PLANET OF THE APES

   1) Film (1968). Apjac/20th Century-Fox. Dir Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore. Screenplay Michael Wilson, Rod SERLING, based on La planete dessinges (1963; trans as Planet of the Apes 1963 US) by Pierre BOULLE. 112 mins. Colour.

   Astronauts crashland on a planet where intelligent apes of three species rule over human savages. One astronaut is killed, one lobotomized, and the survivor (Heston) is put in a zoo. There follows a long middle sequence whose SATIRE, alternating between sharp and heavy-handed, suffers from an attempt to have it both ways: sometimes ape society - in its racism, its snobbery, its casual cruelty - is seen as a reflection of our own excesses; yet sometimes the humans are seen as crass and insensitive alongside the apes, who perhaps have made a better fist of things than we ever did (APES AND CAVEMEN). After unsuccessfully trying to persuade his captors that he is an intelligent being, the astronaut is befriended by two chimpanzee scientists (McDowall and Hunter) who accept his story; with their help he escapes. The final sequence has him fleeing to the Forbidden Zone with a female "savage" and - in a wonderful image (perhaps inspired by Hubert ROGERS's cover for ASF Feb 1941) - comingacross the half-buried Statue of Liberty projecting from a sandy beach. He realizes that he is still on Earth but in the FAR FUTURE, having unknowingly passed through a time-warp.The film is well directed, and the ape make-up by John Chambers is mobile and convincing, and deservedly won an Oscar. A commercial success, POTA was one of the 1968 films that made that year a turning point both for the increasing maturity of sf cinema and for its popularity. POTA inspired 4 sequels - BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1969), ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971), CONQUEST OFTHE PLANET OF THE APES (1972) and BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (1973) - as well as 2 tv series, one live-action (see 2 below) and the other animated: Return to the Planet of the Apes, 13 20min episodes (1975). Books spun-off from the animated series include 3 published as by WilliamArrow, \#1 and \#3 being by William ROTSLER and \#2 by Donald J. PFEIL: Visions from Nowhere * (1976), Escape from Terror Lagoon (1976) and Man, the Hunted Animal * (1976).

   2) US tv series (1974). 20th Century-Fox Television for CBS. Prod Stan Hough. Executive prod Herbert Hirschman.Starring Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, James Naughton, Booth Colman, Mark Leonard. 1 season, 14 50min episodes. Colour.

    This spin-off was set in the same future world as the film (though its ethics were more black-and-white), with some episodes in the ancient subterranean ruins of BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1969). There were 4 books, all by GeorgeAlec EFFINGER, based on the tv series: Man the Fugitive * (1974), Escape to Tomorrow * (1975), Journey into Terror * (1975) and Lord of the Apes * (1976).

   PN/JB