OVERLOOKED FILM: THE MONSTER WALKS (1932)

The credits for this film are inaccurate.  The star of the film should be The Hairy Hand, playing The Jump Scare.  The Jump Scare certainly has it's share of screen (scream?) time.

Ruth Earlton (Vera Reynolds) and her fiance Dr. Ted Clayton (Rex Lease) travel to her late father's home to find his will and determine what to do with his estate.  They are greeted by her invalid uncle Robert (Sheldon Erwin), housekeeper Mrs. Krug (Martha Mattox), and her son Hannes (Misha Auer).  Note that the film's actual credits give top billing to lease and the movie's posters to Auer; nowhere do they give credit to the Jump Scare.)

Anyway, Ruth goes exploring and finds a large ape in the basement; evidently her father had been experimenting on the creature in his laboratory.  Ruth blithely goes to sleep that night and the Jump Scare makes its first appearance as a hairy hand reaches out of the darkness for her -- the first of many times it reaches out for Ruth, but somehow misses.

The will is found and Ruth inherits everything but, on her death, it all goes to Robert.  Hmm. I smell a plot a-developin'.  (Mrs. Krug and her son also get a pittance, which does not please them.)

We know where this is going.  Robert (With the assistance of Mrs. Krug and Hanns) is trying to use the giant ape to kill Ruth, not realizing that this just does not work in B-movie land and that things will turn out bad for him in the end.  (The ape accidently kills Mrs. Krug instead.)  (Robert, BTW, turns out to be Hanns's father but Hanns did not know that...oops!)

The racist comic relief character of Exodus is provided by someone billed as 'Sleep n' Eat," who was actually Willie Best, who appeared on over a hundred similar roles in the 30s and 40s.  His movie career was stalled by drug charges in 1951, but he rebounded to become a familiar face on television later in the 1950s.

The Monster Walks was directed by Frank R. Strayer, whose 86 directing credits included 14 Blondie films.  The story and script were by Robert Ellis, an actor and director whose 69 writing credits include eight Charlie Chan movies, as well as Susannah of the Mounties, Sun Valley Serenade, and Four Jills in a Jeep; The Monster Walks was Ellis's second screenwriting assignment.

This is a B-movie and not a very good one, but keeping that in mind. it can be great fun and a harmless way to pass 57 minutes.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5UbOUqgeM