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Drake, Richard. Richard Drake was created by Henry Lehrman and Alfred Cohn and appeared in the film On Time (1924).

Richard Drake is an Evil Surgeon Mad Scientist. Drake conducts brain transplant experiments, aided by the Yellow Peril gang leader Wang Wu. Drake’s most successful experiment was on a gorilla, which now has the brain of a murderous gangster in it.

* I've included On Time in the Best of the Encyclopedia category because the film is, in its way, archetypal. Not through writing, directing, or performances, but simply through the mad scientist putting the brain of a murderous gangster into a gorilla's body. That's an archetypal scenario for the pulps--perhaps the primal moment. On Time may not have been the first to do it in silent film, but it was probably the most famous film with that scenario in it. So on to the Best of the Encyclopedia page On Time goes!

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