The Gorilla

If you think its funny watching a lot of pop-eyed mugging by the Ritz Brothers, see the Gorilla. If you enjoy the raspy screeching of Patsy Kelly, and watching Bela Lugosi with little to do but make faces at the behavior of his fellow "stars," by all means see the Gorilla. I like Lugosi, but found this film to be quite annoying and boring simultaneously. Why the Ritz Brothers only made a few other films is no mystery to me. The master for the DVD I purchased had excellent picture and sound quality...probably because it had been screened so few times since 1939. Spend the time you would have wasted screening the Gorilla watching Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, even Abbott & Costello...if you want to see talent.

This is a very fun comedy-horror film that is very much underrated. If you enjoy comedy-horror movies, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, The Ritz Bros. or Gorillas then look no further than this funny mystery horror classic.

All of this film is good right from the very beginning but I think my favorite part of the film is the "invisible butler" (Lugosi) carrying the trunk from upstairs to downstairs right in front of the Ritz Bros.

The biggest question or mystery in this film is "who or what is the gorilla"? This one may surprise you a bit towards the end.

This is a great matinée type of film and could easily be a double feature with a movie like "King of the Zombies (1941)" or "One Body Too Many (1944)"

8.5/10

I've heard that the Ritz Brothers refused to do this film unless both their contract and the script were re-worked. The Studio should have let them walk. I admit this is only the first Ritz Bros. film I have seen so they could come off as comic geniuses in "Hotel Anchovy" and I wouldn't know it. However in this film, all they do is suck the oxygen out of the room while fellow "comic," Patsy Kelly, chews the scenery with a knife and fork. All I could think while watching this film was "poor Bela Lugosi." Reduced here to being the-guy-who-we-think-did-it (and a butler to boot), you can almost see his disinterest as he sleepwalks through yet another "creepy foreign guy" role. With a bit different casting, this could have been a funny film.

In spite of the off-the-mark gags and dental drill like screaming of Kelly, this film is not horrible. It will entertain you in spite of its shortcomings. Make it a drinking game. Take a shot every time someone says "Take that down, Garrity." Take two shots every time Garrity says anything at all, and take a shot of water whenever the word "gorilla" is spoken. Poor Bela Lugosi.

When I saw this Bela Lugosi "Horror Classics" boxed DVD set at Best Buy for something like $4.99, I thought that I would be watching classic B-Horror fare (i.e. _The Devil Bat_, _The Ape Man_, and _Carnival of Souls_). The first title of the "11 hours of entertainment" was _The Gorilla_. Believe it or not, this would be the first Lugosi movie I would ever see outside of his small role in _The Wolf Man_. Yet, I was refused a good look at a non-Dracula/non-Universal Bela Lugosi. Instead I was introduced to the horrific comic stylings of the Ritz Brothers and Patsy Kelly. Upon first viewing, I said out loud, "Are these guys suppose to be funny?" (By the way, they are supposed to be a comedy TEAM, but from what I saw the one Ritz brother cracked all the jokes as the other two made faces.) Yes, I am aware that their slapstick humor would be extremely sweet with movie-goers of the 1930s ad 1940s -BUT- these guys are so very lame. And, Dear Lord, Kelly's screaming is a steak knife scratching over and over again on a plate. Regardless, out of all the movies in this set, I cannot stop watching _The Gorilla_. After a couple of screenings, I hate to admit it, but the Ritz Brothers have grown on me (sorry, Kelly hasn't). Not because they are funny, but because their performance is so ridiculously terrible, that it evolves into funny.

That is indeed a fine description for this film which stars The Ritz Brothers mixing their comedic hijinks with Horror icons Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi. A young Patsy Kelly is also on hand. The story concerns a villain known as The Gorilla, who may be a human criminal or really an escaped ape no one seems to know for certain one way or the other, threatening the life of one Walter Stevens (Atwill), who hires three bumbling detectives (The Ritz Brothers) to protect him. Lugosi meanwhile plays Stevens' butler Peters and generally appears just at the opportune (or is that inopportune) moment to scare the willies out of and arouse suspicion in The Ritz Brothers detective characters Mulligan, Garrity and Harrigan. Who is the Gorilla? And why does he want Walter Stevens dead? The answer may not be what you expect...honestly I thought this was harmless fun and much better than most make it out to be.