Oppressed apes seek freedom in a Schutzstaffel-patterned police state
Twenty years after the deaths of Cornelius & Zira, their child (Roddy McDowall) has been raised by a circus owner in secret (Ricardo Montalbán). Meanwhile society has devolved into Nazi-like authoritarianism in which chimpanzees, orangutangs and gorillas are viewed as pets at best and, worse, trained servants. Don Murray, Hari Rhodes and Severn Darden are featured in key roles.
“Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” (1972) is the fourth entry in the original franchise. It’s the darkest one and is pictorially unique with the focus on despotism and modern urban structures. Don’t expect the desert wilderness or forests of the first two movies.
Regrettably, 20th Century Fox was struggling at the time and so each film in the series had a significantly lower budget than the previous. No matter how you slice it, this can be ‘felt’ while watching “Conquest,” even though I appreciate the distinctive visuals.
Yet, for me, it’s the story and characters that count and they’re just not very captivating. The next movie, “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (the final one of the original five), had the lowest budget and, therefore, the weakest sets, but it made up for it with interesting characters and a fairly compelling story, despite the cheesy comic book tone.
This has its points of interest, for sure, but I find it the least of the original series.
It runs 1 hour, 28 minutes, and was shot at Century City, Los Angeles, with some exteriors done at the Social Sciences buildings at the University of California in Irvine, which is 51 miles to the southeast.
GRADE: C
