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Beneath the Planet of the Apes
A rescue mission to find a missing astronaut leads to the very bowels of planet ape. Student chimps protesting against war and a clan of mutants who worship the atomic bomb are the best moments of this fun but troubled first Apes sequel
This first sequel to 1968's Planet Of The Apes was hampered from the start of production. Despite the massive impact of the first movie, Charlton Heston refused to reprise his role as George Taylor in anything other than a cameo capacity. Roddy McDowall was also unable to appear because he was already committed to a different movie. So, instead, McDowall appears as Cornelius in some rather clumsily spliced-in footage, while another actor takes over for new scenes. Heston, meanwhile, makes a typically heroic appearance during the film's climax to deliver one of his Biblical soliloquies. ison Beneath The Planet Of The Apes centres around a mission by John Brent (Franciscus) to find his astronaut colleagues, who went missing in the first film. After crash landing, Brent traces Taylor to the forbidden zone, discovers an army of telepathic humans at war with the apes, and journeys under the subterranean ruins of New York City. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes looks and feels like a quickie, cash-in follow-up. Indeed, its budget of $3 million was half that of Planet Of The Apes. Many of the themes from the first movie are missing (social order, race) and replaced by a straightforward action adventure. Well, as straightforward as a film starring talking apes can be. The zoom-frenzy direction of Ted Post, and a vague satire of Vietnam featuring some hysterical protesting peacenik chimps, does little to cover-up the film's difficulties. But it does have its moments - as in the original movie, the make-up is fantastic and the scenes set in an underground New York, with its population of mutant freaks, are inspired. Kim Hunter as the human friendly simian Dr Zira and David Watson as the stand in Cornelius also give in surprisingly good turns. Verdict In terms of the series as a whole Beneath was not the best of the sequels and much better was to come. It's still worthy of a look though, for followers of the ape. |
