series) is pregnant with the child that could possibly turn our future into the PLANET OF THE APES, she and her husband Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) go from becoming honored celebrities to dangerous threats to humanity!

It's a brilliant idea, and now it is possible to start the series anew (chronologically, this movie comes first) and see whether or not Taylor's nightmare from the first film can be prevented or will rear its ugly head for mankind.

A little defending is in order here. Many people get hung up on the story's notion that the chimpanzees can actually manage to fix Taylor's ship from the first film and actually launch it. Well, I say that if you can suspend disbelief long enough to accept the idea of a society of talking apes, why can't you accept that one of them (Dr. Milo) is a super-intelligent ape, sort of the "Albert Einstein" or "Thomas Edison" of his time? Besides, when folks get stuck on a point like that it becomes impossible for them to have a good time with a film. As Cornelius said in the movie: "Dr. Milo was a genius well in advance of his time." He was able to fly the ship. Case Closed.

Next case: the "TV Movie" look of the film. SO WHAT? People have become so accustomed to garbage like 1999's THE MUMMY that unless all films are over-swamped with spectacular sets and numbing effects, they can't enjoy them. Well, ESCAPE needs none of these to tell its simple story. It's got something that sci-fi stories today have lost..."heart".

In 1970s Los Angeles, an American spacecraft is found floating off the coast of Los Angeles which upon rescue is revealed to have three chimpanzees wearing spacesuits. The group consisting of Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) as well as husband and wife Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) and Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) are discretely relocated to the Los Angeles Zoo for examination with the group hiding the fact they can talk due to escaping a future where the world was ended by war. Upon revealing their true nature and origin of 2,000 years in the future to the sympathetic animal psychologists Dr. Lewis Dixon (Bradford Dillman) and Dr. Stephanie Branton (Natalie Trundy) prior to Milo's death at the hands of a gorilla, their nature is further questioned by the government who are taken aback by both the apes' nature as well as their stories of the future (with certain details omitted). As Zira and Cornelius deal with their celebrity status and adjusting to this unfamiliar world, Presidential Science Adviser Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braedon) is determined to deal with the apparent threat the two pose to human superiority determined to alter the ape dominated future by any means necessary.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes is the third film in the original Planet of the Apes series started by 20th Century Fox and based on the novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Despite the definitive ending of the second film Beneath the Planet of the Apes involving the destruction of the entire world in a nuclear holocaust, Arthur P. Jacobs spurred by the healthy box office famously sent screenwriter Paul Dehn a telegram reading "Apes exist, Sequel required". In order to create a new sequel (as well as serving as a cost saving measure), it was decided to retcon Zira, Cornelius, and a third previously unseen ape as having restored one of the crashed space ships and escaped Earth's destruction by coming to Earth's past (then present) and put in more satire and humor of the novel and first entry that had largely been absent from the second entry. Made for a modest $2 million and making $12 million, Escape from the Planet of the Apes proved a decent success and even garnered critical recognition with many considering it the best of the Planet of the Apes sequels. While still missing the touch Michael Wilson and Rod Serling brought to the first film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes makes for a solid follow-up that builds upon the themes and ideas of the series.

While the film's excuse for why this sequel exists is heavily reliant on a flimsy pretext of time travel (rather than the more plausible time dilation of its predecessors) and pretty significant retcons, the movie nonetheless uses it to solid effect by having more defined protagonists in Zira and Cornelius who are a major upgrade from James Franciscus' underwritten Brent. At its core Escape from the Planet of the Apes is something of a fish-out-of-water story with the trappings of a first contact science-fiction story in the vein of something like The Day the Earth Stood Still. Unlike Klaatu who was massively advanced and came as a messenger, Zira and Cornelius while intelligent and skilled are more everymen (or everyapes) who are more akin to displaced refugees. Both Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall do well playing expanded versions of these characters who are allowed more freedom to develop their characters by being the primary focus rather than supporting players as they were in the prior films.

The scenes of Zira and Cornelius reacting to human society and engaging in discussions with various denizens are well staged be they with the benevolent curiosity of the sympathetic Dr. Dixon and Dr. Branton, or the fearful suspicion of Eric Braeden's Dr. Otto Hasslein. Much like Dr. Zaius' portrayal, Hasslein is a nuanced antagonist (to a degree). While Hasslein's intentions are the preservation of humanity, he's also willing to do some inhuman things to achieve this end including terminating Zira's pregnancy and sterilizing her against her will. As a driving point for the plot I found it much more compelling in comparison to the mutants or General Ursus from the prior film, but the writing would sometimes get heavy handed such as direct references to King Herrod's Massacre of the Innocents which takes what could've been subtext and makes it overly blunt.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes is a marked improvement on its predecessor and has a lot more on its mind even if it doesn't quite strike the balance the 1968 original achieved. Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter give solid performances in service of likable characters and while certain story beats are lacking in nuance or subtlety and you need to offer a lot of leeway in order to allow for this sequel it offers much more than anyone had any right to expect of it.

The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.

The "Apes" series gets more strange as it goes on, and the messages it uses are a bit blunt. We get environmental issues and political topics, sometimes with a discussion of race that is pretty blunt (the whole slavery thing is not subtle at all).

This one even has religious themes, though they do actually hide those somewhat well. It may be blasphemous to compare the president to Herod the Great and Cornelius to Joseph (father of Jesus), but this film goes there. And it is actually pretty clever.

If you remember the previous film in this series Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, the world met doomsday courtesy of a doomsday device left over from the human nuclear age. I would think it would have been hard pressed to come up with a sequel after that, but there must have been a demand for one.

While the cataclysm was happening, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall, and Sal Mineo managed to get Charlton Heston's old ship in working order and transported back in reverse order to Earth of the second half of the 20th century and when it's discovered they speak and are from our future they're met with acclaim by most. But science adviser to the President of the USA Eric Braeden, he's quite alarmed.

Braeden proposes a King Herod like solution to President William Windom who really doesn't want to go down in history that way. Doesn't deter Braeden in the slightest.

This film in the Planet Of The Apes saga makes us learn that earth history courtesy of some unplanned time travel is in a time loop. Can we escape it.

A good ensemble cast makes us want to find out in the next film.

'Escape' is my favorite of the Apes series. What can I say about it? It's just heartbreaking! These movies.. the endings are incredible! And especially in this one. You NEVER see these kind of endings now! I actually found myself crying! Though, the movie at the beginning, is just FUN! Ricardo Montalban was great in this, as was Roddy and Kim.

What more to say? EXCELLENT WONDERFUL movie!

Yes Apes fans, Escape has only- sadly- three Apes (or four if you'll count a little baby chimp at the end), which are the original Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) and Zira (Kim Hunter) who along with another brilliant ape escape before the world is destroyed by the atom bomb in part 2. They're scrutinized and gawked, in a quasi deja vu to what Taylor had happen upon him when he arrived on the "ape planet" in part 1. Soon however the two apes (poor Milo meets his end suddenly, and with a cheesy quick montage of various animals reacting across the zoo) become semi-stars... and what was routine in their past, like Zira's experimenting on human subjects, makes them targets.

It's not rocket science, but there is some good, satirical fun this time around, where the low budget and more "human" locations give room for a script that's smarter than a third movie in a series of Planet of the Apes deserves to have. Who can't laugh a little when Zira has her 'grape juice plus', or with Ricardo Montabon's bit part at the end, followed by a tongue-in-cheek mention of the little guy talking. There is a low level of action and suspense, so when the little bits do come up, like the chase on the ship, it's sustained pretty well. And McDowell and Hunter are pretty much second nature to the parts by this time, understanding how to blend the line between campy and serious portrayals of the species known as Ape. It's fun sci-fi for an afternoon.

Having narrowly escaped the destruction of Earth in the year 395something A.D., intelligent chimpanzees Zira (Kim Hunter), Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Milo (Sal Mineo) are thrown back in time, crash landing off the coast of Southern California in the year 1973. Picked up by the U.S. army, they are taken to a zoo for observation, where Dr. Lewis Dixon (Bradford Dillman) and Dr. Stephanie Branton (Natalie Trundy) discover that the apes can talk. Milo is tragically killed by a captive gorilla, leaving Zira and Cornelius to be questioned about the events leading to their arrival on Earth inside a spacecraft originally manned by American astronauts.

Successfully satisfying the enquiry with their answers, the chimps are moved to a fancy hotel and given a tour of the city (during which Zira announces she is pregnant!). However, when suspicious Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden) gets Zira gets drunk on Grape Juice + (Champagne), he learns details about her work as a scientist and information about Earth's future that give him cause for concern. Convincing the authorities that the chimps should be questioned further, Hasslein has them taken to an army base where Zira is administered a truth serum. She admits that apes will one day become a threat to the human race, and so a commission decides that Zira's baby should be aborted and that both chimps should be sterilised, leaving the hairy couple no choice but to escape.

This second sequel to the 1968 sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes could easily have been a repetitive cash-grab (like Beneath the Planet of the Apes before it), but in setting the action in the present day, the intelligent script raises a couple of thought-provoking moral dilemmas that make it a very interesting watch. Should we judge another species for its inhumanity when humans treat other animals with the same lack of respect? And does the human race have the right to ensure that it remains the dominant species or should we allow natural selection to decide what happens next? These clever conundrums, coupled with fine performances from McDowell, Hunter, Dillman, and Ricardo Montalban as kindly circus owner Armando, plus a wonderfully silly twist ending, go to make this a very entertaining entry in this much-loved franchise.

I quite enjoyed the first two instalments of the "Ape" series. Both were interesting movies (the first was definitely better) that offered some reflections on human nature as seen through the eyes of the apes. Generally speaking, this third instalment of the series continues to do that - and, as in the first two - humanity doesn't come off looking particularly good. In and of itself, standing alone, this isn't a bad movie. Its basic problem is its lack of originality (although the very fact that it created a sequel to "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" - whose ending did look rather final - counts for something, I suppose.) Still, in many ways this is the mirror image of the first movie. In that, of course, three human astronauts land on a future earth rules by apes. Here, three "ape-onauts" (as they're referred to) land on a past earth ruled by humans - namely, our own (well, at least the world of 1973.) A lot of this is very similar to the original. Cornelius (Roddy McDowell, who returns in the role after missing "Beneath") and Zira (Kim Hunter) essentially take on the roles of the human astronauts in "Planet" while Drs. Dixon (Bradford Dillman) and Branton (Natalie Trundy) are the Cornelius and Zira of this society, sympathetic to the apes and wanting them to survive, while Dr. Hasslein (Eric Braeden) is the personification of the evil human who wants to kill these intelligent apes (just as most of the apes wanted to kill the intelligent humans of the original.) So, aside from the ingenious way of resurrecting a series that you would have expected to be finished, originality was somewhat lacking. There are a few twists. Overall, human society seemed generally kinder to the apes than ape society was to the humans, and it's somewhat humorous to watch as at first Cornelius and Zira are feted as celebrities in Los Angeles. Overall, though, this really does have the feel of the original in reverse.

It's not a bad story. It's a bit far-fetched to believe that the apes could have not only raised Taylor's spaceship from the original and learned to launch and pilot it, given that in the first two movies (which seemed to take place over a relatively short span of time) the ape society hadn't even invented the internal combustion engine. Yes, that's kind of explained by Cornelius' assertion that Dr. Milo (who accompanied he and Zira on this journey) is a genius well ahead of his time. Obviously! Still, that bit of far-fetchedness aside, this is a reasonable addition to the series, an imaginative way of restarting the series, and an obvious set-up at the end for what would become the fourth instalment in the series ("Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes.") It's just not particularly original, in that it's a rerun of the first with the roles reversed. But if you like the series, it's enjoyable enough. (6/10)