The 30s and 40s produced some good comedy/horror films - Cat and the Canary, The Ghost Train, One Body Too Many, Hold That Ghost, etc. Unfortunately The Gorilla cannot be added to the list, being a jaw-droppingly unfunny vehicle for The Ritz Bros. Their overripe mugging fails to raise a single laugh...
All the elements are there - spooky house full of secret passages, raging storm outside, a rampaging Gorilla at large, a murder mystery, the presence of Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi, etc. All this works to some extent - indeed to me the film is only worth watching for the two horror stars. Lugosi wears an amused smile to great effect in most of his scenes, and Atwill is his usual bluff excellent self.
Every time The Ritz Bros, show up the film quickly sinks into the mire. This might have worked better with Laurel and Hardy, or The Three Stooges, but the results here are pretty dire. The treatment is also very stage bound, as the action never once leaves the house. The mystery isn't really up to much, either, concerning a mysterious murderer known as The Gorilla threatening his victims with warning notes before bumping them off 24 hours later. Atwill is in line to be his next victim.
I wish he'd picked The Ritz Bros....
All the elements are there - spooky house full of secret passages, raging storm outside, a rampaging Gorilla at large, a murder mystery, the presence of Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi, etc. All this works to some extent - indeed to me the film is only worth watching for the two horror stars. Lugosi wears an amused smile to great effect in most of his scenes, and Atwill is his usual bluff excellent self.
Every time The Ritz Bros, show up the film quickly sinks into the mire. This might have worked better with Laurel and Hardy, or The Three Stooges, but the results here are pretty dire. The treatment is also very stage bound, as the action never once leaves the house. The mystery isn't really up to much, either, concerning a mysterious murderer known as The Gorilla threatening his victims with warning notes before bumping them off 24 hours later. Atwill is in line to be his next victim.
I wish he'd picked The Ritz Bros....