Verified Unrenewed Public Domain
1940 Feature
The Ape
Directed by William Nigh → • Production: Independent Studio
The Ape is a 1940 American horror film directed by William Nigh. The film is based on Adam Hull Shirk's play The Ape, which was previously adapted by Nigh as The House of Mystery (1934). The film stars Boris Karloff as Dr. Bernard Adrian who is seeking to cure a young woman's polio through experiments involving spinal fluid. Meanwhile, a vicious ape has been terrorizing the towns locals, and ends up breaking into Adrian's lab. A battle ensues between the two, leading to the ape’s death, the destruction of Adrian’s spinal fluid samples, and Adrian deciding to skin the ape and disguise himself as the beast in order to kill people to get more spinal fluid.
Runtime
62 minutes
Aspect Ratio
312:239
Archival Copies
1 Vault Holding(s)
Classification
1929–1963 Unrenewed
The Video Boneyard Vault Holdings
Archival Master Preserved in Studio Vaults
This title is cataloged and preserved across physical storage drives D: & E: in The Video Boneyard archival collection (1 vault master holding). A broadcast-grade restoration with dynamic loudness normalization is scheduled for streaming release on our YouTube channel.
⚖️ Statutory Public Domain Clearance Provenance
First published in 1940. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1929 and 1963 required mandatory formal copyright registration renewal during their 28th year. Official United States Copyright Office Catalog of Copyright Entries records show zero renewal registration was filed, placing this work permanently in the Public Domain.