Today's film continues the large hairy creature theme of yesterday in the form of a murderous ape in this, the first film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's classic mystery tale and one of the classic best of Lugosi films.

Bela Lugosi plays the mad scientist role which, after Dracula, was to be his most remembered role. Here he is Dr. Mirakle who kidnaps women with the help of his ape companion in order to perform his bizarre experiments to prove that man and ape are related.

Fans of Lugosi will find much to love here. You get to see a young Lugosi before his tragic fall to Z grade pictures and morphine addiction. He's at his peak here showing his range acting range as the psychotic doctor obsessed with proving his science with total disregard for human life. Contrast this to the handsome, charming vampire of Dracula. It's such a pity that Lugosi never got to play a romantic lead. It would have been wonderful to see what range of acting he had.

Much of the film seems to be inspired by the horror classic, "The Cabinet of Dr. Calidare in that the mad scientist uses an unwitting creature (in this case an ape) to perform his murders and that both are part of side show acts. I do not know if this was intentional or not but it does seem rather interesting.

Speaking of Dr. Calidari, there's a film I have never seen in its entirety. Perhaps I will rectify that this month.

One last note, if Pierre Dupin looks familiar and the name Leon Waycoff means nothing to you, well he later would change his stage name to something a bit more memorable, Leon Ames. Ames would go on to be a founding member of the SAG and appear in over 150 roles. To me though, he'll always be Judge Holmsby from Merlin Jones and the father on Meet Me in St Louis.

Labels: 31 days of film, Bela Lugosi, Horror