Lambeth Fantastical - April 2025

 Apes In April

April 3rd 1968 was the release date of the first 'Planet of the Apes' movie. It featured Roddy McDowall who grew up a few doors away from Lambeth's Carnegie Library in Herne Hill. The film was based on the 1963 scifi novel by French author, Pierre Boule. McDowall, in full ape make up and costume, starred as Dr. Cornelius, a chimpanzee scientist who studies and ultimately assists crashed American Astronaut, Taylor, played by Hollywood screen legend, Charlton Heston.

The script was adapted from the novel by Rod Serling, famed writer and presenter of the cult 'Twilight Zone' TV series. McDowall and Serling knew each other, having worked together on an episode of the 'Twilight Zone' 'People Are Alike All Over' (1960) in which McDowall himself played an astronaut.

McDowall, however, wasn't a shoe in for the role. In the original test rushes sent by Director, Franklin J Shaffner, to 20th Century Fox, to demonstrate the costume design, up and coming actor, James Brolin, played Dr. Cornelius, relatively unknown, Linda Harris, played Cornelius's wife, Zira, and veteran gangster actor Edward G Robinson played the role of another of the apes, Zaius.

When the film was given the green light McDowall was cast. Kim Hunter took on the role of Zira, while Linda Harris was recast as Nova, the human love interest for Heston's astronaut. Edward G Robinson was too ill to carry on with the project, so the role of Zaius was given to Maurice Evans, who also had a role in another 1968 classic 'Rosemary's Baby'. Brolin wasn't cast, but did play an astronaut in the 1977 conspiracy thriller, 'Capricorn One'.

Meanwhile, McDowall had to endure hours of make up and prosthetics for his daily transformation into Cornelius. The make up and prosthetics were designed by John Chambers, who had previously worked on the Munsters TV show and was responsible for the designing the pointed ears of Leonard Nimoy's Mr Spock in Star Trek.

Despite enduring hours in the make up chair and having to act in costume in the heat of filming locations near the Grand Canyon and Arizona desert McDowall was recognised by other cast members for professional approach, treating the role as if he were appearing in a Shakespearean production.

He would go on to appear in another three of the original film series. The only film he didn't appear in was 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' (1970). This was due to him making his directorial debut with 'Tam Lin', starring Ava Gardner and Ian McShane.

He also appeared in the fourteen episodes of the 1974 Planet of the Apes TV series, for which he revived the costume he had worn in the original movie, stating that it was his favourite. The villain of the TV series, General Urko, was played by Mark Lenard, who also had a connection to Star Trek's Mr Spock, having played Spock's father, Sarek, in both the TV series and the big screen adaptations.

McDowall's ape characters were immortalised on bubble gum cards, comic strips and action figures as well as host of other Planet of the Apes merchandise.

A piece of Planet of the Apes also found a home for a while in Lambeth in the 1990s when the prop for half buried Statue of Liberty depicted at the end of the 1968 film was one of the permanent exhibits at the BFI's Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI).

Another legendary cinema ape with connections to South London and the month of April is King Kong. Released on the 7th April 1933 the original script was written by Edgar Wallace, who was born in Greenwich on 1st April 1875 and lived in Lewisham before he moved to Hollywood to take up a role as a script writer for RKO Pictures.

King Kong co-director Merion C Cooper hired Wallace to write the screenplay in December 193I, giving him a broad outline of what what he wanted included in the script. Wallace died of double pneumonia a couple of weeks after turning in his first draft and never actually saw the film itself. The draft script was worked on by two other writers but Wallace was given the star billing as writer on the 1933 film posters.

One of the scenes cut from the original draft involved the crew of the ship which arrives on the mysterious Skull Island being attacked by hordes of giant insects. At the time the special effects needed to portray the scenes were considered too expensive. However, in the age of CGI, Peter Jackson was able to create scenes close to what Wallace had envisaged in his 2005 King Kong remake.

A film of an entirely different genre is 'Melody' (1971) produced by David Putnam, written by Alan Parker, Directed by Waris Hussain, starring Mark Lester and Jack Wilde, with a soundtrack by the Bee Gees and filmed on location in Kennington. I'll be marking the film's 54th anniversary with a guided walk of the locations on Easter Monday. Book via the Eventbrite link below.

Melody Guided Film Walk