EDITOR’S NOTE: The Ape was on Chiller Theater on February 1, 1964 at 4:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 17, 1966 at 1:00 a.m.

William Nigh had already made this movie before as The House of Mystery, but now he had Boris Karloff as the lead. As Dr. Bernard Adrian, he’s trying to cure polio through that mad scientist body magic known as spinal fluid. He’s so devoted to curing Frances Clifford (Maris Wrixon) so that she can marry Danny Foster (Gene O’Donnell) that when a wild ape attacks his lab and destroys all of his samples, he skins the ape and dresses as it to get more spinal fluid.

Karloff had worked for Monogram on the Mr. Wong movies. Monogram often used actors on loan from bigger students, like Wrixton, who said that working there was like “…living in a poor apartment. It was like living in a foxhole.” Unlike the budgets they were used to, actors made movies in a week with none of the fancy things they may have become used to.

Karloff had to be in plenty of ridiculously plotted movies in his career but never before was he a kindly doctor who wore monkey skins to rip out the spines of innocent people so a kindly young girl could walk the aisle. Even at the end, when he’s shot, he finally gets to see her steady and he dies happy. I would assume the people who gave their lives and back juice do not feel the same.

You can watch this on Tubi.