Classic Heroes: Planet of the Apes: Cornelius

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriros and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright 20th century Fox

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

Despite it being over fifty years since the release of the very first Planet of the Apes movie, there are only two names eternally synonymous with the series even with the recent remakes; Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall. Although Mister Heston appeared in the first two, McDowall would not only do four movies but the short lived television series too. He was absent from the role of Cornelius in the second movie, Beneath the Planet of the Apes but played three characters in total. He would become the face of the franchise making all sorts of appearances including the Carol Burnett show as Cornelius placing him firmly in pop culture status.

Just from this clip alone you see that only McDowall was born to play Cornelius. He understood the character imbuing him with traits such as the nose twitch and jaw movement. The slight hunch, how he walked and held his body were perfect. Although Cornelius appeared in the second movie, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, he wasn’t played by McDowall and you can tell. Filming clashed with a directorial duty over in Scotland so British American actor David Warson took the role for this movie only. While Kim Hunter returned as his fiesty wife Zira, you could easily tell that this was not McDowall beneath the mask. They had a chemistry that flowed beyond the mask and bounced off each other seamlessly making the audience believe that these two talking apes were in fact a real human couple.

This connection was lost for the sequel. As you see from the above clip, the finishing touch for the character of Cornelius was McDowall’s distinctive voice. Watson did a capable job but too far removed from the performance delivered by McDowall in the original. You can see from the photos that even the body and head shape were very different from that of McDowall’s.

Cornelius was the husband of the strong willed scientist, Zira, who fought for human rights and protested when they were treated as fodder just as animal rights activists sabotaged fox hunts. He was terrified what would happen of the council decided she was too much of a social problem inciting civil unrest. His pleas for her to tread carefully went often unheard such was her passion for uncovering the truth of what has been found out in the Forbidden Zone. As a psychologist and vet she had a keen interest in humans and knew there were was more to them than taught by the Council. Cornelius had found curious artifacts at an archaeological site in the Forbidden Zone which further piqued her interest.

Cornelius preferred to keep his questions internal for fear of the Ministry of Science’s retribution. His discoveries in the Forbidden Zone were actively discouraged by the Minister of Science, orangutan Dr Zaius. He feared that Cornelius would put together the truth about their world; that man once had a successful thriving civilisation until some catastrophe cut them down allowing rhe apes to rise to power. He stood by Zira because he loved her deeply but when Taylor (Heston) and human girl Nova (Linda Harrison) arrived, he tried to get them away from his home in case the gorillas found them. While fascinated by the fact Taylor could talk and confirmed that man was once the superior race, Cornelius must put his scientific curiosity aside to protect him and Zira. Fate has other ideas as Zaius finally reveals the truth about the ape culture and knows what man once had. As we know man detonated nuclear bombs reducing their world to this.

But Taylor and Nova travelling into the Zone brings ony new troubles for Cornelius and Zira in the second movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes. A second astronaut arrives, John Brent (James Francuscus), looking for Taylor and the others. He soon finds the truth about this world too realising they have flown through a time warp. Now they find themselves on a rescue mission to save Taylor from the clutches of a cult like movement of mutant human surviviors ready to claim their world back by wiping out the apes with bomb. These humans worship a doomsday bomb as their god and easily control others to do their bidding.

McDowall returns as Cornelius in the third movie Escape from Planet of the Apes. Just before the bomb detonates, wiping out the world, Cornelius and Zira escape in Taylor’s spaceship and end up back in present day Earth. At first they are celebrities and live a celebrity lifestyle but forces are gathering that will turn them into hunted fugitives. When the government discovers what the future will bring they decide that Cornelius and Zira must die along with their new born baby Cesar. You cannot help but feel for them that they are living the life hidden from them by the Ministry of Science. It is bountiful and they have been accepted by human society in ways they never dreamed of. You care about the three apes because they were too trusting and should never have revealed what is to come.

With the help of circus owner, the kindly Armando (Fantasy Island and Star Trek’s Khan Ricardo Montalban) they run but are gunned down. We as the audience know how good and kind Zira and Cornelius are and their knowledge could help mankind but in the end xenophobia kicks in. Their murder is shocking and brutal but as we learn in the final scene of the movie their baby Caesar is alive and well ensuring the future will still happen.

While McDowall went on to play Caesar in the following movies and the television show as Galen, there is always something about the spirit of Cirnelius with him when the ape mask goes on. A lot of the success of the franchise lies with Roddy McDowall so when Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released, I’m quite sure he will be looking down on his legacy.