A Big Chuck Retro Review: “The Planet of the Apes” (1968; VIDEO)

Another great Charlton Heston film.  Spooky premise, especially when you consider it was made almost fifty years ago.

Of course, the make-up was absolutely groundbreaking.  The ape masks and costumes were extremely convincing.  It was cool they way you could still tell who the actors were under the masks.  Roddy McDowell's eyes, pretty Kim Hunter's lips, crusty old Maurice Evans' furrowed brow.  They were all there.

This was a controversial "end of the world" movie that really made a lot of people think.  Of course I was only 17 when I first saw it so I didn't do any thinking, I was just there for the thrilling ride.

Oh, and the scene where Charlton Heston is captured by the apes was one of the most frightening scenes you could see in all of 1968.  The original script came from the pen of the great Rod Serling.  The movie cost $5,000,000 to make.  It grossed more than $35,000,000 worldwide.

I give this move Four Meatballs, my highest rating.  You may remember that the remade this movie four times in 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973.  None of them even came close to the classic original.

All you have to do is watch this heart-stopping movie trailer to know why every teenage boy in America had to see this movie in the summer of 1968!