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Wednesday, February 7, 2024

THE CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972)

Fourth of the original five PotA films, made when sequels were still second-class citizens in Hollywood’s primogenitor pecking order; all but the First Born progressively demoted down to programmer status.*  This one something of a dark course correction, grimmest in the initial series after some mildly comic notes in #3.  No plot to speak of, just an extended prologue for human mentor Ricardo Montalban to go thru yards of exposition getting advanced chimp Roddy McDowell (and us) up to speed on the Brave New World of 1991 where apes have gone from house pets to non-unionized labor & servants.  Speech-endowed Caesar (that’s McDowell, playing his own son) is radicalized by this 12 YEARS A SLAVE society (all PotA films being race allegories) to becomes defacto leader of a fast escalating revolt.  The Birth of an Ape Nation against Don Murray’s murderous dictator.  With little complicating forward motion (no cute kids to rescue, no romance, one gag in the whole pic - a lady smoker says ciggies no fun now that we know they aren’t bad for you), there’s little but riots & electrode torture to follow.  Director J. Lee Thompson camouflages with choppy edits and handheld camera panic when the situations beg for Leni Riefenstahl or Sergei Eisenstein parody.  Thompson fallen a good distance from the glory days of TIGER BAY/’59, GUNS OF NAVARONE/’61 and CAPE FEAR/’62.  Yet, in spite of what’s missing, the ninety-some minutes do hold you.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *James Bond the main exception on standard Hollywood procedure for sequels at the time.  A few bucked the system, but the tipping point on how to treat a Hollywood sequel was truly sealed when Steven Spielberg, having passed on JAWS 2/’78, kept the reins for THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK/’97.  The power of I.P. too profitable to be ignored.

DOUBLE-BILL: Not seen here, but RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES/’11, from the rebooted series, is said to be a remake of CONQUEST.

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