Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (Digitally Remastered)

Starring:Duke Mitchell
Studio: Digiview Productions
Product Type: DVD

Description

The time is the 1950s, and the hottest comedy act in Hollywood is Martin and Lewis. Taking full advantage of the trend, Dean Martin look-alike Duke Mitchell and his partner, Jerry Lewis clone Sammy Petrillo, play a pair of nightclub performers who fall out of a plane and find themselves stranded on a jungle island. They discover Bela Lugosi, who is experimenting with a serum that turns people into gorillas! Also included: Interview with star Sammy Petrillo.

Customer Reviews:

A Gorilla, A Mad Scientist, And The Most Annoying Man In Show Business.......2007-02-12

This is a stunning film in both concept an execution. The premise is simple: two talentless hacks...I mean...entertainers, parachute onto a primitive island, Cola-Cola. There they meet crazy natives, beautiful girls, and an evil genius in a castle. Mayhem ensues, comedy erupts, the entertainers sing, the natives dance, and Bela Lugosi turns Duke Mitchell into a gorilla. Nefarious schemes are hatched, romance rears its ugly head, and slapstick is in vogue. Lugosi gets his comeuppance and love conquers all. The end.

Seriously, this film is an absolute abomination. I once heard that Bela Lugosi thought this was his worst film; I can't confirm that, but I can believe it. This is a stunning find, unavailable for a long time, but now available to all camp lovers. The movie is definitely in the "so bad it's good" category, and the single worst feature is, without doubt, Sammy Petrillo, the poor man's Jerry Lewis. I personally find Jerry Lewis insufferable, but Petrillo is like a caricature of Lewis: even worse, and infinitely less funny than the original. The French would love this guy.

The standup routine and songs are especially noxious. I would have given this film five stars as a perfect camp classic, were it not for the two star penalty (one each for Mitchell and Petrillo) for the "live entertainment" performed within the film. You have to be pretty hardened to be able to tolerate Petrillo, especially when his partner turns into a gorilla leaving him an even higher percentage of the lines. Adding a predictable twist, Mitchell (the Dean Martin wannabe) romances the pretty islander, Nona, which leaves the morbidly obese island girl to chase stick-like Petrillo about, finally driving him into the clutches of a chimpanzee. Meanwhile Dr. Zabor (Lugosi at his most crazed) is doing evolutionary experiments and wants to stop the budding romance between Nona and Mitchell. I was grateful that he transformed Mitchell, as it stopped all the singing (for a while anyway.) In a dramatic finale, all subplots are resolved and we are able to contemplate those 74 minutes of our lives which we'll never get back.

This movie is a grade-Z cheesefest, and I recommend it to all lovers of tacky, stupid camp films; just be advised that Sammy Petrillo may be the most annoying man in show business. With that admonition in mind, enjoy the cheese.

Classically Bad.......2006-08-03

This 1952 "horror-comedy" finds poor Bela with a pair of infamous Martin and Lewis imitators -- Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo (remember them?). The result is a strange cultural artifact, yet perversely watchable. Lugosi makes the most of his limited footage as a traditional mad scientist. Directed by William "One Shot" Beaudine, who also helmed Bela's "The Ape Man" (1943).

So bad that it's almost good.......2006-07-23

The two Martin and Lewis look alikes almost fool you at first, but the production values are non-existent, as is the script in this "so bad that it's almost good" flick. If you like Arch Hall Jr. or Cash Flagg movies, this might appeal to you.

Even Bela Lugosi has to eat..........2005-07-11

I'll admit to a fondness for bad movies. Call it my inner Tom Servo, but I enjoy watching really hopeless films and pointing out all the places where the filmmakers blundered. And if there's one thing I've learned in watching bad movies it's that there is nothing worse than a film that's simply boring. And if there is one thing that's worse than that, it's a comedy film that isn't funny.

BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA manages to capture both of those dubious honors without breaking a sweat. This is a wretched movie with absolutely nothing to recommend about it. It's film prints exists purely to use up atoms that could be of better use as food for starving children, as gold to bring developing nations up out of poverty, or, to set our sites somewhat lower, as prints of better movies where the human actors aren't actually out-acted by a trained monkey. (To be fair, the trained monkey in this film is rather adorable.)

First of all, let's begin with a look at the main cast. The "comedy" duo which stars this film are Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, who are a blatant rip-off of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. And when I say "blatant rip-off" I mean that (according to legend) Sammy Petrillo was ordered to refrain from future performances as this character under threat of legal action from Jerry Lewis.

And you can understand where Lewis was coming from. I mean, Jerry Lewis' standard character was more annoying than an eight-year-old on crack, but this guy is Jerry Lewis turned up to 11. He's so mind-alteringly aggravating that I can only imagine that he had to hold off a lynching from his fellow cast-members with a well loaded machine-gun.

He's whiny. He's annoying. He hops and skips and warbles his way through the film. He's awful, really. He makes me want to revise my opinions on capital punishment.

He, incredibly, is actually the most entertaining thing about the movie. And he's horrific.

See, the problem is this. If you're making a comedy movie (and if you're giving your film the title of "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla", you damn well better be making a comedy), then you really need to put some jokes in it. I'm not asking for much. Good jokes, bad jokes, corny jokes, silly jokes. Anything will do. But, really, virtually all of the jokes fall under the jurisdiction of the Sammy Petrillo character. Everyone else is in a sort of holding pattern waiting for the jokes to fall from the typewriter of the writer.

But the jokes never came.

And we all grew weary and sad.

But now we must turn our attention onto the eponymous Bela Lugosi. Oh, the poor man. I have no idea what he was doing in this film, and judging from his performance, neither does he. He deserved better than this.

I haven't mentioned the plot yet, because the film barely has one. Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo fall out of a plane (yeah) and land on an island somewhere in a Pacific Ocean populated by a bunch of white looking "natives". The production of the jungle doesn't look half bad, but the extras are clad in very cheap fake animal skins and in at least one scene I believe these primitive people are actually wearing Hawaiian shirts in an attempt to look native.

Anyway, the plot, as I was saying, involves these two dopes on a primitive island. Also on the island are the obligatory love interest (a native girl), the obligatory love interest's father (the chief of the village), and a mad scientist who is supposed the "only white man on the island" (a statement true only if you discount everyone else living on the island). Oh, and the comic relief comes in the form of the love interest's enormous sister who for some reason falls in lust with Sammy Petrillo. (Two problems with this. First of all, if you're making a comedy film and your script requires an obvious comic relief, then the story isn't as funny as it needs to be. Second, no, the large sister isn't the most attractive woman on the island, but, hey, Sammy Petrillo is the most annoying man on the planet. Where does he get off turning away anyone's advances?)

You see, the story revolves around Duke Mitchell being in love with the Chief's daughter. The mad scientist (you didn't need me to tell you this is the Bela Lugosi role), apart from being mad, is also in love with the same girl. And since he runs experiments on evolution (you're hearing Darwin on spin-dry) you just know we're in for some "hilarious" hijinks involving monkeys. Or people in unconvincing gorilla suits.

The actual trained monkey is arguably the best thing about this movie. And my understanding is that he actually is the same chimp who appeared in much better movies of the era, so if you're a big fan of the monkey you can see him in something else better.

Don't be fooled into thinking this might be a wonderfully fun, camp bad movie. This is a horribly annoying awful film and no one should waste their time watching this in hope of finding even some unintentional laughs. Avoid at all costs.

Woefully bad in so, so many ways.......2005-05-22

And the award for Most Annoying Actor in the History of the Universe goes to ... Sammy Petrillo for his shamelessly bad impersonation of Jerry Lewis in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. About the only thing this film accomplishes is to prove that Jerry Lewis was a comic genius. Lewis was funny, but Sammy Petrillo doing the same shtick is dreadful. Duke Mitchell isn't exactly Dean Martin, either. Petrillo's first line in this film is "Ah lady, you got us mixed up with two other guys!" Wrong. Try as they might, these guys are a painfully bad substitute for Lewis and Martin. Lewis apparently threatened some sort of legal action over this bomb, thereby helping ensure that Duke and Sammy never made another movie. Jerry, you have our eternal gratitude.

The only reason anyone should contemplate watching this movie is for Bela Lugosi alone. Lugosi is one of my favorite actors, but there's no denying the fact that he hit rock bottom in his later years. Just out of rehab and desperate for work, he had little choice but to take on roles such as that of Dr. Zabor - especially when the filmmakers promised to put his name in the film's title. Sadly, he would soon have one foot in the grave and the other on the rotten banana peel that is Ed Wood. I think he's pretty good in this film, but he really has nothing to work with here. William "One Shot" Beaudine didn't earn his nickname by directing theatrical masterpieces. Charlita isn't bad as Nona, aka the poor man's Dorothy Lamour, but the only genuinely impressive performance in the entire movie is that of a chimpanzee.

So what's the story here? Well, Duke and Sammy are on their way to play for the troops in Guam when they fall out of the airplane and land in a jungle paradise (the island of "Kola-Kola"). A tribe of extremely white natives finds them and, unfortunately, do not go along with their Bird Man's advice to kill them. Nona, the chief's educated daughter, takes quite a shine to Duke, and that doesn't sit well with her mad scientist employer Dr. Zabor, who lusts for young Nona himself (and who can blame him, what with all those revealing outfits she wears?). I won't bore you with all the silly details, but the upshot is that Dr. Zabor turns Duke into a gorilla. Then, just when you think the movie can't get any more ridiculous, it does.

This whole film boils down to Sammy Petrillo spewing out one-liners left and right, seemingly oblivious to the fact that nothing he says or does is remotely funny.

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (Digitally Remastered)

Average customer rating:

Bargain Bela
Woefully bad in so, so many ways
GRRRRAAAAHRRRR
3 stars for B-movie fans, otherwise 2 stars. (The print gets 5 stars!)

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (Digitally Remastered)

Manufacturer: Digiview Productions
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

Product Description

Digitally Remastered - As outrageous as the title suggests and every bit as fun! This film has it all - Horror, comedy, romance, songs - and has gone on to become a highly prized cult classic!

Customer Reviews:

Bargain Bela.......2005-11-19

If you really must own this title, you're better off purchasing this budget-priced edition rather than spending more elsewhere. It's an excellent quality copy of this oft-maligned movie. Actually, it's not that bad for what it is...in fact, it's often quite amusing. Sammy Petrillo's imitation of Jerry Lewis is uncanny.

Woefully bad in so, so many ways.......2005-10-02

GRRRRAAAAHRRRR.......2005-08-20

I decided to give this little flashback of a cult flick a whirl when I saw it in the fifty-cent clearance bin at a local drug store. But even at that price, after watching it I still felt like I got ripped off! Speaking of which: the flick centers around a pair of entertainers who play, according to the case's blurb, "roles reminiscent of those most often played by Martin & Lewis." No offense, but "reminiscent" isn't the proper word... OUTRIGHT RIP-OFF is more like it! Though oddly enough, the guy playing the fake Jerry Lewis managed the impossible feat of being even MORE annoying and obnoxious than the real deal! How the hell did he DO that? And how the hell can I slowly torture Jerry Lewis to the brink of madness for inspiring imitators? `Cuz the man has to pay...

As for Bela Lugosi, who plays the mad scientist character... well, he didn't ham it up nearly as much here as he did in those vampire flicks, and would do in subsequent Ed Wood productions. Needless to say, I was disappointed by his "underacting" here. Still, he did give a few wonderful expressions of evil delight as he mixed together his amazing "de-evolution formula", only without the maniacal cackling that usually accompanies such expressions. Also, the faux Jerry Lewis makes a few uncomfortably unfunny references to Lugosi's vampire flicks during their first encounter. Probably to jog the audience's memory of what this guy was famous for...

Anyhoo, the movie climaxes with one member of our heroic duo literally goin' ape, and features an ending ripped right off the final moments of the "Wizard of Oz". Or better yet, ripped right off of the ending to that infamous season of "Dallas". No wait, that can't be right; that season of "Dallas" played over thirty years AFTER this movie came out! Perhaps it was a retroactive rip-off? But that doesn't make any sense, does it? Then again, I ain't exactly known for making much sense. Just check out some of my other product reviews and you'll see what I mean...

But, enough self-promotion; if you're willing to waste an hour and a half of your life... take up a hobby, and forget about this snoozer. The only thing that's any good about "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" is its amazing picture clarity. And I don't just mean the transfer of the film to the DVD, I mean the film itself! Whoever owned the reel to this musta had a knack for preserving film! I wish they were able to preserve the reels to the "Amos `n' Andy" TV show as well as they did this! It figures the good stuff rots away while the mediocre-to-crappy stuff lasts forever...

`Late

3 stars for B-movie fans, otherwise 2 stars. (The print gets 5 stars!).......2005-06-25

Don't be fooled by the stupid title. This is an amusing, efficient B comedy of 1952 starring the young nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. If you like Martin & Lewis, The Bowery Boys, or Abbott & Costello, you've come to the right place, because the stars impersonate Martin & Lewis; the director, writers, and leading lady were moonlighting from the Bowery Boys series; and the cameraman and editor worked on Abbott & Costello pictures. This silly jungle comedy is no worse (and sometimes better) than a 1950s effort from those higher-budgeted comedians.

The 69-year-old Bela Lugosi is an excellent comic foil, and even plays romantic scenes persuasively. The playful Petrillo improvises to confound Lugosi, but Lugosi -- ever the professional -- never loses command of the scene. The crew gets the maximum value from the budget, with good photography and musical score, and here's a small mark of authenticity, as jungle movies go: "Ramona the Chimp" is really Cheetah of the Tarzan series.

This DVD edition is an extraordinary value for the dollar (literally). Picture and sound quality compare favorably to the premium laserdisc editions; the Realart logo is missing from this disc, but everything else is here.

Average customer rating:

A Gorilla, A Mad Scientist, And The Most Annoying Man In Show Business
Classically Bad
So bad that it's almost good
Even Bela Lugosi has to eat...
Woefully bad in so, so many ways

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
Starring: Bela Lugosi , Duke Mitchell , Sammy Petrillo , Charlita , and Muriel Landers
Director: William Beaudine
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Comedy | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Science Fiction & Fantasy | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

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ASIN: B000087F1R
Release Date: 2003-01-21

Customer Reviews:

A Gorilla, A Mad Scientist, And The Most Annoying Man In Show Business.......2007-02-12

Classically Bad.......2006-08-03

So bad that it's almost good.......2006-07-23

Even Bela Lugosi has to eat..........2005-07-11

Woefully bad in so, so many ways.......2005-05-22

The White Gorilla/ Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla(AKA The Boys From Brooklyn)

Average customer rating:

The White Gorilla/ Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla(AKA The Boys From Brooklyn)

Manufacturer: PC Treasures, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

16 Movies (Horror Classics) 4 DVD Set: Bowery At Midnight / Teenage Zombies / Tormented / Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla... & Many More

Average customer rating:

Cheesy old horror flicks still tickle the funny bone

16 Movies (Horror Classics) 4 DVD Set: Bowery At Midnight / Teenage Zombies / Tormented / Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla... & Many More

Manufacturer: PLATINUM
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

Product Description

16 FULL LENGTH HORROR CLASSIC MOVIES ON 4 DVDS: Bowery At Midnight, Beast From Haunted Cave, Condemned To Live, Creature From The Haunted Sea, The Beast Of Yucca Flats, The Corpse Vanishes, Giant From The Unknown, The Monster Maker, One Body Too Many, The She-Beast, tennage Zombies, Tormented, Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla, Revolt Of The Zombies, The Screaming Skull, Bloody Pit Of Horror

Customer Reviews:

Cheesy old horror flicks still tickle the funny bone.......2005-12-29

Bela Lugosi and the Bowery Boys cavort on the silver screen along with other z-rated monster (or is it monsterous) classics of horror. You won't want to miss a chance to see these black and white (mostly) classics of diabolical horror and at times unintentional humor. I highly recommend it in the spirit of E.C. comics, big little books and 3-D movies. You won't regret taking this trip down ghoulish memory lane.

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