The Fox Film Corporation's The Monkey Talks was released on February 20, 1927. It was directed by Raoul Walsh and based on the 1924 French stage play Le Singe qui parle by René Fauchois. Both starred the actor Jacques Lerner as the titular monkey. We've yet to find any photographs of Lerner in the stage play or any information on his makeup. It is likely that he did his own.
Lerner was born in Russia and raised in Paris, France. At the age of eight, he joined the circus as a tumbler, after which he began playing on the stage. He became quite popular, and at some point was considered by the press as the "continental Lon Chaney".
When Fox bought the rights for the story, they located Lerner to play his role on screen. A young Jack Pierce, who had already become an accomplished makeup artist, was hired to transform Lerner into a simian.
And what a convincing job it was! Accolades were given to the unknown person who had turned a man into a talking monkey.
This article on Jacques Lerner is from Picture Play, June 1927. Pierce is unsurprisingly not mentioned.
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