Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla

Like most everyone else here I picked this up in the dollar bin. The quality of the DVD wasn't bad at all and if, as I've heard, this picture was produced for only $50,000 then they did a hell of a job. It's slickly shot and at least as well produced as your average Universal B feature. None of which is to deny the fact that the movie stinks. I've heard that when BROOKLYN GORILLA came out the producers took some heat from Martin and Lewis' lawyers and it's easy to see why. The only other time I've seen a comedy team's act so blatantly stolen was yonks ago when an obscure group called the Pickle Brothers tried to pass themselves off as the Marx Brothers, and who the hell even remembers the Pickle brothers? At any rate Sammy Petrillo's Lewis impression is positively eerie, and to be fair he's only slightly more annoying than the original. Duke Mitchell is another matter entirely. He's so constricted he seems in the last stages of terminal stage fright, afraid to move and frequently slurring his lines. He sings the old standard "Deed I Do" in what is supposed to be a sexy croak which actually makes him sound like a sort of hipster Walter Brennan.

On the plus side: one or two funny gags (inluding a grotesque impression by Petrillo of a totem pole) and a very attractive leading lady. And as I said, the producers sure knew how to stretch a buck.

Yes, Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo were attempting to ripoff Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Lewis had to take Petrillo to court to make him stop the impersonation (Interesting to note, Lewis was copying black vaudevillian Jimmy Cross' act himself and becoming famous for it, while Cross' race would hold him back). Mitchell is no Martin, but if I had to choose listening to either one, I would choose Mitchell over Martin's crooning. I thought Mitchell had much more life in his singing.

Other than that, had I been Jerry Lewis and I had seen a guy who looked this much like me, I would have signed him up immediately. Petrillo is so strong at resembling Lewis, they could have been boggling portraying twin brothers in a movie, but as the egotistical rift tore between Martin and Lewis, you could just imagine how Petrillo would have gone at it with Lewis. In some scenes, you can see Petrillo is masking animosity as comedy. From beginning to end the only thing that held my attention was 'That's not Jerry Lewis from the telethons.' If Mitchell had bore a resemblance to Martin, the illusion may have been even more convincing. Muriel Landers was a welcome, a rotund woman who is flirtatious and pursuing while not being threatening, something virtually unseen even today in film and television. Not a film to see for entertainment, but to just study and contemplate what is and isn't popular. Lewis was famous, Petrillo wasn't. See if you can tell the difference.

BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (3 outta 5 stars) Okay, this is a lousy movie... but it still entertained the heck out of me. It's so unbelievably bad that you cannot take your eyes away for a second lest you miss something. Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo star as... Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Well, it was probably meant more as a rip-off than an homage... but why quibble? Duke Mitchell is a dreadful singer and he hardly even looks like Dean Martin... they could have dragged anyone in off the street and given him that haircut and they'd have been just as good. Petrillo, on the other hand, is a dead-on ringer for a young, lean Jerry Lewis (whether this is good or bad news depends on your tolerance for Jerry Lewis). Bela Lugosi co-stars as a creepy mad doctor who turns people into gorillas.. or whatever. (Don't expect the story to make any sense.) Really, this movie isn't any worse than a lot of those classic buddy comedy movies of the era. The jokes are corny, the plot is silly and there are totally unnecessary musical and romantic subplots. But. come on, you know you are just DYING to see a movie that mixes together Dracula, Jerry Lewis and monkeys!

A B-Movie that has a semi all-star cast. The main characters are played by Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo who bear striking resemblence to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But act very idiotic, that they make the real M&L look original! In this so-funny-it's-stupid type of B-Movie they play these entertainers who came across a tropical island called, get this, "Cola-Cola". It's residents are natives who do nothing but say, "mucky-mucky" or something very similar in their so-called 'native language". And Bela Lugosi playing his seemingly best B-Movie role, a mad scientist.

The funniest part was when Bela injects Duke with a serum that turns people into gorillas. It's so cheap-looking that you could tell it was a man in a gorilla costume! I cracked up at how ridiculous that looked. As having lived in Brooklyn for most of my life before moving to Atlanta, and I would like to say that I've heard way better Brooklyn accents than Duke Mitchell's in this movie! You might agree if you've watched this increasingly lame excuse for a comedy!

If you watch this movie, you might wonder what the directors and producers were smoking when they thought up of this stupid excuse for a comedy movie. I'll admit it's fun to watch for B-Movie fans like me. If you want to watch a comedy that involves mad scientists and gorillas, then watch The Three Stooges or Abbott and Costello which ever serves your interest.

If you have ever seen early M&L films like My Friend Irma, You can see that Sammy Pettrillo did a great impression of Jerry Lewis. In the early films Lewis was annoying with his high squeaky voice etc. This was captured perfectly by Sammy. OK so the production value was not great, but the movie was made on a shoe string budget in 9 days. The film is silly but enjoyable and if you watch it for what it is----silly 1950s entertainment you will have fun watching. The movie reminds me of the Abbott and Costello haunted house movies. I think that for a B movie it's silly enough to be funny.

Bela Lugosi puts in a fine performance. Duke Mitchell sings a few songs. The rest is just escapist entertainment.