BELA LUGOSI MEETS THE BROOKLYN GORILLA (1952) - Thought this Herman Cohen film might be a fun film, but was rather annoyed by the comedy team. I don't even like Martin & Lewis films and what makes this worst is the terrible impersonation. The film just wasn't funny and Bela Lugosi dosn't do much in the film and you can see that he has aged much. Bought this DVD for $1 (I think it was Walmart.) and the picture quality is very good, but you might not enjoy this one.
(http://sepnet.com/rcramer/pictures/brooklyn.jpg)
More info and images about this film below.
http://www.hermancohen.com/brooklyngorilla/index.html (http://www.hermancohen.com/brooklyngorilla/index.html)
Guess you have to see if your a Lugosi completist. In this case $1 is the right price.
I couldn't watch this one all the way through in one sitting. At first I thought that someone had written a Martin & Lewis movie but that they had broken up before it could be produced. Then I checked IMDB, and Martin & Lewis were still going strong when this was released. I agree that the imitations are horrible, particularly Duke Mitchell's Martin. As for Sammy Petrillo, while he resembles Jerry Lewis, he simply doesn't have the ability to be totally zany in any truly amusing way. I also can't believe that the wardrobe person dressed Mitchell in a tropical shirt tied at the bottom, making him look even more feminine than he already does. Bela Lugosi barely does anything, though his performance is at least acceptable.
I like the early Martin & Lewis films, and I think Jerry Lewis's fame (based on the Martin & Lewis TV show and, again, the early films) is well deserved. Brooklyn Gorilla, to me, only shows just how good a team Martin & Lewis made. Had Mitchell & Petrillo come first, well, let's just say that I wouldn't defend their performances and leave it on a polite note.
Thankfully, the team of Mitchell and Petrillo only made this one picture. Unfortunately, I watched it.
It's good clean stupid fun. My son liked it enough he has the poster on his bedroom wall! Petrillo and Mitchell may be bad impersonators, but taken on their own here they are at least fitfully amusing IMO.
gerry- that's the spirit
We watched this one tonight, and my eight year old daughter mentioned several times, "this movie is BAAAD." :bouncegiggle:
Still, we LOVED the singing gorilla bits and I happened to like the Bela as Dracula self referential humor.
But really, what a waste...for a movie to even have his name in the title to have so little of him doing anything is a travesty. For the first 20 minutes or so, I was waiting with much anticipation for his appearance. Oh well.
I'd give it 3 of 5...laughable fun and a good one to riff, but man, that Mitchell and Petrillo were VERY annoying. I claimed that was not even really Mitchell singing...
I think this movie is worth owning for the title alone, if you can get it cheap that is.
If for nothing else, it's worth it for when your friends come over and you're trying to figure out what to watch.
"So, you wanna watch Jaws, Indiana Jones, the Matrix, or Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla?" Then they just look at you like "what did you say?"
Quote from: ulthar on August 21, 2010, 09:03:29 PM
But really, what a waste...for a movie to even have his name in the title to have so little of him doing anything is a travesty. For the first 20 minutes or so, I was waiting with much anticipation for his appearance. Oh well.
There's not much of the Brooklyn Gorilla? What a waste! :wink:
This is in my Top 10 "awful but very watchable" movies. I could easily sit through a marathon of this, PLAN 9, MANOS, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, etc.
He does one joke that was like "this place makes you really feel full of pepsi" that had me rolling :bouncegiggle:
I thought it was good dumb fun. Of course my bar for that is set pretty low. Still I would have liked to see Petrillo and Mitchell make a few more of this kind of thing.
The reason Petrillo and Mitchell didn't make more of these was because Jerry Lewis sued over Petrillo's act being too similar to his. Petrillo made a few more B-movies (including appearing as a fetish photographer in THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE), while Mitchell made MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE and the "lost" film GONE WITH THE POPE, which will be getting released soon by Grindhouse Releasing.
Lewis never forgave Petrillo, and actually had him escorted out of a building where Lewis was giving a speech in late 2008. Petrillo passed away a few months later.
Quote from: Saucerman on August 23, 2010, 04:05:51 PM
The reason Petrillo and Mitchell didn't make more of these was because Jerry Lewis sued over Petrillo's act being too similar to his.
Seems like that is a well-accepted, but nontrue, rumor.
In a 2008 interview (http://www.beforethebigbreak.com/archivesSPetrilloPT1.asp), Petrillo claimed Lewis never sued him. Lewis apparently did THREATEN legal action based on this particular film, but Petrillo continued his act, including the Lewis-like bits, well into his career.