“Murder is an ugly word. As a scientist I don’t recognize it.”
Professor Dexter (Bela Lugosi) is a scientist doing experiments on bringing frozen people back to life. His assistant is Professor John Gilmore (John Carradine). Together they have frozen a local derelict for four months and reanimated him with no ill effects. Dexter believes that he could reanimate anyone who has been frozen for years or even centuries. To prove his point Dexter and Gilmore travel to the Arctic looking to find a frozen pre-historic man. After months of searching they find a cave man that has been frozen for centuries. They trek back to Dexter’s laboratory with their find. Once they succeed in thawing and returning the ape man to life Dexter is not satisfied. The cave man, being a cave man, is wild and mentally primitive.
Dexter theorizes that if they transplant a portion of modern man’s brain into the pre-historic man he will be able to control him. Gilmore, being the saner of the two scientists, reminds Dexter that if you remove part of the brain of a person, they die, and when they die, its murder. Dexter, being the madder of the two, dismisses the notion.
Later at a dinner party, while Gilmore is entertaining the crowd with a piano recital, Dexter surveys the room deciding if anyone there is ripe for a brain transplant. He settles on Steve Rogers (Todd Andrews). He is the fiancé of Gilmore’s niece Anne (Teal Luring).
While Gilmore is tinkling the ivories, Dexter cons Steve into taking him home. He then drugs Steve and brings him down stairs to his laboratory to slice and dice his brain. Gilmore figures out what is happening and gets to Dexter’s house just in time to stop the operation. But Dexter isn’t done. Determined to get a brain, he now sets his sights for Gilmore himself. Two birds, one stone. A brain for his ape man and a way to silence Gilmore.
“Return of The Ape Man” was released in 1944 and was directed by Phil Rosen. The movie is not a sequel to “The Ape Man” released in 1943 and has no relation to it. Why the name? My guess, money.
My theory is, if you remove the brain of an ape man and put in the brain of a modern man, you no longer have an ape man. What you have is an ugly looking modern guy. The part of the ape man was to be played by George Zucco. Unfortunately George fell ill just before filming. He was replaced by Frank Moran. George’s contract stated that he was to get third billing so he is credited in the movie even though he only appeared in it for a few seconds. When he is first thawed out he is lying on the table before he awakens. When the ape man stirs it is now Frank in the make-up.
Not the best horror movie out there but, as second billing, John Carradine had more than his normal bit part. Here, he is able to show that he can act and act well. Far more casual than usual, Carradine’s character is actually smart, caring and ethical. Lugosi is mad man restrained. His character is more sociopath than insane. He is in pursuit of science and as for his fellow human, he just doesn’t care.
Although the movie is not very good, Carradine’s and Lugosi’s performances make up for it. With the two of them showing off their talent, the movie is well worth seeing.