ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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A film that misleads the public in several ways.

First of all, this is not a sequel to Bela Lugosi's "The Ape Man", released the previous year, despite the fact that they both star Lugosi. Second, George Zucco's name appears in the title credits, but Mr. Zucco does not appear in the movie. He was originally cast as the title monster, but ex-boxer Frank Moran played him instead.

The characters in the story also do some identity switching; after scientist Lugosi and assistant John Carradine find a frozen Missing Link and thaw him out, Lugosi boosts the ape man's intelligence by replacing his brain with Carradine's!

Afterwards, the Missing Link can play classical music on the piano -- even though he still prefers to wear his animal skins (?).

If you're a fan of the sci-fi films from the 1940s you'll find some enjoyment in this one (after all, it's only sixty minutes long), but frankly "Iceman" (1984) is a much more intelligent treatment of the same concept. Directed by Philip Rosen.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Couldn't find a trailer for this movie, but here's the trailer for The Ape Man.

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____________________ The Ape Man - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Custer]

Not a trailer, but YouTube does have this suitably dramatic 3-minute excerpt:

________________ Return of the Ape Man Ots


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[Bud Brewster]

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Wow, that clip is fun to watch! Notice how unconscious lady which the Ape Man abducts remains limp as dishrag after she's slug over his should and he flees to the rooftop of a build and eludes the police by swinging hand-over-hand along a cable between two buildings — like a monkey in the jungle!

I suspect that the "monkey" scene used a lightweight dummy for the lady, so that the actor didn't have as much weight to deal with. I noticed that her arms dangled down in the closeups, but they were up next to her body during scene on the cable.

However, in several scenes before and after the cable-walk, her arms and head flopped around quite a bit. That actress was very determined to appear completely unconscious!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)