(1940)
Dir - William Nigh
Overall: MEH
Boris Karloff's final contractual obligation to Monogram Pictures, The Ape is a pretty lousy yet typical low-rent effort from the Poverty Row studio to bow out on. Directed by William Nigh who likewise helmed the Mr. Wong entries with the actor and co-scripted by Curt Siodmak, (The Wolf Man), it is dull from frame one to frame last with no inspired set pieces and a ridiculous plot that is lazily explained. Karloff keeps it together of course, but he seems old and tired. Even though he manages to pull off some genuine emotion during his final scene, it is also absurd enough conceptually as to undermine it, making the whole affair just come off as silly. Based off a play by Adam Hull Shirk, nearly every element of the source material was abandoned and whether a more faithful adaptation would have made the movie remotely interesting is something left to ponder. "Guy walking around in a primate costume" horror movies are usually impossible to take seriously to begin with so it is not like one can expect too much of anything here.
(1940)
Dir - Nick Grinde
Overall: GOOD
Following up The Man They Could Not Hang was the next collaboration between Boris Karloff and director Nick Grinde for Columbia pictures, The Man with Nine Lives. Though the science presented in the script is about as logically sound as a Bugs Bunny cartoon, the direction stock, and the performances one-note and bland, Karloff is a captivating exception at least. The nuances he brings to playing yet another fiercely determined, good-natured "mad doctor" where he is genuinely menacing one second and mentally sound and sympathetic the next without delving into any melodramatic mannerisms is what separates him from practically any other actor that could have been here instead. The story pushes the boundaries of what kind of empathy the audience can feel for a man who legitimately murders a number of people while still coming out a hero of sorts, not to mention the believably that is stretched by such a merry ending. Yet it is all played in a calculated and controlled manner that does not come off as arbitrary. It may ultimately ask too much of the viewer, but for a B-movie with a heart of gold and an actor of Karloff's caliber in the title role who is on top of his game, it gets a pass.
(1942)
Dir - Lew Landers
Overall: MEH
Ending his Columbia Pictures contract with a comedy based rather shamelessly off of Arsenic & Old Lace, (which he was appearing in on Broadway at the time of shooting), Boris Karloff lampoons his typecast mad scientist persona in The Boogie Man Will Get You. While Karloff proved himself fully capable of handling comedy as admirably as he did horror, he got so few chances to do so throughout his career that this makes Boogie Man a worthwhile watch in and of itself. That said, it is actually a non-intoxicated, exuberant Peter Lorre who chews up the most scenery and delightfully so. Every other aspect of the movie though is incessantly sloppy and moronic. Just as many jokes and slapstick pratfalls fail to deliver any laughs as they do provide any actual chuckles and the plot convincingly seems like it is being made up on the fly. It can be recommended for the two horror icon actors present who would of course work together two decades later in The Comedy of Terrors and The Raven, (both far funnier and better films), but this early pairing is charmingly absurd enough, unmistakable warts and all.
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