Review: Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Astronaut Brent (James Franciscus) lands on a strange (but familiar to the audience as Earth) planet in search of fellow astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston, appearing in cameo form here). He finds himself on a bizarre planet ruled by apes. However, after being helped by benevolent chimp scientists Zira and Cornelius (Kim Hunter and David Watson), he ventures out past the forbidden zone to find Taylor. Unfortunately, what he finds instead is a subterranean lair that is actually the ruins of New York City and home to a race of telepathic mutant humans who worship a nuclear device as a deity. Maurice Evans reprises his role as Orangutan authoritarian Dr. Zaius, whilst James Gregory plays militant gorilla bully Ursus. The mutants are played by Victor Buono, Natalie Trundy, Jeff Corey, and Don Pedro Colley.

Under-budgeted and fairly miscalculated, this 1970 film from director Ted Post (“Hang ‘Em High”, “Magnum Force”) and screenwriter Paul Dehn (writer of all the “Apes” sequels in the first cycle) is probably the weakest of the “Planet of the Apes” films. The emphasis is barely on the apes (and the quality of the makeup this time is abysmal), and in their place we get radiation-afflicted mutants who ludicrously worship an atomic bomb. It’s silly, cheap, and a bit joyless.

The opening five minutes are dreadful, replaying the final moments of the first film before new human hero James Franciscus basically replays the opening of the first film. I never understood why Franciscus never quite made it to the A-grade, he was the perfect blend of Charlton Heston and Richard Chamberlain if you ask me, and does a perfectly fine job as Heston 2.0 in this one. Also fine is James Gregory (the politician from “The Manchurian Candidate”) as militant, human-hating gorilla Ursus, who offers up the film’s only memorable line: ‘The only good human is a dead human!’. Sadly, as I said the apes aren’t given much emphasis here, which is a shame because not only is Gregory’s Ursus fine, but Kim Hunter is solid as always as Dr. Zira, and David Watson does such an excellent vocal impersonation of Roddy McDowell as Dr. Cornelius, that I didn’t even realise it was a different actor when I was a kid. They’re all fine, this film just doesn’t care about them. In fact, the one thing I don’t like about Franciscus here is that, like Mark Wahlberg in the otherwise fine remake of “Planet of the Apes”, Franciscus is too concerned with leaving the planet to have any shock, awe, or interest in talking, up-right walking apes.

The music score by Leonard Rosenman (“Fantastic Voyage”, “Star Trek IV: The One With the Whales”, “RoboCop 2”) is a reasonable facsimile of Jerry Goldsmith’s wonderfully off-kilter score from the original. However, the best thing in the entire film is the underground set design. Cheap matte paintings or not, it still looks terrific. It’s an excellent post-apocalyptic visual design, and although obviously very 1970 in quality, I wouldn’t call this aspect of the film cheap-looking. For its time it looks good.

What I also like about the film is its themes. Whatever else you can say about it, the nuclear themes are at least interesting on a thematic level. However, taking those themes and using them for the storyline overall, proves to be not all that much fun and not all that ape-y. The plot, whilst a plausible continuation from the first film, sadly plays more like an episode of the original series of “Star Trek”. The villainous mutants and even the utterly useless Charlton Heston cameo and mind-controlled tussle with Franciscus also reek of “Star Trek” to me. Ultimately, you just can’t shake that feeling that the filmmakers would rather this not be about a planet of apes at all. The apes are mostly only in the beginning and end of the film. As is, there’s some interest to be had with it here and there, but it’s all very glum, sometimes tacky, and often very “Star Trek”. Also, after 45 minutes one has only recently gotten beneath the planet, and there’s only about 40 or so minutes left. It’s too slow, so that recap at the beginning proves even less necessary.

One of the biggest problems with the film is that it’s very 1970s in terms of sound design, and if you know your 70s-early 80s sci-fi sound design, this is yet another in a sadly too long line of irritatingly shrill sound FX-filled films. Meanwhile, talented character actors Jeff Corey and Victor Buono, as two of the mutated humans…do a lot of nodding. That sure is a fine use of their considerable talents, isn’t it? The characters can clearly talk, yet they do all this nodding and shrill beeping and booping instead. The real problem though, is that the characters are poorly written into the film with very little time to deal with them, and at the end of the day, almost completely irrelevant in “Apes” legacy. At the very least, more should’ve been done to contextualise them within the fabric of the first film and this one. So it kind of plays like the original film has been remade cheaply, then interrupted by an episode of “Star Trek” incongruously, before the other movie decides to come back again…slowly. Nothing really hangs together. It’s watchable, but messy and unsatisfying. The ending, when Heston finally and pointlessly decides to show up is nihilistic and distasteful, to be honest. It does have one benefit however, it forced the series into a complete time shift from then on. It just means the mutants here are largely pointless, is all.

Basically a “Star Trek” episode with apes occasionally thrown in. For what it is, it’s somewhat watchable, but far lesser than the iconic and brilliant original. The set design is interesting, but the film simply isn’t…fun, and I’m not sure a “Planet of the Apes” sequel ought to focus so much on a cult-like race of mutated people who worship a nuclear warhead. I understand the connection to the first film, I just think the filmmakers have missed the point here a bit. Cheap ape masks don’t help, either. Not bad, but not successful, either.

Rating: C+