It's great fun to see Bela Lugosi in an ape man costume and he's certainly well cast as a mad scientist who goes around killing people to extract spinal fluid in order to cure his bad posture (true!)
Louise Currie is the female lead, a wisecracking female reporter (a common sight in low budget horror films, and actually in many ways a stronger role model for women than some of today's horror flicks - at least she has a job). Her love interest is fellow wisecracking reporter Wallace Ford, a tubby middle aged man - but then that was the WW2 shortage in leading men.
Minerva Urecal makes an impression as Lugosi's devoted sister. The ape make up is pretty good. And Lugosi is heaps of fun.
However William Beaudine's direction is poor - is lacks suspense and the action is not exciting; the photography is more, the camera usually static. Surefire scenes such as Lugosi's ape helped going on a rampage are flat and unexciting. The battle of the sexes banter between the reporters is appalling. And that in joke at the end where someone says they're the writer and winks at the screen made me furious - you can't do that in a not-very-good film.
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