Most viewers know George A. Romero as the filmmaker who changed the definition of the word zombie with his classic Night of the Living Dead. You’ve watched him splash gore across the screen with several entries in his zombie franchise. You’ve probably seen his Stephen King anthology Creepshow, and maybe his sort-of vampire movie Martin. But his killer monkey movie might have slipped under your radar. In general, his non-zombie movies deserve more attention than they get, and one that deserves a lot more attention and respect is Monkey Shines.
Taking its title from a term that has been around since the 1800s and is used to describe mischievous behavior, Monkey Shines started off as a novel that was written by Michael Stewart, an author known for thrillers that have a scientific angle to them. Published in 1983, Stewart’s novel told the story of Oxford law student Allan Mann, who is left quadriplegic after an accident. To help him navigate day-to-day life, Allan is gifted with a helper monkey named Ella. Things go smoothly at first. Ella is very helpful, and she and Allan develop a deep bond. Problem is, Ella has undergone some scientific procedures that were meant to increase her intelligence. They have done that, but they also enable her to establish a telepathic connection with Allan. This connection is very twisted, as being tapped into Ella’s primate mind causes Allan to easily go into animalistic rages. And when Allan gets really angry at someone, Ella takes it upon herself to remove them from his life.
The film rights to Monkey Shines were purchased by Charles Evans, the older brother of legendary producer and studio executive Robert Evans. Charles had been successful in the fashion industry and in real estate, and decided to dabble in film production in the late 1970s. His first production was a massive hit: the 1982 comedy Tootsie, which ended up being nominated for multiple Academy Awards. Jessica Lange even won an Oscar for her performance in the film. For his follow-up, Evans decided to give horror a try. So he started developing Monkey Shines with executive producers Peter Grunwald and Gerald S. Paonessa. Paonessa happened to be an old friend of Romero’s and had tried to set up another project with him previously. That one didn’t get off the ground, but Paonessa thought Monkey Shines could be the chance for them to work together. He felt that Romero’s dark sense of humor would be a perfect match for the material. When he suggested that Romero should direct Monkey Shines, Evans was into the idea. So Romero was contacted and provided with a copy of Stewart’s novel, as well as a draft of the screenplay.
Romero was in a transitional period at this time. He had been working with his producing partner Richard P. Rubinstein since the early ‘70s. They had formed the production company Laurel together. Laurel brought us the likes of Creepshow, Day of the Dead, and the TV show Tales from the Darkside. And the entire time Romero was working with Rubinstein at Laurel, he had a fixed salary. But Laurel had recently gone public with the intention of getting deeper into television production and working on safer projects. Wanting to stick with making movies and not interested in playing it safe, Romero decided it was time for him to leave the company. And then he was adrift, with no salary. He needed a job. Luckily, he found the idea of Monkey Shines to be appealing. He read the novel, wrote a ten page treatment for his own adaptation, and accepted the producers’ offer for him to write and direct the film. This was going to be his first work-for-hire feature.
Writing the script, Romero stuck fairly close to the source material. One of the biggest changes was that he moved the setting from England to the American city he lived in; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another change was made at the request of the producers: while Allan remained quadriplegic at the end of the novel, Evans wanted him to be healed by the end of the movie. So Romero did research into spinal issues and found a way to explain how Allan would regain the ability to walk in the story. In the script, Allan does become quadriplegic after being hit by a truck. But that was a terrible coincidence. The injury he sustained in the accident isn’t actually the reason for his paralysis. The real reason is a congenital problem that can be fixed with another surgery. But Allan won’t find that out until late in the film, by which time he has already formed a dangerous bond with Ella.
Romero did run into a bit of trouble with the producers when he turned in a script that was two hundred and forty pages long. The general rule is that one page of script will equal one page of screen time, so unless Monkey Shines was going to be a four hour movie, that script needed to be trimmed down substantially. Grunwald worked with Romero to lower the page count. And through making this movie together, Romero and Grunwald established a working relationship that would continue with Bruiser, Land, Diary, and Survival of the Dead; and the Night of the Living Dead documentary One for the Fire.
Soon the script was in place. Charles Evans had secured a budget in the range of six to seven million. A production schedule of at least eleven weeks was put together. The cast and crew would work twelve hour days, six days a week. Filming was set to take place in Pittsburgh, of course. Scenes would be shot at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, in residential areas, and on sets constructed by production designer Cletus Anderson and his crew. Romero proceeded to assemble a strong cast for the film, with many of the actors going on to become either well known or quite prolific.
Jason Beghe was cast as Allan, with Kate McNeil as monkey trainer Melanie Parker, who becomes Allan’s love interest as things progress. Joyce Van Patten, who already had forty years of credits to her name, was cast as Allan’s mother Dorothy, who sees her son’s injury as a chance to make up for her past failures as a parent and smother him for the rest of her life. Romero cast his then-wife Christine Forrest as Allan’s live-in nurse Maryanne, who brings her budgie bird into the house with her. That was a personal touch added to the story by Romero, as he and Forrest had budgies in their home. Stanley Tucci plays Doctor John Wiseman, who treats Allan after his accident and takes the opportunity to steal his girlfriend Linda, played by Janine Turner. Stephen Root plays Burbage, an antagonistic dean at the local college who oversees the experiments being conducted by Allan’s friend Geoffrey.
Romero had some trouble casting the role of Geoffrey. He knew who he wanted to play the role: John Pankow. He had seen Pankow in To Live and Die in L.A. and thought he was the next Roy Scheider. But for whatever reason, Pankow’s agent wouldn’t pass the Monkey Shines script along to him. This problem was solved when Romero and Pankow happened to cross paths at a social event, so Romero was able to tell him directly that he wanted him to be in the movie. Pankow gladly signed on to play Geoffrey. The character who worked with Ella in the science lab and regularly injects her with an intelligence-enhancing serum that contains shavings from human brain tissue. Geoffrey has the bright idea that this clever little creature would be the perfect helper monkey for his friend Allan.
The monkey Ella was the most difficult role to cast. A trained monkey who Romero had been promised was going to be a superstar refused to cooperate. They could get monkeys from a service animal program called Helping Hands, but the monkeys in that program have had their canine teeth extracted. Ella needed to have all of her teeth. You see a lot of her teeth in the movie. In fact, as the film goes on and the bond between Ella and Allan grows stronger, there are moments where Allan’s teeth are emphasized so it looks like he has fangs like hers. The perfect Ella was found when a monkey trainer revealed that she had adopted a foster monkey named Boo. Boo still had her teeth, and was actually willing to cooperate with the film production. She ended up doing around ninety-eight percent of what you see Ella doing on screen. For some moments, Romero’s frequent collaborator Tom Savini and effects artists Everett Burrell and Mike Trcic provided monkey puppets, including one that was remote controlled, as well as monkey hands that were used for close-ups where Ella’s hands are shown doing something Boo couldn’t do. Like strike matches.
As talented as Boo was, it wasn’t easy working with her or with the other monkeys seen in the movie. This was said to be the toughest shoot of Romero’s career because of the monkeys. And since it took an average of fifteen takes any time the monkeys were required to do a specific action, he also shot more film on this movie than on any of his others. To get reactions from the monkeys, crew members would have to find a way to surprise the them. They would wear different hats, play maracas, whatever it took. They would have to find a different way to surprise the monkeys for each scene, because once something had surprised them it wouldn’t work a second time. The monkeys made a mess of the set, peeing all over the place. And some would develop an inexplicable hatred for members of the crew. Boo hated a certain trainer, so whenever they needed a shot of her looking angry, they would just put that trainer in her line of sight. A monkey in the lab hated a specific set dresser so much, when it was set loose it went straight for the guy and bit him on the arm. He had to go to the hospital to get his wound treated.
Scenes where Ella is shown being particularly affectionate toward Allan were shot when Boo was in heat. And while Boo liked Jason Beghe, she was certainly capable of directing some monkey shines his way. During a scene where Ella is feeding Allan grapes, Boo decided to give Beghe a special treat. She pulled a turd from her butt and stuck the piece of poop in his mouth.
Since the monkey is named Ella and is shown to enjoy music, Romero wanted to put Ella Fitzgerald songs in the film. He even wrote Fitzgerald lyrics into the script in scenes where the songs would be playing. But he couldn’t get the rights to any of Fitzgerald’s music, because her agent decided it would somehow be insulting to show Ella and Allan listening to her songs. So songs by Peggy Lee were used instead. When it came time for the score to be composed, Romero also couldn’t get his top choice for composer: multiple Oscar winner Henry Mancini. Romero had been in contact with Mancini and the composer was willing to take the job. The problem was the distributor. Through personal connections, Charles Evans had managed to secure a release for Monkey Shines through Orion Pictures, and Orion refused to let Romero hire Mancini, fearing that Mancini’s music would sound too sweet for a horror movie. They gave him a list of composers they would let him work with and he chose another Oscar winner, David Shire. Shire listened to the temp score Romero had put together using Mancini tracks and attempted to give him a similar sound. Romero said that there are moments in the Shire score that sound even sweeter than the music Mancini probably would have delivered. But it wasn’t Mancini music, so Orion was satisfied.
Romero didn’t have a pleasant experience working with Orion. The music wasn’t the only area where he ran into trouble with them. He wanted to end the movie with a scene that shows Dean Burbage in the lab with the monkeys, indicating he’s up to some monkey shines of his own. Orion hated this scene. They repeatedly told Romero that they wanted the Burbage scene removed and replaced with a Carrie ending. Some kind of attempt to replicate the famous jump scare ending from the movie Carrie. Orion felt vindicated when a test screening was held and the audience reacted poorly to the final moments. But it wasn’t the Burbage ending viewers didn’t like. It was the scene before that, the one that shows Allan’s surgery has been successful and he has regained the use of his arms and legs. The audience thought it was a cheat, if not preposterous, that Allan could be healed in the end. But Orion kept their focus on the Burbage scene and forced Romero to do additional photography to give them a Carrie ending. Romero ended up shooting a nightmare version of Allan’s spinal surgery that shows Ella emerging from his back. It’s nonsense, but it’s a jump scare, so Orion got what they wanted. And it was because Romero had to shoot this extra scene that he lost the job of directing the Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary. That movie was heading into production while he was still working on Monkey Shines for Orion, so he had to let go of Pet Sematary, and Mary Lambert took over as director.
Orion didn’t even like the title Monkey Shines, feeling that it sounded like a comedy. They considered calling the movie An Experiment in Fear instead, but settled for adding that as a subtitle on the marketing material. They made a poster that Romero hated, featuring a cymbal-smashing monkey toy. And instead of a simple tagline, they came up with a whole poem to use to try to sell the concept. The poem goes like this: “Once there was a man whose prison was a chair. The man had a monkey; they made the strangest pair. The man was the prisoner; the monkey held the key. No matter how he tried, the man couldn’t flee. Locked in his prison, terrified and frail. The monkey wielding power, keeping him in jail. The man tried to keep the monkey from his brain, but every move he made became the monkeys game. The monkey ruled the man, it climbed inside his head. And now as fate would have it… One of them is dead!” The full poem was featured in a trailer for Monkey Shines, while a shortened version is on the poster.
This rhyme that equated being in a wheelchair to being in prison didn’t go over well with the public. When Monkey Shines was released, protesters showed up at screenings, protesting the wording of the poem and the fact that Allan has recovered by the end of the movie. In addition to putting together a terrible marketing campaign, Orion also made the bad decision to release Monkey Shines on the exact same day as the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. July 29, 1988. Cocktail opened at number one. Monkey Shines didn’t even crack the top ten on its opening weekend. Coming in under films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Coming to America, Die Hard, Midnight Run, The Dead Pool, Big, and a re-release of Bambi. Clearly Orion had sent Monkey Shines out into the world at the worst possible time. The movie didn’t enter the top ten at any point during its theatrical run. It ended up making just over five million dollars at the box office. Less than its budget.
Romero slammed Orion, saying, “They blew it. They were the worst. A terrible studio. They made all the wrong decisions. They kept films they should have thrown in the garbage and they hated films that made a lot of money. They didn’t like Dances with Wolves. They thought The Silence of the Lambs was garbage.” And even though Orion did release Best Picture winners Dances with Wolves and The Silence of the Lambs in the years following Monkey Shines, the rest of their output was so underwhelming that they ended up going bankrupt by the end of 1991.
When Monkey Shines reached VHS, more viewers started giving it a chance. It gradually earned a cult following. It has never gotten as popular as some of Romero’s other movies, but it has its share of fans. And as more genre enthusiasts check it out in the days of DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming, its following continues to grow. I have to admit, I was resistant to this one at first. I had been a Romero fan for years and had seen almost all of his other movies before I finally got around to watching Monkey Shines. The "killer monkey" idea just didn't appeal to me. When I did see the movie, it wasn't because I had rented it or purchased it - it was because the Siskel Film Center in Chicago was having a Romero retrospective and had brought in Romero to do Q&As after screenings of Monkey Shines and his latest movie at the time, Bruiser. So I first saw Monkey Shines in a theatre in Chicago in July of 2000, with Romero taking the stage after the movie.
It had taken me years to sit down and watch the movie, but when I did, I loved it.
Romero considered Monkey Shines to be a take on the concept of Jekyll and Hyde. Allan being the Jekyll and Ella being the homicidal Hyde that brings out his bad side. The movie was seen as being something a bit different from the rest of the genre movies on Romero’s résumé. As John Pankow told Fangoria magazine, “It’s a psychological thriller, a suspense picture. It’s much less horror than Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, or Day of the Dead. It’s a whole different type of movie. You know, the talk is that this is a real departure for Romero, that it’s a pretty risky proposition for him because it’s new territory. You don’t see anyone’s legs cut off in this movie.” Savini repeated the “It’s a psychological thriller” line in his own interview with the magazine. But while Monkey Shines may not be the gorefest that the zombie movies Romero and Savini made together were, the movie definitely fits into the horror movie. And even though some may scoff at the idea of a killer capuchin monkey, especially one that taps into the thoughts and emotions of the human it cares for, this is an effective horror movie.
The story works because Romero never once attempts to make a joke out of it. Allan’s situation is treated very seriously, and the actors do a great job of digging into the emotional weight of it all. We sympathize with Allan, and Ella is adorable. So when this monkey is brought into Allan’s home and proves to be helpful, we come to care about her just like Allan does. And when things go terribly wrong, we still can’t blame Ella for what she’s doing. She does some nasty stuff, but she’s still a cute little animal. She has been driven to this. She has been experimented on. The serum Geoffrey has injected her with over and over has made her a killer. We know she needs to be stopped. But it would be heartbreaking to see her get hurt.
Pankow does such a great job playing Geoffrey, we can’t see the character as a villain for what he has done. We know his heart was in the right place. But he never should have been conducting this experiment on the monkeys in his lab.
With a running time of an hour and fifty-three minutes, Monkey Shines does go on a bit longer than necessary. But the story plays out in an interesting way and the viewer becomes invested in seeing how it’s going to turn out for everyone involved. And it doesn’t go well for several people.
There are great dramatic scenes throughout Monkey Shines. Beghe does an incredible job playing his character, whether the scene involves Allan dealing with becoming quadriplegic, bonding with Ella, getting close with Melanie, or expressing the intense rage that Ella brings out in him. A deep dive into horror is saved for the film’s final thirty minutes, when there’s an extended sequence set in Allan’s house. Where Ella tries to cement her place in his life by taking out his mother, Melanie, and Geoffrey.
Romero brought an awesome home invasion sequence to the screen in his film Martin a decade earlier. Monkey Shines features another standout home invasion sequence that ranks right up there with the one in Martin. This time the invader is a naughty monkey wielding weapons like matches, syringes, and a straight razor.
Romero would often name Martin as his favorite of his own films and Day of the Dead as his favorite of the zombie movies he made. But he felt Monkey Shines, which he made after both of those films, was his most well-crafted movie up to that point. So it’s a shame that it ended up in the hands of a studio that bungled its release. And hasn’t been seen by as many viewers as it should have been. This is a great entry in Romero’s filmography – and probably the smartest, most unsettling telepathic killer monkey movie we ever could have gotten. So seek out Monkey Shines. Give it a chance. And see if you agree with Romero that it’s a better crafted film than his lower budgeted endeavors.
Note: Much of this article was originally written as a script I put together for a video on JoBlo YouTube Network.
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