The Hairy Ape

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Movie
Original title The Hairy Ape
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1944
length 92 minutes
Rod
Director Alfred Santell
script Robert D. Andrews
Decla Dunning
production Jules Levey for United Artists
music Michel Michelet
Eddie Paul
camera Lucien Andriot
cut Harvey Manger
occupation

The Hairy Ape is a 1944 American drama film . Directed by Alfred Santell , it starred William Bendix and Susan Hayward, and John Loder and Dorothy Comingore .

The script is based on the play of the same name by Eugene O'Neill (New York, March 9, 1922).

action

After a vacation in Lisbon , Mildred Douglas, the rich daughter of a steel tycoon and very spoiled, is dependent on making the journey home on a cargo ship , which also includes war refugees , instead of a luxury cruise ship. Helen Parker, a school friend of Mildred's who knows the freighter's ship's engineer, Tony Lazar, gave Mildred this safe passage during these troubled times. Helen looks after refugee families. As expected, Mildred has something to complain about in everything, the cabin that she has to share with Helen is too small for her, the ship too dirty and she has only disinterest in the refugees who are traveling with her. When Mildred notices that Tony is interested in Helen, she begins to flirt with him, also with the ulterior motive that he will give her his larger and more comfortable cabin. After she has succeeded, she triumphantly shows Helen her new home.

Since Mildred is bored on board, she persuades Tony to show her what it looks like below deck and in the engine room. She shows him that the captain gave his permission for this venture. When Helen reproaches her for endangering Tony's career, she doesn't care. In the engine room she comes across the proud stoker Hank Smith, a bear of a man who, of course, cannot look like a peel in his job and stands in front of her dirty and sweating. Mildred is shocked at the sight of him and then hurls at him that he is a "hairy monkey". Hank reacts to this affront in the circle of his comrades with anger and incomprehension. Tony manages to maneuver Mildred up the stairs and remove Hanks' access.

After the ship docks in New York , Mildred retreats to her luxury home, where she is visited by Helen, who wants to tell her that she is returning to Portugal to continue to serve refugees. Mildred treats Helen, who she owes her safe return to after all, in her usual blasé manner and then explains to her that she is not at all interested in Tony, he was only good as a distraction. Helen, who actually means something to Tony, turns away from Mildred indignantly. Hank, too, has an exit from the ship together with colleagues and wants to find out Mildred's whereabouts. After he gets louder in a hotel because of being condescending, the police are called. When he was locked in a barred cell and he protested loudly, the officers aimed a jet of water at him from a fire hose. After his comrades interceded for him, Hank was released after a few hours, but now he feels even more humiliated. When he sees a poster of Goliath, a gorilla, he is drawn to the zoo, where he stands spellbound in front of the cage.

Only a short time before, Tony Mildred confesses his love, but is ruthlessly rejected by her. He leaves her with hunched shoulders, leaving the door ajar. Hank, who has not left Mildred's insult in peace, which is why he wants to try to speak to her again, takes the opportunity to gain access to Mildred's luxury home through the open door. When the young woman sees him, she faints from shock. Hank carries her to the couch and strokes her hair. After she has come to and makes an attempt to beguile him with her charms, he picks her up and shakes her vigorously before letting her sink back onto the couch. His anger has subsided, only contempt remains. When he is back on his ship and pokes coal into the kettle, he does so with new self-confidence and with a satisfied smile.

Production and Background

The film was shot from January 10th to the end of February 1944, and re-recordings were made on April 18th, 1944.

In the opening credits of the film it can be read that it is Eugene O'Neill's award-winning play The Hairy Ape , although in June 1943 in the Daily Variety and in July in the New York Times it was read that O'Neill had been vacillating for years whether he wants to agree to an adaptation of his work for the canvas and sell the rights. However, after he sold the rights to producer Jules Levey, he had no control over how his original play would be edited and implemented , according to the New York Times . In the writer's template, the main character is called Yank and is being crushed to death by a gorilla. In the film, Yank became Hank. In O'Neill's play, Yank / Hanks' rebellion against society is also much clearer than in the film. It was Levey's first job for United Artists, having previously worked as a sales executive. Although in February 1944 the New Herald Tribune read that Howard Estabrook wrote the script with Robert D. Andrews, his contribution is not mentioned in the film. Cinematographer Lucien Andriot was on loan from Twentieth Century Fox .

Theatrical release

The film was first released in the United States on June 16, 1944 and was then generally released in theaters on July 2, 1944. In Germany (Federal Republic and GDR) the film was not shown in theaters.

  • Sweden: December 11, 1944 under the title Den håriga apan
  • Portugal: September 3, 1945 under the title Macaco Peludo
  • Spain (Madrid): March 15, 1948 under the title Pasión salvaje
  • Denmark: January 16, 1950 under the title Den hårede abe
  • Argentina under the title Pasión salvaje
  • Brazil under the title O Grande Bruto
  • Finland under the title Karvainen apina
  • Italy under the title Il diavolo nero

criticism

Felicia Feaster believed that William Bendix was acting in the manner of Charlie Chaplin in his role. His best scenes are therefore those when he expresses his emotions in silence. That is very impressive. However, the film leaves out scenes from the original artwork and adds others. The result is a good movie that is well worth seeing, albeit a bit old-fashioned. Susan Hayward fits into this dark, moody adaptation of the play by the famous playwright Eugene O'Neill. The original story would find a dramatic articulation in this film adaptation. Hayward as the haughty, cruel society lady almost steals the show from Bendix a little.

Susan Hayward received rave reviews for her performance. The reviewer of the New York Herald Tribune was downright exuberant. Susan Hayward is correspondingly hated in her role as a hollow rich girl and plays this level of wickedness with great depth despite the sometimes cheesy dialogues.

Dennis Schwartz of Ozus, on the other hand, judged that the film had little to offer apart from the emotional performance of Bendix as the entertaining villain and Hayward as the bad, hollow-headed girl of society. It should be noted that an angry yank (Hank) in the original artwork enters the cage of the gorilla and is crushed to death by it. Santell's adaptation, on the other hand, ends much more positively, which ultimately makes the film trivial.

Variety regretted that most of the dialogue, as written by O'Neill in the original, would be missing from the film version.

The United States Bishops' Conference spoke of an interesting misfire in the Eugene O'Neill play. A cocky stoker tries to straighten out the insult he has received from a rich lady. Director Alfred Santell turns the "Beauty and the Beast theme" on its head in a melodramatic way. But the stylized violence and threats are not morally convincing.

Award / nomination

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Hairy Ape (1944) Original print information at TCM (English)
  2. ↑ The Hairy Ape Notes at TCM (English)
  3. ↑ a b The Hairy Ape Articles at TCM (English)
  4. ↑ Dennis Schwartz: The Hairy Ape - The dialogue couldn't be cornier at Ozus' World, May 16, 2007, accessed on February 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Review: 'The Hairy Ape' In: Variety . 1943/1944 (English), accessed February 22, 2016.
  6. ↑ The Hairy Ape at archive.usccb.org (English)