dougdoepke
Unfortunately, it's not a campy movie, instead it's plain bad. And here I thought nothing could get stupider than Jerry Lewis; that is, until I got a load of Petrillo. Good thing the wife moved throwable things away from my chair. That way, my TV survived his whiny idiocy. Between him and the equally skinny Duke Mitchell, I kept hoping somebody would feed them. Actually, for a cheap-jack production, it's pretty well mounted. Looks like every potted palm in Hollywood was used for the jungle scenes. Even better, none fell over. And get a load of half-clad Charlita who almost makes the mess worth it. (I think I'm on my way to the South Seas.) Then too, the acting's not that bad, despite the central idiot. Note too that Lugosi has little more to do than stand around with an occasional line. An easy payday for an old trouper. Of course, the real star is Ramona, who's a lot more entertaining than the rest. I hope they paid her double in bananas or whatever. Anyway, I'm flummoxed by the ending, especially by what happens to Petrillo. It comes out of the blue and is totally out of sync with the movie's remainder, dream or no. But what the heck. Too bad the producers didn't scrap the 10-cent Martin and Lewis. Then the movie would have been just bad, instead of annoyingly bad.
tavm
Okay, having just watched the first 6 of Martin & Lewis' films, I thought I'd take a break and see something else. Something that starred their impersonators. Something called Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla! That title was supposedly made up by the producer's kid and by giving it that name, Mr. Lugosi didn't have to worry that anyone would forget who the star is. Yeah, I'd say he's probably the main attraction, then and now, since he's the only one anyone would recognize here except, like I just said, there's two other people that look like a popular comedy team that had emerged during this era, only their names are Duke Mitchell & Sammy Petrillo. Now Duke does sing a couple of songs of which I thought the first was lame (and he really looked like he was mouthing to, I assume, his own recordings) and the second was okay though he really doesn't resemble Dean in looks or voice but his attitude is the same. And Sammy does resemble Jerry both in looks and attitude but the lines he's given were alternately a little amusing and mostly lame though I did like it when they did a bit about having seen Lugosi before. Oh, and unlike Lewis at the time, Petrillo does mention some Jewish terms. As for their leading ladies, Charlita as Nona, Dean's girl is sexy enough while Muriel Landers as Saloma (who Sammy sometimes refers as "Salami"!) has a pleasingly plump figure that doesn't completely drive Sammy away. There's also a monkey who was borrowed from the Tarzan movies that's good for some cuteness and a couple of men in gorilla suits that provide the amusingly lame climax. And Lugosi himself, despite being reduced to appearing in many of these low-budget productions late in his career, still provides some moments worth watching especially when he parodies his career reputation with Duke & Sammy. So on that note, Bela Lugosi Meets a Broklyn Gorilla is worth a look for anyone curious about this one-shot chance with these Martin & Lewis impersonators. P.S. I have to note that Ms. Landers was another performer from my birthtown of Chicago, Ill.
Mark Honhorst
Okay, if you can look past the fact that the "comedy team" (a term used very loosely here)is just a rip off of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and the fact that Lugosi is only here because he was taking any and every role he was offered at this point, it's actually almost funny on it's own, even though most of the time I laughed at the parts that weren't supposed to be funny, and groaned at the parts that were trying to be funny, but were ultimately just embarrassing. There were a few funny bits and pieces here and there...if you can forgive the duo for being carbon copies of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Plus Lugosi can make anything watchable, if not respectable. Basically the story, if you can call it a story, is about the aforementioned "comedy team" crash landing on an island inhabited by mad scientist... I'm not even going to tell you who it is, it's so obvious by the title, who wants to turn a man into an ape. The characters run around like idiots for awhile, and the movie ends with a great, disappointing cop-out, presumably because the filmmakers couldn't figure out a better way to end it. It's really sad when your second best actor behind Lugosi is a monkey from the Tarzan movies named "Cheeta".
Michael_Elliott
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952)* 1/2 (out of 4)Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis wannabes Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo fall out of a plane on land on an island where a mad scientist (Bela Lugosi) is doing bizarre experiments on monkeys. Pretty soon the two friends have sisters in love with them and all sort of other weirdness.BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA is an awful movie from start to finish. Again, I repeat. This is an awful movie in just about every way imaginable. With that said, I also find it to be incredibly entertaining and quite often when I'm looking for a low- budget bad movie to watch, I come back to this one. While it's not as entertaining as something like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE it's still a highly enjoyable film.Perhaps I should repeat that the film is awful so no one goes in expecting something good or somewhat good. The entire idea of the film is rather routine, clichéd and stupid but there's just something weirdly entertaining about watching Mitchell and especially Petrillo do their act. It's reported that Jerry Lewis sued Petrillo and it's really no shock because it's pretty much an exact copy only much more annoying. The comic back-and-forth here isn't funny yet it's so unfunny that you can't help but be entertained.Then there's the Lugosi element. I know many people put down his roles in the Ed Wood movies but this had to be one of the lowest points for the actor. He pretty much does what he can with the role but he's basically just standing or sitting around and screaming or talking with the monkey. If you're a fan of Lugosi you're probably going to feel sorry for him appearing in this but at the same time it's still rather fun to see him surrounded by all the craziness.As a comedy this film is quite horrible but it remains entertaining to me. I don't know, perhaps I enjoy torturing myself but sometimes films are just so bad or different or strange that you can't help but be drawn to them. BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA has a very silly title but it perfectly matches what you're going to be seeing in the picture.
AD
