#293: The Ape Man
Release Date: March 19th, 1943
Format: 16mm (New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, CA)
Written by: Barney Sarecky
Directed by: William Beaudine
3.5 Stars
Bless Quentin Tarantino’s little cinephile heart. Say what you will about the man and his films, and plenty has been said, there is no doubting his bonafides. When all is said and done, his filmographic legacy will be that of a man who loved movies. From his encyclopedic knowledge of mainstream Hollywood prestige pictures to low-budget genre schlock and everything in between, QT is a real one.
Who better to host a month-long celebration of the films of William Beaudine, one of Hollywood’s most prolific and overlooked directors?
Often, and erroneously, dismissed as a B-movie hack (derided with the nickname “One-Take”), Beaudine has seen a major reappraisal in the decades since his death in 1970. To hear Tarantino tell it, Beaudine is a filmmaker who comes with so much notoriety surrounding his huge volume of work that it’s convenient for even serious film fans to skip an appraisal of his career altogether.
That’s not exactly fair, Tarantino decided, so he read a Beaudine biography. Then he started screening 16mm prints in his home theater (Mr. Tarantino, if you ever need a friend to watch a movie with, I’m a decent hang and I make good popcorn). It didn’t take long for QT to discover that William Beaudine’s films, even the low-budget B-movies from the ‘40s and ‘50s, are charming and technically sound. They’re not just simple ammunition for MST3000. These are movies that were expertly crafted, despite severe production constraints, by an auteur who, by the way, cut his teeth in the silent era as an apprentice to D.W. Griffith, no less.
So when you’re Quentin Tarantino, and you own the repository theater The New Beverly in Hollywood, and you fall in love with a filmmaker, you now get to use your industry connections to publicly display archival prints to your fellow film nerds without a care in the world as to whether or not you make a dime. Sounds nice.
So there I was on a Monday night for a William Beaudine triple-bill featuring his work with big screen legend Bela Lugosi.
First up: The Ape Man, from 1943. What a charmer! The story is a familiar one - a mad scientist develops a serum that he must test on himself and the consequences are disastrous. In this case, Dr. Brewster (Lugosi) develops a concoction that can evolve or devolve a primate in a matter of minutes, depending on its concentration. To test its efficacy, Dr. Brewster gives himself a diluted dose which reverts his DNA back to that of a half-ape. Oh no!
Increasingly desperate to reverse the effects of his serum, Dr. Brewster convinces himself that an injection of human spinal fluid is the only antidote, so he uncages one of his test subjects - a gorilla - and the two go on a hilarious rampage in the middle of the night, killing and mining unsuspecting victims for their spinal fluid.
Despite a well-worn 16mm print, the mostly full New Beverly came alive during The Ape Man. There was plenty of laughter and love in the room, and several members of the Beaudine family were guests of honor seated directly across the aisle from me. That was endearing.
I can understand why The Ape Man, featuring a past-his-prime Bela Lugosi and a guy in a gorilla suit going around mauling people to death, was easily dismissed by contemporaneous critics, but if you look underneath the silliness, you’ll see a film that is well-crafted and intentionally comedic. This is not an inept Ed Wood picture we’re looking at.
If you had any doubt that William Beaudine is in on the joke, wait until the end, when a wacky supporting character (Ralph Littlefield) breaks the fourth wall and reveals that this whole misadventure has been just a bit of hijinks, nothing serious.
How would he know?
“Me? I’m the author of the story. Screwy idea, wasn’t it?” he asks the audience, with a Looney Tunes-esque wink and a nod.
It got a huge laugh in the room, and the New Beverly was off to a great start with their William Beaudine triple-feature.
