Beneath the Planet of the Apes

By VARIETY STAFF

20th Century-Fox/Apjac. Director Ted Post; Producer Arthur P. Jacobs; Screenplay Paul Dehn; Camera Milton Krasner; Editor Marion Rothman; Music Leonard Rosenman; Art Director Jack Martin Smith, William Creber
 
James Franciscus
Kim Hunter
Maurice Evans
Linda Harrison
Charlton Heston
Victor Buono
 

This sequel to the 1968 smash, Planet of the Apes, is hokey and slapdash. The story [by Paul Dehn and Mort Abrahams] and Ted Post's direction fall far short of the original.

Film utilizes closing sequence of the original - where Charlton Heston and the silent Linda Harrison ride into an unknown country on the supposedly unknown planet, only to find the Head of the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand. Heston's curtain cry of anguish now is followed by new footage, as he and Harrison wander the vast wasteland, in which Heston suddenly disappears.

James Franciscus is yet another space explorer who crash-lands, centuries out of time. Dialog, acting and direction are substandard.

Heston appears in some new footage, and Franciscus looks just like a twin brother by this time, in face and in voice.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1970. Running time: 95 MIN.