Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973) 50th Anniversary

THE FINAL CHAPTER of the original Apes series was released in the USA fifty years ago today!

Cast

Roddy McDowall (Caesar)

Claude Akins (Aldo)

Natalie Trundy (Lisa)

Severn Darden (Kolp)

Lew Ayres (Mandemus)

Paul Williams (Virgil)

Austin Stoker (MacDonald)

Noah Keen (Abe)

Richard Eastham (Mutant Captain)

France Nuyen (Alma)

Paul Stevens (Mendez)

Heather Lowe (Doctor)

Bobby Porter (Cornelius)

Michael Stearns (Jake)

Cal Wilson (Soldier)

Pat Cardi (Young Chimp)

John Landis (Jake's friend)

Andy Knight (Mutant on motorcycle)

John Huston (Lawgiver)

featuring Colleen Camp, Paula Crist, James Bacon, David Gerrold, Dominique Green, Jimmy Gambina, Sam Maronie, Roydon Clark, Erik Cord,

Nick Dimitri, Orwin Harvey, Robert Prohaska, Dick Durock, Whitey Hughes, Hubie Kerns, Hubie Kerns Jr, Regis Parton, Victor Paul, Allen Pinson, Thomas Rosales Jr, Wally Rose, Jesse Wayne, Lightning Bear, Steven Burnett, Richard E. Butler, Mickey Caruso, Bennie E. Dobbins,
Russ Dodson, Larry Duran, Eddie Hice, Larry Holt, Denver Mattson, Troy Melton, Regina Parton, Glenn Randall Jr, Alex Sharp, Felix Silla,
Eddie Smith, Richard Washington, Chuck Waters and Fred M. Waugh.

Trivia

adapted from IMDb and The Sacred Scrolls

Sam Jaffe was originally signed as the Lawgiver, but turned down the role when he discovered he would have to shave off his beard in order to accommodate the ape facial appliances. He was replaced with the similarly-bearded, but more willing, John Huston. Jaffe was mistakenly listed as playing the Lawgiver in a magazine article published shortly after the completion of filming.

Early scripts for Battle intended MacDonald to be the same character as in Conquest, but actor Hari Rhodes wasn't available for filming at the time. Instead, the role was given to Austin Stoker - playing his brother - who was apparently a last-minute replacement. Stoker met producer Arthur P. Jacobs and director J. Lee Thompson on 31st December 1972 and was on set on 2nd January 1973. "I thought to myself, I've always known acting is a volatile profession, but this is ridiculous... Fortunately we started with physical sequences and didn't get into the dramatics until some time later." A subsequent script revision included (the younger) MacDonald's line: "when the bomb dropped on the city and Caesar heard of my brother's death he said 'my heart is torn.'"

John Landis, the director of Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, etc., has a tiny part, as does David Gerrold, who wrote the official novelisation of the film.

Both incarnations of the US paperback feature a shot from Conquest on the front cover.

German paperback edition

Noah Keen was injured in a car accident when his "small foreign car" was broadsided by a Cadillac as he was leaving the set of Battle. He suffered bruises and a few broken teeth.

In a scene early in the movie script, MacDonald uses the phrase "I could eat a horse", to which Lisa, taking him literally, responds "If horses, why not hippos? Where did you draw the line?" According to the San Simian Sentinel (promotional newspaper distributed free to first-run viewers of Battle), Lisa actually said "If horses, why not hippies? Where did you draw the line?" However, while this may have been in the original theatrical version, DVD releases have omitted Lisa's line of dialogue.

One explosion on the Fox ranch set (during the battle scene) was so gigantic that a motorist several miles away reported a plane crash to the authorities.

F-6 was the code designation for the corridor that Caesar, Virgil and MacDonald 'invaded' the dead city through. The Archives Section was near Breck's old Command Post. Its address, revealed in David Gerrold's novelisation, was an in-joke; located on 'Ackerman Street', with the correct vault numbered 4SJ, - long the signature of well-known SF & Horror authority Forrest J. Ackerman.

The movie was billed as "The Final Chapter", and in Italy was released under the title Anno 2670 - Ultimo Atto ("Year 2670 - The Final Act"), leaving little likelihood of a further sequel even without the untimely death of producer Arthur P. Jacobs, who was at the time developing the Apes concept for TV. 

A writer in a 1975 fanzine compiled a timeline of the Apes movies continuity and finished by saying, "There is a lot of room for endless speculation and a multitude of new films. A film is definitely called for here. Maybe the new film, The Secret on the Planet of the Apes will provide an answer." It's not clear if the author was speculating on what could be done with a new film, or if he actually believed a new movie by this name was being developed. The Secret of the Planet of the Apes had been a working title in the early stages of production of Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Salvation for the Planet of the Apes was the title given to a potential sixth Apes film to be independently produced in 1976 at Orange Coast College and featuring Paula Crist and Bill Blake, with a storyline designed to tie up loose ends from the various sequels.

Governor Breck from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) was originally planned to return as the villain, but Don Murray wasn't interested. However, Severn Darden was available to return, so the villain was changed to Breck's security chief, Kolp.

The scenes of Ape City in this film were filmed at the Fox Ranch, now Malibu State Park.

Roddy McDowall and Natalie Trundy are the only cast members to appear in four of the five original Apes movies.

All five original Apes movies were number 1 at the U.S. box office when released. Battle spent two weeks as the top grossing film: the week of 17th June 1973 it made $4,864,355 and the week of 24th June it made $4,294,934.

Paul Dehn was supposed to have written the fifth instalment in the series but was unable to do so for health reasons. Instead John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington were hired after the success of The Ωmega Man (1971). Joyce Corrington later admitted that she had never even seen an Apes movie before being hired to write the next one. The Corringtons' original ending had apes and human children playing together in a playground. They hated Paul Dehn's more portentous ending.

Director J. Lee Thompson was very unhappy about the budget limitations imposed on him. He had had to agree to direct the film before a final screenplay was in place.

Paul Dehn had recovered from his bout of illness sufficiently to come in at the end of pre-production and do a re-write of the script. Although he rewrote about 90% and changed the ending, he was only given a Story credit by the Writers Guild of America.

20th Century Fox had already decided to move the franchise to television before the production began.

Producer Arthur P. Jacobs died exactly two weeks after the film's release.

With no explanation given, the apes in this film have begun wearing the cloth-and-leather clothing from the first three films. As in those films, the chimpanzees wear green, orangutans wear orange, and gorillas wear black. Also in this film, all of the apes have the ability to speak, reason, and to a lesser extent read and write; in the previous film, Caesar was the only talking ape (except for Lisa).

The previous entry - Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) - had incurred some criticism for being too violent. The intent with this sequel was that it should be more appealing to families and children in particular.

Roddy McDowall (Caesar), Severn Darden (Governor Kolp) and Natalie Trundy (Lisa) are the only actors to reprise their roles from Conquest.

The film takes place in the early 21st Century and 2670.

During the battle at Ape City, there are many scenes of tree houses exploding in flames. In reality, due to budget constraints, only one tree house was blown up. However, this explosion was filmed from multiple angles. These shots were then divided and edited into multiple places in the finished film to give the illusion that many tree houses had been blown up.

Conquest begins by letting us know that its story takes place in 1991. In Battle, Mandemus tells Caesar that the armoury has been his home for 27 years (this contradicts one of Kolp's followers implying that the war ended 12 years ago). Depending on how long it took the apes to get out of the city and build their own armoury this movie should take place sometime around 2018 or soon thereafter.

Discounting footage from Escape and Conquest, Roddy McDowall does not appear until 13 minutes into the film.

Here's Roger Ebert's contemporary review of Battle (originally published 10th July 1973):

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is the fifth and, merciful God, the last of the ape movies. It takes place long after Charlton Heston and even James Franciscus have faded from the scene; we have a new generation headed by Caesar (Roddy McDowall), who is the son of the original ape leaders, Cornelius and Zira. Caesar is non-violent and practices mutual co-operation with the human colony, but there’s a militarist junta of trigger-happy professional gorilla soldiers plotting to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, Caesar plans an expedition to the Forbidden City (which was destroyed by nuclear war in the last ape movie, you will doubtless vividly recall), in order to view a videotape made by his late parents. In it, they predict that the city will be destroyed by nuclear war. Thanks a lot. But the expedition also discovers that in the ruins of the city’s subterranean vastness, a few mutant humans still survive.

Unlike the good humans, these humans have been weakened by radiation. Their leader is Severn (Second City) Darden, who seems somewhat unlikely in the role at first. But Darden, who is a comedian to the core, manages to salvage a glimmer of Mad Dictator savoir faire from the role, and who but the beloved Severn could lead a retreat wearing ski goggles and riding in a commandeered school bus? Meanwhile, back at Ape City, Caesar’s young son has eavesdropped on the militarists and discovered their plans to raid the armoury and bring an end to twelve years of peace. He is discovered by the evil gorilla leader, who hacks a vine in two and sends young Cornelius plunging to the ground. Thereupon Caesar, blinded by grief, keeps a vigil at his son’s bedside while the gorillas put all the humans in the stockade and plunder the armoury.

Now here things become slightly complicated. We are asked to sympathise with Caesar the non-violent. We are also asked to boo the bad guys, who are the human mutants from the Forbidden City. But then the demented Darden leads his kamikaze raid on the healthy and uncontaminated Ape City; it is the militarist gorillas that fight back the onslaught. So maybe the message is that non-violence is great if you have an army to back it up?

The movie is incompetently made, which is something of a surprise considering that it was directed by an old and good hand, J. Lee (The Guns of Navarone) Thompson. Transitions are ragged, a lot of the dialogue is inaudible and the rest is listless, and the apes spend a lot of time sitting around discussing abstractions. The battle footage looks cheap. And the story is painfully thin.


Battle looks like the last gasp of a dying series, a movie made simply to wring the dollars out of any remaining ape fans. To a degree, that’s also the case with the new (and ninth) James Bond movie, Live and Let Die. But at least with that one, some attempt was made to reproduce the technical gimmicks and wry eroticism of the earlier films; in Battle, there’s simply no reason at all for going. Anyone who hasn’t had enough apes after the first four in the series has probably, by now, gone ape all by himself.