if the chimp did not scream so much, he could have won an academy award as the leading man

This was a very early talkie, I would bet the over enunciated delivery of the dialogue was influenced by this fact, it adds to the utter peculiarity of this film. It has an absurdity that is hard to define, that mixed with the underlying gothic affect and a tiny bit of blaxploitation makes this plenty enjoyable. I do wish the leading man and woman were less white-bread, and Lugosi would have made a lovely butler.

I'm a big fan of the old-dark-house genre. All its elements, except for a large cast, are here in this low-budget mystery/horror, but it's just too poorly crafted to recommend. The mystery is given away early on, with only the details left to be revealed at the end. Few scenes can be considered atmospheric. The dialog is primitive, with leading lady Vera Reynolds repeating "Take me out of here!" every chance she gets. Her acting and that of leading man Rex Lease are on a high school drama club level. On the plus side, Mischa Auer is entertainingly campy in one of his villainous roles, and Sleep 'n' Eat (Willie Best) makes an early appearance as comic relief. Interesting as a curiosity, "Monster Walks" isn't one of Hollywood's gems, especially when you consider the excellent old-dark-house romp "Bat Whispers" was released a year earlier. FOOTNOTE: "Bat Whispers" isn't available here at the Archive, but its modernized remake "The Bat" is.

horrble acing on top of insipid dialouge and a total lack of charactor development makes for one really lousy movie.