BELA
LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (1952) Director: William Beaudine
Image Entertainment
BELA
LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (1952) Poor Bela. By the time he got to the Fabulous 50s, he was sharing the screen with everything from a rubber octopus to transvestites. But nothing could have been more demeaning than acting alongside the flash-in-the-pan, non-comical duo of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. These thoroughly unfunny Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis wannabe's were "introduced" with this picture and promptly forgotten in its wake. I'm no fan of the real Jerry Lewis, never cared for any of his films until he played straight man for De Niro in THE KING OF COMEDY; but he had something there when he became perturbed over Petrillo's dead-on steal of his characterizations in this movie.
Duke and Sammy get washed up on an island where they meet a fat chick (Muriel Landers) and a beauty (Charlita). When Duke (who takes after Tony Curtis more so than Dean Martin) isn't breaking out into what's supposed to be "song" (this guy can't sing) with chartbusters like "Deed I Do," we're suffering through Sammy's annoying hysterics that make us pine for those screechy nails on the ol' chalkboard instead.
Well, we can always admire the sexy figure of Charlita in the meantime. She slips in and out of her foreign accent while helping the boys seek out Dr. Zabor (Lugosi, naturally) who lives in a castle on the far side of her island. Maybe he can help them get back home, except that he's busy developing a formula to reverse the evolution process and falling for Charlita (who's young enough to be his granddaughter).
The inevitable occurs when Zabor gets jealous of Charlita's love of Duke; he transforms the hapless crooner into a gorilla while running off with the girl. This leaves the Ape to grab Sammy's attention and try to convey to his irritating partner that he's actually the real Duke. All it takes is one raspy encore chorus of "Deed I Do" to convince his pal.
When Duke the Gorilla and Sammy the Pest finally manage to catch up with Dr. Zabor, the mad scientist fires a bullet into Sammy and shoots him dead ...but guess what? It was all a bad dream!! Next thing you know, we're in a New Jersey dressing room prior to showtime where Mitchell is trying to wake up a freaked out Petrillo who, like Dorothy at the end of THE WIZARD OF OZ, recognizes all the people he dreamt of -- like Charlita as one of the chorus girls, and their angry Hungarian boss. "You two had better get some laughs tonight," Lugosi threatens, "or you'll be collecting Unemployment Insurance." Ha Ha Ha!
Actually, I do like the bit with Bela at the end of the film. In fact, I like most of Bela's antics throughout. As always, he manages to keep professional and sincere about the material, even spoofing his Dracula persona in some comical moments. For an old man only a few years from death I was amazed at his agility, sitting cross-legged on the floor during a lengthy sequence and rising like it was nothing at all, getting knocked down a couple of times, and such. Indeed, Bela is the saving grace of a dismal movie once again.
The DVD packaging says it features "a pristine new film-to-video transfer from original source materials." Let me tell you, this is unworthy enough praise for a worthy print to an unworthy film. In other words, it's a stunner. There are no nicks or scratches to be found anywhere, and the picture is smooth and flat. Just gorgeous. The sound is mono, but crisp and clear.
Tom Weaver supplies yet another fine assortment of liner notes and details to go along with the package. This includes informative production notes as well as interviews with Associate Producer Herman Cohen and Alex Gordon.
Another treat of sorts is a brief interview on camera with Sammy Petrillo today, where he recounts his memory of working on this movie as a 17-year-old some 50 years ago. He gets teary-eyed when discussing Bela Lugosi, but whether he's sincere or not is a matter open to interpretation. I have it on good authority that each "take" produced sniffles at the same spots. But Petrillo remains grateful for his 15 minutes of fame, while lashing out bitterly at Jerry Lewis for good measure, too. You gotta love this stuff!
Lastly, a trailer is included as well though it looks quite atrocious in comparison with the beautiful quality of the feature itself. IMAGE and Wade Williams have come through again for their fans, and if they want to know if I ache for more, more, more...well... Deed I Do! (Joe Lozowsky)