One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

1940's THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL, not to be confused with Republic's 1944 THE LADY AND THE MONSTER, was a rare Paramount excursion into Universal horror territory. This was the studio that brought genre fans the 1931 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, 1932's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, 1933's MURDERS IN THE ZOO, 1939's DR. CYCLOPS, and 1940's THE MAD DOCTOR, all quite distinctive and respectable. Leonard Maltin's review praises the originality of the white slavery angle, depicting how poor Ellen Drew is lured into a life of prostitution, while her brother (Phillip Terry) is executed for a murder he didn't commit, donating his brain to Dr. Parry (the great George Zucco) to use in a surgical procedure that puts his mind in the body of a gorilla. Maltin dismisses the mad doctor stuff as clichéd, but the truth is, all the characters are strictly by the numbers; it's quite possible that if it consisted of one storyline over the other, the results would never be remembered today. Like Boris Karloff in Warners' 1936 THE WALKING DEAD, the vicious racketeers are marked for death from beyond the grave, and the second half of the film shows how the gorilla (Charles Gemora) manages to escape detection as it travels around town, executing all the gangsters with virtually no interference, aided by his faithful dog (!). This is not A BOY AND HIS DOG, and it really is better than it sounds, it's only disappointing in that little is made of Zucco's experiment, and his role is very small. Best of all is Charles Gemora's sensitive portrayal of a gorilla with a human mind, and it is excellent; it couldn't have been easy to act in such a costume, but it looks as good as any from old Hollywood, and is light years superior to Emil Van Horn's embarrassment in Bela Lugosi's THE APE MAN. A remarkable cast of familiar faces make this an easy watch, apart from the condescending Paul Lukas, whose accent was no match for Lugosi's (surely Bela would have been available). Look fast for unbilled Edward Van Sloan, veteran of FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUMMY, playing the prison warden who helps Zucco get the plot moving toward its inevitable climax (Zucco proved to be even busier than Lionel Atwill in that department).

Stuart Heisler's THE MONSTER & THE GIRL begins with a prostitute (Ellen Drew) coming out of the fog to tell her tale in flashback; she had come to the big city to follow her dreams and fell for a homme fatale (Robert Paige) who tricked her into gangland prostitution but when her brother (Phillip Terry) comes looking for her, he's framed for murder. There's a trial, of course, and her brother's sentenced to death -but before he's taken away, he vows that the gangsters who destroyed his family will get theirs one by one. Now this is where it gets really weird -a mad scientist (George Zucco) comes to see him on Death Row wanting his brain for science (!) and after the execution it's transplanted into a gorilla who proceeds to carry out the kid's threats. Whew! The cast is a classic movie lover's dream -the gangsters on the receiving end of the mayhem are Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Onslow Stevens, Marc Lawrence, and Gerald Mohr while the reporter-cum-love interest (!) is a young and handsome Rod Cameron. The flashbacks, courtroom scenes, gangsters and atmosphere almost (but not quite) make it a proto-noir but it isn't exactly a horror movie, either since the audience is on the gorilla's side all the way. Besides, the kid's faithful pooch from his previous life recognizes him and tags along on the ape's vendetta making this a real tear-jerker at times. I have no idea what target audience Paramount had in mind when Heisler was assigned to THE MONSTER & THE GIRL -the first half was way too "adult" for the Saturday matinée crowd and the second half was far too far-fetched for mature audiences. I was also a bit surprised at the frank depiction of prostitution. Gangsters perform a fake wedding ceremony for Ellen Drew and her slimy beau before the scene cuts to Drew stretching in bed with a sublimely satisfied smile on her face (copied from the one in GWTW where Scarlett purrs like a cat the morning after Rhett carried her up the stairs) when a thug strolls in and informs Drew she'll be working in a clip joint being nice to men from now on. Wow. It was also strange seeing Universal's future singing star Robert Paige as a bad guy. Heisler made AMONG THE LIVING starring Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward & Frances Farmer the same year and in that one I spotted Rod Cameron as an extra in a bar room. His rugged good looks were hard to miss and they must have impressed someone at Paramount when they viewed the rushes because he's 7th billed in THE MONSTER & THE GIRL with a fair amount of screen time. It was released in February, 1941 and AMONG THE LIVING was released 10 months later but because of Rod it looks to me like the last one was lensed first.A one-of-a-kind cinematic experience, that's for sure. Recommended!

Monster and the Girl, The (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Strange but effective film from Paramount mixes the noir and horror genres. Mobsters frame an innocent man for murder but before his execution he swears vengeance on them all. After his death a scientist (George Zucco) experiments by putting the dead man's brain into the body of a gorilla who goes out for revenge. The biggest problem with this film is its short running time of 65-minutes, which isn't enough time for the two stories to work. We get a fast paced and fun movie but it could and should have been a lot more. This is certainly a very weird film that noir and horror fans should check out.

Scot Webster is looking for his brother-in-law who mysteriously left his wife and left her in at the hands of a racketeer and his mob. Webster is later set up with the murder of a mob enemy, convicted and set to die, but swears revenge on those who set him up. He donates his brain to science and it is later put into an ape, which proceeds to carry out Webster's venegance. The plot sounds pretty good for its genre, but the Webster's trial takes up a little too much time plus the scenes with the ape just seem to be lacking the excitement that this movie should generate. 5 out of 10.