Review of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) by Harnawaz B — 16 Nov 2013

With a roughly $2 million reduction in the budget, the poor quality masks on some of the ape extras is apparent. Roddy McDowall does not appear in this one, but David Watson does an acceptable job filling in as Cornelius.

Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, and Linda Harrison do return in the roles they played two years earlier. According to the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston initially refused to return to the role of Taylor, but was eventually prodded to reprise the role with brief appearances at the beginning and end.

James Franciscus is the new human astronaut, Brent, who looks and sounds quite a bit like Heston. Also according to the documentary, Paul Dehn deserves much of the credit for refashioning the screenplays of these sequels.

Television director Ted Post leads the team to make an unremarkable production compared to the original. James Gregory as the gorilla, General Ursus, the character who would reappear in the animated series Return to the Planet of the Apes, was not such a powerful character as one might expect.

Natalie Trundy and a small band of radiation poisoned humans living beneath the planet worship an atom bomb. "May the Blessings of the Bomb Almighty, and the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, descend upon us all.

" The movie has a few incendiary pyrotechnics and social comments to make, but radiation seems to make humans campy in this series.