Planet of the Apes–Movie–1968

Following the book in 1963, Planet of the Apes, the movie, was released in 1968.

Characters/Actors:

Charlton Heston as George Tayler

Roddy McDowell as Cornelius

Kim Hunter as Zira

Linda Harrison as Nova

George Taylor and the other 2 astronauts have been in deep space and when they wake up to their crash landing, 20 centuries have passed.  The year is 3978!

They come to a waterfall and are skinny dipping when their clothes are taken.  They see other humans who are mute and have no clothes.  Gorillas come by, dressed, on horses and catch Taylor in a net:

 At this point in the movie the apes take a selfie (they were ahead of their time!). A comment is made by the apes, “Humans see, humans do”. LOL   At one point, a gorilla grabs Taylor and he says, “Take you paws off me you damn dirty ape!”  The gorilla responds, “Shut up you freak!” (Love it!)

Zira puts Nova in Taylor’s cage, she sniffs him and they become a couple, of sorts.  Taylor writes a message to Zira, “My name is Taylor.”  She is shocked that a human can write!  Zira and Cornelius (chimps are the smartest of the apes in this movie), read his notes and talk to him.  Eventually they believe in him and want to help him, at risk to their own lives by going against the orangutans 9 (the officials).

Taylor goes to a court hearing about his future:

And much to my amusement, the orangutan actors ad libbed this scene,
See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil:

Cornelius and Zira help Taylor escape and they go to the Forbidden Zone.  The chimps don’t know why it is forbidden and Taylor wants to find out.

As Taylor says goodbye to Zira, he wants to kiss her and she says, “Ok, but you’re so damn ugly.”

Dr. Zaius tells Taylor, “Don’t look.  You may not like what you find…”  He goes into the cave of artifacts anyway and what do you think he finds?? A human doll that says, “Mama!”.  Also found, a man’s skeleton and eye glasses!  Man was here first!  The orangutans kept this a secret!  The head orangutan, Dr. Zaius says to Taylor, “I have always known about man. Beware the beast, man!  Shun him!”

He asks, “Why didn’t man survive if he’s so superior?” Hmmmmmm……

There is a gunfight and Dr. Z lets Taylor and Nova go.

He seals the cave to destroy the evidence.  So Taylor and Nova get on a horse and go see what they can find, how to get home, anything…. and what do they come across?

“OMG!  I’m back home.  All the time….you maniacs! God damn you all to hell!”  (There were 3 different endings, different from the book, but Charlton Heston’s favorite won).

The End

Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcpRHuPjOI

Original Ending:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGlR_GgasA

Some very interesting tidbits:

• Roddy McDowell would often drive home in his make up, freaking people out on the freeway in L. A.
• The extras were not allowed to take off the make up between takes so their food had to be liquefied.  Straw please!
• Kim Hunter’s facial ape prosthetics were so claustrophobic to her that she took a Valium every day.
• The lead make up artist, John Chambers, went to the L. A. Zoo to study ape facial expressions.  A half million dollars was spent on the make up and there were 80 make up artists on set.
• Nova/Linda Harrison, had an affair with the married producer during the filming.  She was pregnant with his child and had to carefully conceal herself toward the end.  He ended up divorcing his wife.
• The final scene was shot at Malibu Beach in California.  The Statue of Liberty was an optical effect.
• The author, Pierre Boulle, thought this was his worst novel!. He was upset at the  ending of the movie but later warmed up to it.

So there you have it!  Up next, a short review of the immediate sequels!

Planet of the Apes Novel 1963

Next in the  gorillas series is the novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle written in 1963.

When I decided to include the Plant of the Ape series I really doubted I would enjoy reading a science fiction novel but I loved it!  Who knew??

Basically it takes place in the future where 3 astronauts land on what seems to be a planet like Earth.  It appears to be paradise but we all know, anything that seems too good, isn’t.  What they discover is that on this planet humans are savage ignorant beasts who run around naked.  Who rules? Apes of course and there is a hierarchy in this ape world:  gorillas take care of manual labor, chimpanzees are highly intelligent, and the orangutans are high officials that ultimately rule the planet.  Only 1 astronaut actually survives and he must make his way from his capture, kept naked in a cage, to unlock the secret of this terrifying civilization.  Adventure, satire and suspense leads this book that comes to a very surprising end, different from the movie but the same basic outcome.

It took 2 years of space travel to arrive at this planet that very closely resembled Earth.  They ventured out onto sand and saw a print that looked like a human footprint.  Another planet and species similar to Earth?  What could this be? Gorillas appeared, dressed in human clothes and the humans they saw were without clothes.  The gorillas captured the astronaut in a net and put him in a cage with the others and soon realized they couldn’t speak.  He later saw lady gorillas sitting in armchairs sipping drinks through straws!

Zira was the she-chimp and the Head of the Department.  Once she realized that Ulysse’s could talk, she became interested in him and ended up helping him escape.  She told him that “With only two hands, each with short clumsy fingers, man is probably handicapped at birth…”

Many situations take place that you will want to read but eventually Ulysse is let out by Zira to explore and figure things out and it gets very interesting.  He finds a doll and skeletons of men.  MAN HAD preceded these apes!

Read it to know it all!!

 

King Kong 1933/Excellent Movie!

King Kong 1933

This is the original black and white movie of King Kong and it is excellent!  It is almost verbatim from the novel.  If you haven’t seen it, you must!  The first 10 minutes are a little slow but once the action starts, it’s ON!! It ranks number 43 of the American Film Institutes list of the Top 100 American movies.  The working title was The 8th Wonder and later The Beauty and Kong.  Financially speaking the budget was $670,000.  When it opened at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater tickets were $3.30. They displayed Kong’s giant head in the lobby and you can still see it at the Hollywood Wax Museum.  King Kong saved RKO from bankruptcy!

The prep work for the movie included 600 hand drawings and numerous puppets with different faces.  There were dinosaur, King Kong, and character puppets as well as miniatures.  They used stop motion filming, a very precise slow way to film every movement with painted backgrounds for scenery.  The planes were real and miniature.  For Kong they built a life size arm, foot, and head.  Kong’s fur was made of rabbit fur and each time they touched it to move it for the stop motion, it gave the fur a rippled look throughout the movie.

So there’s the backstory, let’s get to the MOVIE!  Our characters are the infamous Fay Wray as Ann Darrow (Beauty), Carl Denham (the movie director in the film), and Jack Driscoll (the first mate and Ann’s love interest).

Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYWSOzFMZjg

As they all start out on the ship headed to the mystery destination for the mystery adventure, Jack and Ann meet.  He is a tough guy telling her, “Women can’t help but be a bother!” but that attitude doesn’t last long.  The Scream Queen, Ann, practices her test shots with Carl and later the fog rolls in.  They hear distant drums coming from Skull Mountain Island.  This is a beautiful scene and as the come closer they see THE WALL and wonder why such a huge wall would be built but we know why…

On the island they come across a ceremony that the natives are having.  There are 4 dancing men in gorilla costumes chanting Kong.  The want to trade 6 of their woman for the Golden Woman, Ann with the blonde hair, which they have never seen before.  They back away to the ship where in short order Jack says to Ann, “I guess I love you” to which she responds, “But Jack, you hate women” and they kiss. Romantic?  Not.   Love in 1933 ❤

When darkness falls the natives steal Ann and bring her to the island.  Here we go.  The action begins and never stops from this point on!

Ann is set and tied to a pedestal while the natives dance and chant for Kong to come and get his golden sacrifice.  All the music stops and they bang the dinner gong for Kong to come and get his prize.  LOL  (And by the way, the music and timing for this film are both awesome).

    

All the shipmates head to the island to find Ann.  As the search begins they find a HUGE footprint and right away we begin seeing the prehistoric beasts.  First up is a Stegosaurus!  They shoot it multiple times, give it a gas bomb, the tail keeps wagging and they give it one more shot in the head.  Onward….

Take a another look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0WpKl2A_2k

They come to a water source and very quickly build a raft only to find another one, an Apatosaurus (looking like a Brontosaurus) which flings guys from its mouth and we see a man screaming!  (This is not a meat eating animal but hey…)  Next they come to “the log” where the men are walking across above a crevice.  King Kong wiggles the log around and most of the men fall to their death.  Jack and Carl cleverly hide in a crevice.

         

A giant lizard, Megalania, climbs a vine to get to Jack but he cuts the vine in time!  Next the Tyrannosaurus Rex and King Kong engage in a nasty little fight.  This is one of the scenes that I always cringe at as KK breaks and rips the jaw of the T Rex!  Oh that sound!

    

Next up?  A cave and a snake that tries to strangle KK but no!  He beats it to death.  KK moves on, carrying Ann this whole time, to “his cliff, his home base”.  Here is the scene where KK picks her up, holds her, touches her and her clothes fall off.  He sniffs her clothes (??) and then the Pteranodon flies off with Ann.  Luckily KK is on it, grabs her and easily kills it.  Jack swoops in and he and Ann begin to slide down a vine and eventually drop into the ocean and escape….

         

They reach the wall and Carl declares, “We have something he wants!”  KK comes along, smashes down the gate (he’s a little pissed).  He puts a native in his mouth and smashes 2 under his foot, stamping them out like little cigarettes!  The gas bombs are thrown at him and they take him down.

Back in New York City Carl’s plan to put the “8th Wonder of the World” on stage doesn’t go so well.   Carl wants pictures taken with Ann and Jack below KK who is on a pedestal, chained. He tells Ann not to worry because they have “knocked the fight out of him”  (right)  As the paparazzi takes flash photos, KK goes “ape shit” and breaks free, eating a man on his way out!

  He climbs a building looking for Ann, picks up the wrong woman and drops her.  He does find Ann in a hotel room.  He just reaches in and takes her out.  Here is where they use a made to scale 6 foot arm on a lever to pull her out.

Jack realizes he will look for something like his home, his cliff, and realizes he will take Ann to the top of the Empire State Building.  He sets her down and fights off the planes, grabbing one of them.  He gently touches Ann and the planes shoot him.  He falls and lands on the street.  The crowd gathers around and Carl says, “It wasn’t the planes, it was Beauty who killed the Beast”.  It’s a little sad because he just loved her and wanted her.

    

What do you think?

P.S. This was filmed on a back lot in Culver City, Cali, 7 days a week until it was done!

Gorillas and King Kong: The Novel 1932

Welcome to Book and Movie Therapy!  The Frankenstein series is over and to be honest I am pretty much over it!  I’ve been obsessed with Frankenstein all of my life but after the blog series I just completed?  Well, let’s just say I learned everything and more and I am happy to move on to the new series:  Gorillas!

I have been fascinated with gorillas since I was very young; let’s go way back in the way back machine to the 50’s.  I saw the 1933 black and white movie in my living room as a child and I was hooked so….now, present day, I am excited to bring it back.

I received the King Kong novel in the mail from Amazon just a few days ago.  I was eager to read it for the first time but actually, I expected it to be boring.  Nothing is farther from the truth!

It only took me 2 days to read it.  One night as I sat on my ever so comfy couch, reading away, my phone rang and it startled the hell out of me!!!!  That’s how into it I was.  So I will start with the novel, then review the 3 King Kong movies (without Son of Kong–doesn’t interest me).  I will also check into Mighty Joe Young, Gorillas in the Mist and my shero Dian Fossey, Koko the real life sign languaging gorilla, children’s gorilla books, Planet of the Apes (old and new, novel and movies), and gorilla zoo experiences.

Who wrote the book?  You would think that would be a simple answer but it isn’t.  Edgar Wallace began writing it but one month in, he died of pneumonia.  That’s where Merian C. Cooper and Delos W. Lovelace stepped in.  Lovelace wrote most of it and was paid $600 which was a lot in the early 30’s.  The book is part anthropological nightmare, age-old myth and part fairy tale with a beauty and the beast theme.  Yes, that idea came up long before the Beauty and the Beast Disney movie of today.

Our main characters are Carl Denham (the director out to make fantastical movies), Jack Driscoll (the 1st mate who falls in love with our leading lady), Ann Darrow (beauty).  They go by ship to a lost jungle island, Skull Mountain Island, and encounter 9 beast-like creatures:

1. Stegosaurus
2. Brontosaurus in misty water
3. Dinosaur chasing a man
4. Beast-God=Kong (throughout the book they refer to Kong as the beast-God)
5. Triceratops who fights with Kong
6. Octopus-insect like spider
7. Meat eater
8. Water beast
9. Pterodactyl

After all of these adventures and more, Denham brings the beast-god=Kong to New York City and all hell breaks loose!

It’s a great book and I highly recommend it!!

Next up?  The 1933 version, and the BEST version of King Kong!  It’s action packed and awesome.  You’ll go ape over it!