SPOILERS!!! IN 1845 Paris evil Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) is trying to mate a male gorilla with a woman--but most women die when injected with gorilla blood. This involves him disposing of a lot of corpses. The gorilla seems very attracted to beautiful Camille (Sidney Fox) and her boyfriend Pierre Dupin (Leon Waycroff) isn't happy...but Mirakle thinks she may be the one perfect for the mating.
This is rarely shown probably because of the theme of bestiality and a truly harrowing scene involving Arlene Francis as a "Lady of the Streets" in Lugosi's lab. By today's standards it's fairly tame but still surprising what they got by with back then. The movie has beautiful expressionistic photography giving it the feel of a German horror film--check out some of the backdrops--they're straight out of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligri"! Lugosi is great in his role--hamming it up in an amusing way. Unfortunately most of the movie concentrates on the colorless Fox and Waycroff and their boring romance. And the "gorilla" is obviously a guy in a shabby ape suit! They only use him for far shots and intercut shots of a real gorilla for closeups--but it's pretty obvious. Those elements severely lessen what could have been a great horror film. Still it's above average and worth catching.
This is rarely shown probably because of the theme of bestiality and a truly harrowing scene involving Arlene Francis as a "Lady of the Streets" in Lugosi's lab. By today's standards it's fairly tame but still surprising what they got by with back then. The movie has beautiful expressionistic photography giving it the feel of a German horror film--check out some of the backdrops--they're straight out of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligri"! Lugosi is great in his role--hamming it up in an amusing way. Unfortunately most of the movie concentrates on the colorless Fox and Waycroff and their boring romance. And the "gorilla" is obviously a guy in a shabby ape suit! They only use him for far shots and intercut shots of a real gorilla for closeups--but it's pretty obvious. Those elements severely lessen what could have been a great horror film. Still it's above average and worth catching.