The Monster Walks (1932)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Frank R. Strayer

Writers:

Robert Ellis (story)
Robert Ellis (adaptation)

Release Date:

10 February 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Horror | Mystery | Romance

Plot:

People in an old dark house on a stormy night are menaced by a killer ape.

Plot Keywords:

Ape | Paralytic | Old Dark House | Chimpanzee | Phonograph

Cast

Rex Lease	...	Dr. Ted Clayton
Vera Reynolds	...	Ruth Earlton
Sheldon Lewis	...	Robert Earlton
Mischa Auer	...	Hanns Krug
Martha Mattox	...	Mrs. Emma 'Tanty' Krug
Sidney Bracey	...	Herbert Wilkes (as Sidney Bracy)
Willie Best	...	Exodus (as Sleep 'n' Eat)

Also Known As:

The Monster Walked

Runtime:

63 min | USA:57 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:H | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

International Film Studios - 1339 Gordon Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Ralph M. Like Productions

Quotes:

Dr. Ted Clayton: Wealth to youth is golden, but to age it is a milestone.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Madeline Kahn/Taj Mahal (#3.2)" (1977)

Soundtrack:

Lullaby

Low...lower...lowest budget

"The Monster Walks" is a very old and very cheap haunted-house mystery thriller without much mystery. Yet, considering the budget and the experience cast & crew members disposed of, this probably isn't such a bad movie after all. I'm sure that fans of early horror films will definitely detect a lot of charm and goodwill in this typical story about a wealthy daughter that is targeted for murder upon returning to her parental house for the regulation of her dead father's inheritance. Ruth has always been petrified by her father's pet-ape and, although safely caged in the basement, some malicious persons uses the animal to scare her senseless. Rex Lease is her all-knowing doctor/boyfriend who investigates the strange nightly events and eventually reveals the true culprit. Maybe the plot-twists would have intrigued me more if the actual climax wasn't stupidly mentioned on the DVD-box, but I still can't say the script is very complex or effectively misleading. There are one or two decent suspense-moments but overall this is a dull and unexciting poverty row movie. All the lovely clichés of 30's horror cinema are there, though, like the exaggeratedly polite servants, the seemly endless thunderstorm outside the castle and the black chauffeur-guy who simultaneously serves as the comic relief. This is an okay film as long as you don't expect to see another "The Old Dark House".