Conquest of the Planet of the Apes [1972]

Random Trivia For This Title:

• Of the five original films, 'Conquest...' is the only Ape entry released without a pre-title sequence. Reason: the opening was deemed too violent that showed police on night patrol shooting an escaped ape and discovering his body covered with welts and bruises that are evidence of severe abuse (in a later scene while Armando is being interrogated, Governor Breck refers to the ape that physically assaulted his master to which McDonald retorts that the attack must have been the result of severe mistreatment). That, and many other bloody images were deleted after a pre-release print was shown to a preview audience. Plus, the violence was scaled back to avoid an 'R' rating. The scene survives in the novelization and the comic book adaptation of the movie. As of November, 2008, the Blu-Ray unrated version restored many of those graphic scenes, but NOT the pre-credit opening.
• The final scene in which Caesar is giving his "equality" speech was added after the film's completion. This is why the final shot is only of Caesar's eyes and is of a grainy quality; the shot was just a cropped piece of footage from earlier in the film. Roddy McDowall was brought in the read the final lines, which were then edited into place and the film re-released.
• This is the only film from the original [Planet of the Apes] series that was not rated G.
• This marked Natalie Trundy's first appearance in ape make-up. In her previous appearances in the series she appeared as a human.
• Throughout the film, the apes have human-looking feet, and not the ape-shaped feet as in the earlier films. This is most apparent when the apes are strapped to the electrical torture device, to which the feet are visibly bound.