A dark, stormy night. A mansion with secret passageways and trapdoors. A small group gathering for the reading of a will. A murderer disguised as a gorilla. Sound familiar? It should because The Gorilla (1939) is the third film version of the popular Ralph Spence play which was previously filmed in 1927 and 1931. Similar to The Bat (1926) and The Cat and the Canary (1927), other entries in the "Old Dark House" genre, The Gorilla has fun exploiting all the expected horror cliches - a hairy hand reaches for the heroine's neck, a mysterious figure is seen hovering outside the windows, well-lit rooms go dark unexpectedly at crucial moments. It also takes a comedic approach to the proceedings with The Ritz Brothers playing inept detectives and Bela Lugosi parodying his own sinister screen persona as the creepy butler, Peters.

You would think that a one-set film like The Gorilla could be shot quickly in a matter of days. But this movie had plenty of delays. First, the Ritz Brothers had to postpone filming to attend their father's funeral in early January. The studio, 20th-Century-Fox, responded by leveling a $150,000 lawsuit against the comedy team for violation of contract. When the Ritz Brothers failed to show up for work on January 30th, Fox placed the comedians on suspension, arguing that The Gorilla's screenplay had been written especially for them and if it wasn't produced, the studio would lose a sizable investment. Eventually, the comic trio, despite their low opinion of the project, worked out an agreement with Fox and showed up for work in March. By then, some cast changes had occurred. Kane Richmond, the original romantic male lead, was replaced by Edward Norris and Peter Lorre, cast as the butler, dropped out feigning pneumonia, only to be replaced by Bela Lugosi. Allan Dwan, veteran director of more than 400 features, was brought in to helm The Gorilla and the supporting cast was enhanced by the presence of horror actor Lionel Atwill (Doctor X, 1932) as the wealthy but devious Walter Stevens.

Seen today, The Gorilla is interesting primarily for Lugosi's tongue-in-cheek performance as the butler. He was still in the midst of a successful Hollywood career; the same year he made The Gorilla, he also starred in Ninotchka with Greta Garbo and The Dark Eyes of London (a.k.a. The Human Monster), which featured one of his more interesting horror performances. His decline would begin in the early forties with such no-budget Monogram flicks as Spooks Run Wild (1941) opposite the East Side Kids. As for The Ritz Brothers, their comedy routines are a matter of taste. More successful on the vaudeville and nightclub stage than on film, they often come off like a poor man's version of The Marx Brothers. Patsy Kelly's shrill performance as the terrified maid can also grate on your nerves but ya gotta love a film with two homicidal simians - one, a runaway ape from the circus, the other, a guy in a gorilla suit.

Producer: Harry Joe Brown, Darryl F. Zanuck
Director: Allan Dwan
Screenplay: Rian James, Sid Silvers, based on the play by Ralph Spence
Art Direction: Lewis H. Creber, Richard Day
Cinematography: Edward Cronjager
Film Editing: Allen McNeil
Original Music: David Buttolph
Cast: Jimmy Ritz (Garrity), Harry Ritz (Harrigan), Al Ritz (Mulligan), Anita Louise (Norma Denby), Lionel Atwill (Walter Stevens), Bela Lugosi (Peters), Patsy Kelly (Kitty), Edward Norris (Jack Marsden), Joseph Calleia (Stanger).
BW-67m.

by Jeff Stafford