The Monster Walks ~ 1932 -BW

QUICKIE: That crazy ape is trying to kill me and steal my inheritance so it can buy bananas!

PLOT: After her fathers' death, Ruth (Vera Reynolds) and her fiance Dr. Ted Clayton (Rex Lease) return to her home for the reading of the will. The long suffering staff is angered by their meager bequethment, yet "Tanty" (Martha Mattox) still tenderly cares for the grieving Ruth. A strange monkey arm slips through Ruth's headboard while she's asleep and tries to choke her. She is completely unnerved by the attempt on her life by her fathers' monkey who is caged in the basement and hates her, so her "Tanty" sleeps in her bed to console her. While Ruth is reading by the fire and dozing off, the gorrila arm reaches through the headboard again and successfully strangles the woman in the bed this time. Chaos ensues when Tantys' son Hanns discovers that he has accidently murdered his mother and he tries to kill the dead mans' brother and then kidnaps Ruth and ties her to a post outside the monkeys' cage hoping the monkey will finish her off. But, as he is whipping the monkey into a frenzy, the ape grabs the whip and pulls Hanns to the cage and strangles him. Proving PDMRB rule #15: youre killed the same way you murder others.

SUMMARY: I've never seen a thunderstorm like this one! Ho boy! It's non-stop fireworks out there! I guess the Director just wanted to make sure that you got the point: it was a dark and stormy night.... it upsets the ape tremendously. And supposedly just the presence of Ruth also drives the Ape into a rage and he has tried to kill Ruth before. Well no wonder she wants out of the house. I love that she keeps saying "Oh Ted, take me away!" Reminds me of the Calgon bath salt commercials: "Calgon take me away!" But, they don't leave because then we'd have no movie. I'll admit when this movie ended I actually said "that was bad". Now these public domain films are generally not oscar winners, but even when they're bad, they're good. But really, not here. The story is rehashed, the acting is bad, and the characters shallow. Sorry, but this one was just a bad, bad.

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