THE MONSTER AND THE APE

The robot "monster"

THE MONSTER AND THE APE (15 chapter Columbia serial/1945. Director: Howard Bretherton. Colorized.

Professor Arnold (Ralph Morgan) has invented a robot which he calls the Metalogen Man after a material used in its construction. A colleague, Professor Ernst (George Macready of Steve Canyon), covets the robot for himself and uses his trained gorilla, Thor (Ray Corrigan), to get it, and thus begins a battle of wills and counter-strategies between opposing factions to get the robot back,  keep it out of Ernst's hands, and stay away from the paws of the mighty Thor and Ernst's nasty henchmen. Working on the side of justice along with Prof. Arnold are Ken Morgan (Robert Lowery of Sensation Hunters), Arnold's daughter, Babs (Carole Mathews of Assignment Redhead), and the lovably bumbling assistant Flash (Willie Best).  

George Macready consults with gunsels 

The Monster and the Ape is a fair-to-middling Columbia serial with a few interesting elements, such as the fact that the bad guys have an extra entrance to Ernst's HQ via a tunnel in the back of Thor's cage in the Municipal Zoo (yes, when he's not out killing people Thor stays in the zoo!). There are some more than decent cliffhangers, such as the bit with a conveyer belt that leads into an incinerator, and an even better sequence with walls closing in on our hero. Although he's as professional in this claptrap as he is in almost everything, Macready is an odd choice for this material, certainly not a career highpoint such as Paths of Glory. It's amusing that when Ernest disguises himself he doesn't disguise his voice -- surely even ten-year-olds would have wondered about that! Willie Best is forced to play the cowardly fool, as usual, but he is quite adept as Flash. 

Verdict: If you can't get enough apes and robots! **1/4.