 Bela Lugosi is my favorite actor, a true professional and gentleman to boot. Any film in which he appears immediately becomes a special experience for me - the opportunity to see the great man in action, giving the role his gruesome all. Bela plays Dr Brewster a mad scientist who has mysteriously gone missing. His ghost hunting sister arrives in America to find him and meets Dr Brewster's colleague. She is shocked to find him in a cage, sleeping in the arms of a gorilla. The reason for this deviant behaviour is that Dr Brewster injected himself with spinal fluid from an ape and turned into an apeman. Driven to madness by this hairy predicament Dr Brewster pleads for help in obtaining fresh spinal fluid from a human donor, but is refused as it would mean killing to get it. The good Doctor decids to get it himself and accompanied by his gorilla takes to the street on a killing spree. A newspaper journalist and his lady photographer sidekick discover a (missing!) link between the missing Dr Brewster and the spate of killings and investigate. This is a very bad movie which is made enjoyable by Bela Lugosi's performance as the unfortunate Dr Brewster. The killer ape plot reminds me of the earlier classic "Murders in the Rue Morgue", but this is actually more enjoyable that that film. As a bonus the tape in introduced by Tony Curtis, who informs us that his own father was Hungarian and reminded him of Bela as a child. Also there is a trailer for Dracula. Well worth a look if you are a fan of Mr Lugosi. You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
