Film Credits

Written by: Paul Dehn

Directed by: Don Taylor

Starring: Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, Natalie Trundy, Eric Braeden, William Windom, Sal Mineo, Ricardo Montalban

Review

Of all the myriad sequels to Planet of the Apes, Escape From the Planet of the Apes, the third film in the series, is the best. Scripted by Paul Dehn (who also did #2, #4, and the story outline for #5), Escape From the Planet of the Apes is a highly-entertaining effort that reverses the storyline from Planet. This time around, intrepid chimp astronauts Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), Zira (Kim Hunter) and Milo (Sal Mineo) have arrived on the Earth of the past (circa 1973), effectively escaping the nuclear holocaust that permanently torches the Earth of the future. The wisely-silent apes are taken to the L.A. Zoo for study (where Milo is accidentally killed), are soon after found to be highly-intelligent creatures capable of speech, and become celebrities. A group of government scientists, headed by Otto Hasselein (Eric Braeden), aren't quite so thrilled with the apes' existence, especially once they discover what lies in store for the humans of the future. Hasselein becomes even less excited when he learns that Zira is pregnant, concluding that her child could very well cause the downfall of humanity, and our ape friends are on the run for their very lives. Human friends this film include scientists Lewis Dixon and Stephanie Branton (Bradford Dillman and Natalie Trundy), as well as circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban).

As far as the transfer of Escape goes, the print is clean, the image is sharp, and the colors are quite good. As with the other films in the series, Escape's original 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision image is letterboxed, this time with an aspect ratio varying between 2.10:1 and 2.15:1. Once again, the original Westrex mono soundtrack has been remixed into an annoying CX-encoded digital Dolby surround stereo track by Chace Surround Stereo; as is usual with the Chace remixes, the music tracks sound okay and everything else sounds tinny and unnatural. (Here's a suggestion to the people at Fox: why not put the original mono soundtrack on the digital track, and the reprocessed stereo soundtrack on the analog track, and allow people to CHOOSE for themselves which audio track they would like to listen to?) The single disc is packaged inside a gatefold jacket containing a few color (more like "yellow-tinged") stills and a behind-the-scenes essay. The disc was pressed at 3M and contains 16 chapter markers (some listed on the jacket; #10-#14 are for supplementary materials [see below]; #15 is a Chace Home Theatre Sound Check; #16 is color bars & tone). And yes, our copy again exhibited that vertical band of wavy herringbone-like lines, moving from right to left across the screen, present on all 3M side ones.

A supplementary section including four trailers and one poster follows the film. Chapter #10 is a Planet of the Apes trailer, letterboxed at 2.08:1; #11 is Beneath the Planet of the Apes, letterboxed at 2.10:1; #12 is Conquest of the Planet of the Apes at 1.96:1; and #13 is Battle For the Planet of the Apes at 1.74:1. (As you'll notice, this time around CBS/Fox did include the Beneath trailer but dropped the one for Escape.) Chapter #14 has the theatrical one-sheet poster for Escape, represented by one full shot and two close-ups.

Supplementary Recap

• Planet of the Apes trailer
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes trailer
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes trailer
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes trailer
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes poster + close-ups