Saturday, March 1, 2014

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952)

How bad is it? Though cheap, it works as a comedy.

Should you see it? Can you resist a film with that title?

Duke Mitchell (Dominic Miceli) and Sammy Petrillo play themselves, which means they're doing impersonations of Martin and Lewis. Petrillo's act is so good that Jerry Lewis sued him, keeping him from ever doing it again. The two, doing a USO tour, land on a jungle island (with stock footage and potted palms), where the local tribe first threatens them and then takes them in. They hear from the Dorothy Lamour-ish girl in a sarong that there's a doctor in a castle that might be able to help. She has an overweight sister who chases Sammy throughout the film. The doctor's doing experiments in evolution with apes, turning a chimp into a capuchin and he's got a gorilla in a cage, which he thinks might be a good place for a human brain. Duke's the one that gets the transfer and jokes ensue from Sammy mistaking one gorilla for another. In the end, it turns out to be a dream. There's a scene where Lugosi is drinking and it appears he might actually have been drunk; this is the last film he'd be in until he was in Ed Wood's fiascos.

This was one of eight films directed by William Beaudine in 1952. Beaudine was known for his low shooting ratio (film shot/film used) and given the nickname "one-shot" for his lack of retakes. Because he always was under budget and on time, he was given less and less money and time for his films, but still managed to make competent films. Three other films of his will be reviewed on this blog.

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