Bernard Adrian, a sinister doctor obsessed with a determination to find a cure for the paralysis that killed his daughter, strikes fear in the people of the town in which he lives. His recent experiments are directed at Frances Clifford, a young crippled woman who reminds him of his late daughter. The doctor’s opportunity to try his experimental serum presents itself when a traveling circus comes to town and an ape mauls its sadistic trainer. The critically injured man is brought to Dr. Adrian, who siphons the dying man’s spinal fluids and injects then into Frances’ bloodstream. Requiring more fluid to effect Frances’ cure, the doctor finds the solution to his problem in the rampaging ape that has escaped from the circus and is terrorizing the town. When the ape breaks into the doctor’s house, he slays the beast and dons its skin. Masquerading as the creature, Adrian then murders Mason, a cruel and abusive man, and injects his spinal fluid into Frances. Adrian’s treatments prove successful as the feeling gradually returns to Frances’ legs, but the sheriff and coroner become suspicious of the doctor and stake out his house. While stalking the countryside in search of victims to fuel his experiment, Adrian is mistaken for the creature and shot by one of the sheriff’s men. As the doctor lies dying from the bullet wound, Frances pulls herself up from her wheelchair and steps toward the man who has restored her power to walk. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch The Ape (1940)
