Bela Lugosi adds some class to average comedy-horror The Gorilla

 

Review by Doug Gibson

"The Gorilla," 1939, from 20th Century Fox, is another one of those "old dark house" horror comedies of the '30s. The plot involves a serial killer, nicknamed "The Gorilla," threatening to kill a wealthy man, Walter Stevens (Lionel Atwill). He hires three bufoonish, slow-witted detectives (played by The Ritz Brothers) to protect those in the mansion-like home. Besides Atwill's character, other main cast include his niece and her fiance, a maid, Kitty, (Patsy Kelly) and the butler, Peters, played by Bela Lugosi. A nervous night is spent trying to both elude and capture the killer.

This is not close to one of the must-see films of Bela's career. For years I've avoided finishing it for two reasons. The Ritz Brothers, in my opinion, barely elicit a chuckle. And Patsy Kelly, while possessing good comedy timing, screams and screeches so much in this film that it grates on the nerves. Kelly is no Una O'Connor, who genre films will recognize. Atwill gives a good -- although subdued -- performance.

Recently TCM aired The Gorilla and I decided to give it a try and watch the film in one take. I was pleasantly surprised. Bela Lugosi, despite being several notches below in the cast, livens this film up. He's by far the chief reason to watch The Gorilla. He's able to allow his comedy talents to shine. He plays the sinister servant who always seems to show up just after the others in the cast have been frightened. Lugosi relished roles like this, in which he could play his menacing character with his tongue in his cheek and almost a smile. His elegant, reassuring cadence preserves the dignity of his character yet never quite completely triumphs the fears of his castmates.

Although there are stretches where we don't see Lugosi's butler (we have to endure comedy hijinks of those Ritz fellows) I particularly enjoyed two scenes with Bela. One is where a Ritz brother tries to muscle Bela's Peters and gets flipped for his impudence. It's clumsily shot and I'm sure that's a stuntman, but I loved it. Another great Bela scene occurs at the climax, but I won't give that away.

Anita Louise and Edward Norris play the love interests, Norma and Jack. See them in the top photo with Bela. They are both pretty bland. An actor named Joseph Calleia is not too bad as a forbidding character listed as "The Stranger." The film, directed by Alan Dwan, is based on a then-popular play. Lugosi was a year away from a comeback role as Ygor in Son of Frankenstein. Struggling at the time, he was fortunate to get the role after Peter Lorre was unavailable. The 66-minute B film cost $175,000. With that budget I assume it made a profit. The Ritz Brothers (Jimmy, Harry and Al) remind me of milder versions of the Three Stooges without big laughs. They get off jokes a lot but many deserve groans. I wonder if they ad-libbed some. The Gorilla can be watched online for free in several websites and streaming services.

The second top photo shows a listing of The Gorilla in Los Angeles. It's from The Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1939 LA Times. Below is an article from the Thursday, May 18, 1939 Hollywood Citizen- News. It includes a review of The Gorilla. They liked it. I preserved the entire article so readers many need to squint or try a magnifying glass. Both of these clips were provided by my friend, David Grudt, who lives in Long Beach, Calif. 

Sh! The Octopus - A Fun Lighthouse Mystery

By Steve D. Stones

This 1937 comedy-mystery feature produced by Warner Brothers is loosely based on a stage play known as The Gorilla, then later made as a 1930 talkie, and was then made into a comedy starring the Ritz brothers in 1939. In this version, an octopus is substituted for the gorilla role. The script has many miles on it from its various filmed versions. The film stars two great comedy veterans - Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins as bumbling police detectives. They provide great comic relief to the film.

A young artist named Paul Morgan, played by John Eldredge, purchases a secluded lighthouse so he can work in private on his marine paintings. Captain Cobb (Brandon Tynan) escorts Morgan into the lighthouse and tells him the place has not been occupied for over twenty years. Morgan finds evidence that this is not true. A soft, warm candle is on the table, indicating that someone has been there recently. A knock at the door reveals another local captain - Captain Hook, who is the only other person with keys to the lighthouse.

Meanwhile two police detectives, Kelly (Hugh Herbert ) and Dempsey (Allen Jenkins)  are traveling on the mainland by car in the pouring rain when a tire blows out. They stop to change the tire and are confronted by a screaming attractive woman named Vesta Vernoff (Marcia Ralston) soaked by the rain. Just before the tire blows out, a radio report in the car tells of an octopus sinking a ship. Vernoff tells of seeing her stepfather's corpse at the lighthouse and of an octopus that lives in the bottom of the lighthouse.

When Vernoff and detectives Kelly and Dempsey arrive at the lighthouse, a hanging corpse is discovered at the top of the lighthouse dripping blood on the table below. Kelly and Dempsey try to investigate, but discover that the stairs of the lighthouse have been removed. A secret panel opens in the wall, and the detectives find some stairs that lead to the hanging corpse. The corpse turns out to be a stuffed dummy with a bottle of ketchup dripping on the table below.

I won't spoil any more of the plot, but some of the fun elements of this film are of scenes of octopus tentacles reaching out from behind doors and a curtain. Somehow the octopus manages to get out of the water below the lighthouse and make it to the main level to reach out behind the doors and curtains to scare the main characters.

Another fun sequence shows a pair of Detective Kelly's shoes hopping around, which is later revealed to be toads inside the shoes. A turtle with a lighted candle on its back burns the seat of Kelly's pants as he is sitting in a chair. Kelly's scuba outfit fills up with water in another hilarious scene as Dempsey and Morgan try to deflate all the water out of the suit.

In March of 2008, Turner Classic Movies played this film on a double-feature with another octopus film - It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955). For further information about Sh! The Octopus, refer to Gary and Susan Svehla's entertaining book - Guilty Pleasures of The Horror Film, published by Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. in 1996.  Happy viewing.