1968:
The trivia:
- Operation "Wandering Soul" was a US initiative during the Vietnam War which had recordings of Americans pretending to be ghosts played through the jungle at night.
- The phrase "Who's your daddy?" originated from the 1968 song "Time of the Season" by The Zombies.
- The famous comedy sketch show "Laugh-in" correctly predicted that Ronald Reagan would be President in 1988 and that the Berlin Wall would fall in 1989.
- "Night of the Living Dead" is a public domain film because when the name was changed from "Night of the Flesh Eaters", the distributors accidentally removed the copyright indication. This means that there over 200 different releases available on DVD.
- When an astrologer gave the same horoscope reading to all who applied - that of France's worst mass murder - 94% found the reading to accurately fit their life.
Planet of the Apes
How can you cover the sheer cultural impact of the "Apes" movies in just a few sentences? I'm not sure I even want to try. All I know is that viewing that first film started a life-long love affair with everything to do with this future world that stretched out across the years and into every story since (yes even the Tim Burton "re-imagining" will get a mention).
My parents were big fans of the old-school "Epics" - tales from history with gigantic casts and hugely impressive set pieces. Classics such as "The Ten Commandments", "El Cid", "Spartacus", "Lawrence of Arabia" and naturally the daddy of them all, "Ben-Hur". I grew up with these films. By the time "Planet of the Apes" turned up on our small TV screen (and I was old enough to be allowed to watch it) I was well aware who Charlton Heston was. I recognised that chiselled jaw, that muscular frame - his sheer screen presence. He was one of my favourite actors (if a child can be said to have such a thing). Plus this was science fiction - *my* genre - and it featured talking apes! How could I not love it immediately? Sure the deeper allegorical elements of the story and what it said about the horrors of war and the fear of mankind engineering it's own destruction were lost on me - I was too young - but hey - talking apes !
By today's standards the ape prosthetics look primitive and obvious, but back then the masks and costumes given to the various simian "castes" succeeded in not only making talking gorillas and orangutans seem possible, they allowed the actors behind the foam rubber to imbue the apes with real personality. Of course it's boosted enormously by a stunning central performance from the wonderful Roddy McDowall as chimpanzee archaeologist Cornelius. He was such an inquisitive, peaceful and believable character, I wanted him to be my friend.
The makeup and sets and acting might help convince you that this alien world is real and the film is a terrific action piece (Chuck gets lots of opportunities gets to flex his muscles), but it has a compelling mystery at it's heart - how did this strange place come to exist? Sitting here in the 21st Century we know that the shocking answer to that is behind probably one of the most famous images on celluloid.
"The word "iconic" is somewhat overused nowadays, but that picture above is probably one of the most deserving of that appellation. It's such a WOW! moment, I think I nearly fell off the sofa. If the previous 100-odd minutes hadn't already made me a fan, that pull back and reveal in the closing seconds sealed the deal. I'd never seen a film before that pulled off such an amazing twist - and it would be a long time before something would hit me with such force again ("The Empire Strikes Back" maybe?).
After that, I lapped up each of the "Apes" sequels as each one made an appearance on my TV screen. "Beneath" was a solid continuation (particularly as they enticed Mr. Heston back for a supporting role). A hell of a downbeat ending though. I think my only minor problem with it at the time was that I could tell it wasn't the same actor beneath Cornelius' mask (Roddy McDowall was too busy). I shouldn't have worried though because Roddy was the star of the show in the loose trilogy of the next three - "Escape", "Conquest" and "Battle". I devoured each one.
By the time 1974 came round, the UK was in the grip of full on Ape-mania. This was spearheaded (for me at least) by the release of Marvel UK's "Planet of the Apes" weekly comic which reprinted the adaptation and new stories from the US publication. Comics - Planet of the Apes - what could be better?! Couple this with the transmission of the new 14-part television series and I was in seventh heaven. Okay so the characters were different. Cornelius was replaced by Galen, but it was still Roddy under the rubber. At the same time newsagents started to stock the collectable bubble gum cards that featured images from the show. British kids went mad for these and there was a huge trade in "swapsies" in my school playground. Not only did you get a still taken from an episode, the backs of the cards joined up to form nine different puzzle images! I tried so hard to collect the whole set, probably driving my parents to distraction, but I never did manage it.
Another piece of "Apes" merchandise that I have vivid memories of from 1974 is the board game. The basic premise was "be the last free human". Players took it in turn to roll two die. One was the number of spaces you could move your piece on the board, the other the number of spaces you got to move any one else's piece. The idea was to force your opponents cut-out onto one of the four "captured" spaces - and then the fun began.
In the centre of the board was a constructed cardboard "cage" protected by two swing "doors", which in turn were supported by a plastic lever connected to a round device. The captured player was stood on the top of the cage and the plastic dial turned. Random chance meant that one turn of the dial could release the lever and condemn the player to the pit - they were out of the game - or nothing happened and the hapless human was safe for another few rounds until they ended up on a "captured" space again. Hours of fun for all the family.
After the TV series was cancelled (before resolving its storyline), 1975 treated us "Apes" fans to animated simians in the form of "Return to the Planet of the Apes". I'm a little vague time-wise on this one as I know I saw the cartoon when I was a child, but I can't be sure exactly when. What I do recall is that it was pretty enjoyable - especially if you watched it every week, as the plot played out across all thirteen episodes. It was also quite different from the films and the live-action TV version. Although the astronaut premise was the same, the ape society was more technologically advanced with cars and their own movies and television channels (resulting in some groan-worthy puns such as "William Apespeare" and "The Apefather". Much later I learned that this was more in line with the original Pierre Boulle novel.
The animation style was pretty basic with limited movement, but the backgrounds were very detailed thanks to the efforts of veteran artist Doug Wildey (another name that I didn't come to know until over a decade later). Sadly it too was cancelled before it's time and the reign of the Apes appeared to be over, apart from a comics series I don't even remember seeing on sale in the early 1990s. Still, it had been a good run.
Of course a really good idea never stays dead for long - not in the 21st Century's nostalgia obsessed, franchise driven society (and yes I am aware of the conflict in that sentence given that this is a nostalgic look back at a decades-spanning franchise) and 2001 gave us Tim Burton's rebooted take on the saga. It was a bit of a poisoned chalice to be fair, having been in development hell for decades and then rushed into production. But even being generous and allowing for all that I've only every watched it twice and that's more than enough. Wooden human characters you don't care about, played by actors who aren't up to the job (Wahlberg vs Heston? Don't make me laugh!) Bloody Helena Bonham-Carter. Oh and let's not forget *that* ending? What were they thinking?! Is there anything positive I can say about this travesty?....errrr....um.....the makeup is pretty good? Tim Roth is not bad as a pantomime-ish villain? Thank god they never got to make a sequel? I like to think of it as expensive bad fan-fiction - in the canon of the Apes, it doesn't count.
Thankfully in the years since we've had a large number of high quality comics from BOOM! Studios - they even did a crossover with the original Star Trek crew called "The Primate Directive" - plus not one, but two incredibly good and very successful "prequel" movies, with a third to follow in 2017, These really have struck the right chord, which thankfully invokes the spirit of the originals while carving their own path - even if part of me still misses the mellifluous voice of Roddy McDowall. The profile of the "Apes" is at it's highest for decades, my interest in undimmed and I eagerly look forward to each new instalment. Long may they continue. For a franchise that's fast approaching it's own half century, it still has interesting and relevant things to say about society and mankind and the way we treat each other and the creatures we share this planet with.
"Planet of the Apes" has influenced not just this little boy, but generations of film lovers, writers, directors, makeup artists, special effects wizards, cinematographers - the list goes on. It's been copied, parodied, blazed it's way across every type of entertainment media (I didn't have time to mention the vinyl records and video games) and has crossed into mainstream popular culture. Oh and let's not forget, there are not many movies that have spawned two of the most quoted phrases in cinema history.
I'll end with my favourite of the "homages" to the majesty of the "Apes" series - it's "The Simpsons" with their very own musical version. starring Troy McClure (you may remember him from such films as "The Erotic Adventures of Hercules" or "Lead Paint: Delicious But Deadly")...
"Oooo, Oooo....Doctor Zaius,,,"
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