From The Man They Could Not Hang to The Walking Dead, the pre-war era saw Hollywood suddenly become preoccupied with the concept of reviving executed criminals. The Monster and the Girl, however, was the only such film in which a convict’s brain was transplanted into a gorilla.
Released 85 years ago today, the black-and-white curio was also the only such film to give as much attention to the courtroom as the laboratory. As mild-mannered church organist Scot Webster (Philip Terry) finds himself accused of murdering a gang member, the first half largely plays out like a conventional legal thriller.
