The original 1841 Edgar Allan Poe story concerns itself with the murder of a woman in a locked room, which is discovered to have really been caused by an escaped razor-wielding orang-utan that has been trained by a sailor. (There is no intent of murder upon the sailor’s part in the story). Needless to say, the film elaborates considerably on the story, adding more murders and Karl Malden as a mad Pavlovian zookeeper behind it all. But on the other hand this version is sadly bereft of the gleeful stew of mad scientists and demented hypnotists that pop up in other versions of the story and is only ultimately a pedestrian detective tale. Karl Malden’s customary bludgeoning, pug-nosed overacting is laughably out of place in the role of the mad zookeeper.

Director Roy Del Ruth was a prolific director of crime dramas and musicals since the silent era. He other genre films include the light fantasy ghost comedy Topper Returns (1941) and the mad scientist cheapie The Alligator People (1959). The film also has a subsequent fascination in its featuring of later-to-be talkshow host and gameshow producing legend Merv Griffin as a medical student who is briefly suspected of the killings.