Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Don Taylor

Writers:

Paul Dehn (written by)
Pierre Boulle (characters creator)

Release Date:

21 May 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Meet baby Milo who has Washington terrified.

Plot:

The world is shocked by the appearance of two talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society; but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.

Plot Keywords:

Ape | Future | Spacecraft | Chimpanzee | Planet Of The Apes

Cast

Roddy McDowall	...	Cornelius
Kim Hunter	...	Zira
Bradford Dillman	...	Dr. Lewis Dixon
Natalie Trundy	...	Dr. Stephanie Branton
Eric Braeden	...	Dr. Otto Hasslein
William Windom	...	The President
Sal Mineo	...	Milo
Albert Salmi	...	E-1
Jason Evers	...	E-2
John Randolph	...	Chairman
Harry Lauter	...	General Winthrop
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Aide
Roy Glenn	...	Lawyer (as Roy E. Glenn, Sr.)
Peter Forster	...	Cardinal
Norman Burton	...	Army Officer
William Woodson	...	Naval Officer
Tom Lowell	...	Orderly
Gene Whittington	...	Marine Captain
Donald Elson	...	Curator
Bill Bonds	...	TV Newscaster
Army Archerd	...	Referee
James Bacon	...	General Faulkner
Ricardo Montalban	...	Armando
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Bradley	...	(unconfirmed)
John Alderman	...	Marine Corporal (uncredited)
Walker Edmiston	...	Talking Baby Chimp (voice) (uncredited)
James W. Gavin	...	Helicopter Pilot (uncredited)
Joe Gray	...	Bodyguard (uncredited)
Robert Gunner	...	Landon (archive footage) (uncredited)
Robert Nichols	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Janos Prohaska	...	Heloise (uncredited)
Stephen Roberts	...	General Brody (uncredited)
James Sikking	...	Control Room Officer (uncredited)

Directed by
Don Taylor

Writing credits
Paul Dehn		(written by)
Pierre Boulle		(characters creator)

Produced by
Frank Capra Jr.	....	associate producer
Arthur P. Jacobs	....	producer

Original Music by
Jerry Goldsmith

Cinematography by
Joseph F. Biroc		(as Joseph Biroc)

Film Editing by
Marion Rothman

Art Direction by
William J. Creber		(as William Creber)
Jack Martin Smith

Set Decoration by
Stuart A. Reiss
Walter M. Scott

Makeup Department
Mary Babcock	....	hair stylist
Jack Barron	....	makeup artist
John Chambers	....	creative makeup design
Daniel C. Striepeke	....	makeup supervisor (as Dan Striepeke)
Verne Langdon	....	special makeup effects artist (uncredited)
Jan Van Uchelen	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
Francisco Day	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pepi Lenzi	....	assistant director

Art Department
Bill Sully	....	art illustrator

Sound Department
Theodore Soderberg	....	sound
Dean Vernon	....	sound
Raul A. Bruce	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Special Effects by
L.B. Abbott	....	special photographic effects (uncredited)
Howard A. Anderson	....	special photographic effects (uncredited)

Stunts
Jerry Brutsche	....	stunt performer (uncredited)
James W. Gavin	....	aerial stunts (uncredited)

Music Department
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator
Bob Bain	....	musician: guitar (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Chris Haynes	....	driver (uncredited)

Other crew
Jack Hirshberg	....	unit publicist
Roy Kabat	....	animals furnished by

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (presents) (as Twentieth Century-Fox)
• APJAC Productions (produced by) (as APJAC Productions, Inc.)

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1971) (USA) (theatrical) (released by) (as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.)
• 20th Century Fox (1971) (France) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan (2001) (Japan) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1999) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Abril Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• CBS/Fox (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• CBS/Fox (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1973) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Playhouse Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Howard A. Anderson Company (special photographic effects)

Also Known As:

Secret of the Planet of the Apes (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG (TV rating) | Brazil:Livre | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-12 (original rating) | Norway:12 (1972) | Sweden:11 | UK:PG (video rating: 1987) | UK:U (original rating) | USA:G | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Even though Charlton Heston (Taylor) is not listed in the full cast/crew; he does appear in archive footage lifted from the conclusion of "Planet of the Apes" where he kisses Zira goodbye. That (color tinted) scene appears during Zira's interrogation, by government officials, while she is under the effects of sodium pentothal (a truth drug) that puts her in a dream state. Her memories include brief moments from "Planet of the Apes" and "Beneath the Planet of the Apes".

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Cornelius, Zira and Milo are first taken to the zoo, Roddy McDowall's neck is visible underneath his makeup.

Quotes:

Cornelius: If we are caught, we will almost certainly be killed. Please give us the opportunity... to kill ourselves?
Dr. Lewis Dixon: I shouldn't do this, but I guessed you'd ask.
[Dr. Dixon hands Cornelius a gun]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Great New Wonderful (2005)

Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) ***1/2

In a brilliant solution for continuing the storyline after the ending of BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, three intelligent chimpanzees from Earth's future take off in Charlton Heston's salvaged spacecraft just prior to Earth's destruction; they wind up hurled backward in time to 1973 California and - in an interesting twist on the original theme - now find themselves the strange visitors in a strange world ruled by bombastic human beings.

Lovable simians Zira and Cornelius (expertly played by Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall) lose their friend Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo!) early on in a tragic accident, and find themselves in a strange situation when mankind first welcomes them as celebrities and garnishes them with gifts, but ultimately begins to fear when it is learned that Zira is pregnant with an ape offspring that could grow to overtake humanity.

We really grow to sympathize with the plight of the chimpanzee couple, and we fear along with them and the safety of their child when they become hunted fugitives later in the story. Eric Braeden is very good as the quintessential villain out to kill the ape family at any cost.

Some people enjoy picking on the APES sequels as they continued, but I've always felt this series consistently remained very intelligent and had something powerful to say about race relations and prejudice. People want to know how apes could ever manage to send Taylor's ship into orbit; I say that if you can suspend disbelief long enough to accept the notion of intelligent apes, then it shouldn't be that far a reach to accept that Dr. Milo was the genius of his time who just could pull it off; the Thomas Edision of his type, if you will.

The timeline in the five apes films is often admittedly contradictory, but there are ways that fans of the Apes movies have been able to make them work. For example, in this film Cornelius seems to talk about Ape History and Evolution in a way that actually doesn't follow suit during the next two installments. That's because the very arrival of Zira and Cornelius onto present-day Earth of 1973, and the subsequent birth of their baby, will accelerate the procedure from how Cornelius remembered it, as we'll see in the next two chapters. The circumstances for the future will be sped up and changed, and the apes will evolve at a much quicker rate.

Some of the other dubious complaints are aimed at the "lesser budgets," or supposed "TV Movie Look" of the sequels from this point on -- but this story in ESCAPE does not require mind-numbing special effects or hordes of CGI-rendered ape figures swarming Los Angeles to make it effective. It's got a lot of heart and good writing with characters we care about, and that's all it needs.