CHICAGO — In the rarefied realm of monkey movies, “He Went That Way” is not likely to rank with such cinematic triumphs as “Planet of the Apes” and its many sequels, Clint Eastwood’s “Every Which Way But Loose,” various King Kong romps or even Ronald Reagan’s “Bedtime for Bonzo.”
But this movie, which has been playing in theaters across and streams Jan. 12, is nevertheless worthy of our attention, especially given its inherent weirdness and strong local connections.
It is a based-on-fact story of how, in 1964, animal trainer and Evanston native Dave Pitts was traveling by car with his trained chimpanzee named Spanky.
Before this journey, Pitts had been studying musical theater at Northwestern University but dropped out to sing with a trio. That career ended after he saw a roller-skating chimp at a state fair, bought that chimp’s brother, named him Spanky and taught him to ice skate. They formed an act that made them among the most popular headliners for the Ice Capades, traveling the globe and appearing on a variety of television shows. They were famous.
So in 1964, Pitts and Spanky were on their way to meet the Ice Capades crew in Minnesota. They picked up this hitchhiker named Larry Ranes, who quickly divulged that he was a serial killer. Over the course of three understandably tense and terrifying days, this trio headed east from Las Vegas.
That, basically and with no spoilers, is the film, which is inspired by one chapter in a 1987 book about Ranes titled “Luke Karamazov” written by Conrad Hilberry. The film premiered in June at the Tribeca Film Festival and has more recently received some less-than-flattering reviews. Richard Roeper wrote in the Sun-Times that it “never finds a steady tone, veers off into some bizarre subplots and features two surprisingly underwhelming performances.” The New York Times called it “laboriously quirky.”
Directed by Jeffrey Darling, it stars Zachary Quinto as Pitts (here named Jim Goodwin), Jacob Elordi as the killer (Bobby Falls), and Spanky, as described by Roeper, “played by an actor in motion capture (with some puppetry as well).”
But Jonathan Pitts says, “It’s a fine film. I really liked it.”
He could be biased since he was a story consultant for the film and is its narrator.
“I was contacted by the producers who had been trying to get this film made for 17 years,” he says. “I spent some of the two or so weeks on set when the movie was shot in Los Angeles in 2021. And I was at the film festival opening, my first time ever walking a red carpet.”
But his relationship goes much deeper. He is the son of Dave Pitts.
“The first two years of my life we all — me, Spanky and my parents — lived in a trailer and traveled the country,” says the 64-year-old. “Then my parents divorced and I would only see my father one day a year, when the Ice Capades came to town, or sometimes when he and Spanky would be on some TV commercial or talk show.”
It is understandable that he says, “I have been haunted by this story since I was a child,” and he was inspired by his association with the film to create his own theatrical presentation. “The movie is very different from what I will be doing on stage,” he says. “It’s a vastly different narrative, more personal.”
It is easy to be hopeful. In the first place, his solo show has a much snappier title than the film. “My Dad, His Chimp, and a Serial Killer” will premiere this weekend as part of the ever-interesting and usually entertaining Fillet of Solo Festival, a two-week presentation of storytelling performances now in its 27th year. Presented Jan. 12-21 at Lifeline Theatre (6912 N. Glenwood Ave.) and South of the Border (1416 W. Morse Ave.), it will feature in addition to Pitts, such offerings as Nestor Gomez and his “80 Minutes Around the World: Immigration Stories.”
Pitts is enthusiastic, harboring, not unrealistically, the hope that his show might be the foundation for a longer run at a local theater.
He certainly knows that landscape. Since dropping out of college to dive into the improvisational theater world, he has fashioned a busy and influential career. In the late 1980s, he assisted Jane and the late Bernie Sahlins with their ambitious International Theatre Festival here and in 1988 he and Frances Callier created the Chicago Improv Festival and for the next decades he served as its executive director.
In 2017, after the death of his mother Judith, for whom he had been principal caretaker for a few years after she suffered a stroke, he needed a break, telling me “I was just burned out and felt that I had made my contribution.”
He traveled, teaching and performing in 26 countries. Then came COVID. He returned to Chicago and kept mostly to himself in an apartment in Albany Park. But this enforced interlude gave him time for much self-reflection, to get involved with the movie and to fashion his own show. “I know the opening line and the closing line and the arc of the story, but there is a lot of freedom in that arc and a lot will be determined by the audience and its response,” he says.
We talked a bit more about the movie, about the ironic tragedy of director Darling. This was the acclaimed 60-year-old cinematographer’s first feature-length directorial debut and he died in a surfing accident shortly after it was completed.
We talked about the killer Ranes, whose older brother was also a serial killer, and who died in a Michigan prison in November. We talked a bit about the Spanky that Pitts knew as a little boy. And then I asked about his dad.
Dave Pitts would work for the Ice Capades until the mid-1970s, paired with a few more young chimps, all of whom he trained and named Spanky. He flirted with some other animal-related careers. He sold cars. And then, long ago, he moved to South America. “I haven’t seen him in many years and I think the last time we talked was maybe 2015,” his son says. “He’s in Buenos Aires and he has dementia but I think he is aware of and happy about this movie having been made. But I am not at all sure he knows about my show. And what he might think of that.”
