grynne-277-175152 The movie itself is not bad. Plenty of superficial scares. A really good thunderstorm that last for most of the movie. Sounds of the thunderstorm are as good as any movie I've seen. Unfortunately, The Ritz Brothers show up in their own movie. Without them being there, this movie would rank higher. Their effort to be funny is a great weakness. You are either funny or you're not. They are not. The movie is good. I typically watch it if a thunderstorm is in my area. Lionel and Bela are always good. Even when someone tries to upstage them. The house is great. Not too shabby. (Then the Ritz Brothers show up) You can purchase the DVD cheap. I got mine at Dollar Tree. It has "The Invisible Ghost" on it also.

Bezenby This film would have worked a lot better if they had played it straight and taken out the Ritz Brothers. There's a serial killer called The Gorrila who sends people threatening letters and then kills them within twenty-four hours of sending the message. Some rich insurer's just received such a message, so he's hired the Ritz Brothers to find out what's going on. They all meet at the rich guy's house. Also present is his daughter and her fiancé, butler Bela Legosi, and a maid who's voice could strip paint. There also does seem to be a gorilla present, plus a mysterious man who likes to hide in the secret passageways of the house.I'd read bad reviews of this one, but luckily it's not quite as painful as people make out. The Ritz Brothers, however, are pretty bad, although I've never been a big fan of The Three Stooges either. The actress who plays the maid is even worse, just screaming at the top of her voice until you'll be wanting to shove your feet inside your ears. Or her mouth.Terrible comedy aside, a film with a gorilla in it, set on a stormy night in a house full of secret passages, with Bela Legosi in it as a creepy butler, isn't a total failure. There's plenty of mystery, double crosses, and gorilla action that I couldn't but enjoy it. I just wish they had played it straight.

zardoz-13 Newspaper headlines proclaim the notorious 'Gorilla' has murdered several people. The setting for this spooky comic murder mystery is the house of Warren Stevens. Stevens' estate is no ordinary edifice. The place is a maze of secret passages. Virtually, every room boasts a concealed panel. The maid Kitty (Patsy Kelly) is reading the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. before she goes to sleep when she sees the arm of a gorilla pin a note to her robe. Kitty raves hysterically with fear about her close call with danger, and Peters (Bela Lugosi) the butler examines that document. Stevens (Lionel Atwill) arrives to investigate and peruses the note, too. The note is a death threat for him. A thunder storm with recurring lightning enhances the atmosphere laden with paranoia about when the 'Gorilla' will next strike. The same night that this happens, Stevens sends an urgent radiogram to his niece Norma Denby. It seems that Stevens and Norma are joint heirs under the terms of her late father's will. Until Norma marries, Uncle Walter is the executor of her estate. Walter wants Norma and Jack to know what the contents of the estate are. The next day Norma and her boyfriend arrive to find Walter feeling a little apprehensive about the death threat. Of course, Walter has no idea why anybody would want to kill him. Earlier, we see him on the phone begging for clemency in regard to a monetary debt of $250-thousand. Later, a genuine gorilla enters the mansion. Somebody has knocked the gorilla's trainer out and unlocked the beast's cage. Later, we learn that the gorilla is named Poe.Stevens hires three detectives from the ACME Detective Agency. The nitwit Ritz Brothers play the numskull private eyes that Stevens hires to protect him from the homicidal ape on the loose. They make their entrance about ten minutes into the action. They arrive in the pouring rain in a convertible with an umbrella serving as their roof. They have cut holes for their eyes so they can see where they are driving. "I'll bet there's a dead body in every room," Garrity (Jimmy Ritz) observes before they climb out of her automobile. At best, the Ritz Brothers are low-brow comics that rely on verbal wit and hammy acting to yield laughs. They freak out at the very mention of the Gorilla's name and Harrigan puts on a dumb show when he encounters the ape. Everybody is in the study when the lights go out and Stevens vanishes. The Ritz Brothers try to reenact Stevens' disappearance by using a stand-in for him. "Look," Mulligan says, "I've got an idea. If we can figure out how Garrity disappeared, we can figure out how Stevens disappeared." Mulligan (Al Ritz) sits where Stevens sat behind the desk. Harrigan (Harry Ritz) switches off the lights and Mulligan disappears. The next stand-in for Stevens that Harrigan uses is Kitty. This time the lights go out and Harrigan rather than the stand-in for Stevens disappears. Suddenly, Kitty finds herself face-to-face with Peters.At the halfway point in the film, a couple of other people arrive. Not only does a mysterious but natty stranger (Joseph Calleia) appear without invitation, but our bumbling heroes discover a sailor in a closet. The stranger prowls the premise after Harrigan has vanished as a part of his reenactment ploy. The stranger finds Harrigan. Initially, Harrigan suspects the stranger is the 'Gorilla.' The stranger explains he stepped into the house to use the telephone because his car broke down. When Harrigan brandishes his revolver, the stranger assures him he is making a big mistake. The stranger surprises Harrigan, knocks him unconscious, and claps handcuffs on him. About forty minutes into the plot, A.P. Conway (Paul Harvey) storms into the mansion. He is adamant about collecting a quarter of a million dollars. "I have proof that Stevens have been stealing from his client's accounts for over a year." He refuses to leave until he has his money. More than ever the Ritz Brothers are determined to solve the mystery. Eventually, they venture into the cellar and encounter the real gorilla. During their search, Harrigan gets himself snagged to a dressing dummy and freaks out. The fake gorilla attacks Norma. Jack suspects Peters is the culprit because the butler is never around when anything occurs. Later, Harrigan confronts the real gorilla in a clever scene when he thinks that his partners are accompanying him. The sailor recovers and warns them about Poe. Poe hates women. The sailor says a man hired him and Poe. Somebody clobbered the sailor and released Poe."The Man in the Iron Mask" director Allan Dwan's version of "The Gorilla" is the second remake of the Ralph Spence stage play. Spence was a comic scriptwriter, too. He wrote the screenplay for the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy "Hook, Line, and Sinker." Scenarists Rian James and Sid Silvers have penned some snappy, rapid-fire dialogue for the Ritz Brothers that aptly illuminates their idiocy. The gobbledygook dialogue is amusing in its lunacy. Dwan doesn't squander a second in this fast-paced laffer. He gets more mileage than you might imagine out of the weird sounds that a Zenith radio receiver emits with warnings about Stevens' impending demise. Bela Lugosi is cast as a sinister butler. Typically, the cliché in murder mysteries such as this one is that the butler committed the crime. Dwan uses Lugosi as an effective red herring. Nobody likes or trusts the butler. Dwan gets as much mileage out of Lionel Atwill as Stevens. Patsy Kelly spends most of her time screaming in fright. The fake gorilla that is supposed to be a real gorilla is hilarious because it is so obviously ersatz.

sddavis63 I have to confess that I had never until today heard of this comedy trio called "The Ritz Brothers." They seem to have been a sort of toned down version of "The Three Stooges," and - not being much of a "Stooges" fan - I actually appreciated their more toned down style of comedy. Here, they play a trio of inept detectives trying to protect a wealthy businessman (Lionel Atwill) who's been threatened by a mass murderer known as "The Gorilla." There is, in fact a "real" gorilla on the loose (played by Art Miles - the makeup, while not great, wasn't as bad as some that I've seen), who can't be the murderer (because first, gorillas can't write notes and, second, he hasn't been on the loose long enough to have committed the murders) but still he provides plenty of comic relief in his scenes with the Ritz Brothers. It's a good mystery. We're kept guessing from the beginning about who's actually committing the murders, and there's no way of really knowing. Bela Lugosi is featured as the butler, Peters, and he plays the role perfectly straight (in a sense perfectly cast, because I can't picture Lugosi doing comedy) and that straight performance adds both to the comedy and the mystery (Peters comes across as mysterious throughout.) Overall, it's not a classic, but it's quite enjoyable. It will offer some laughs and keep you guessing all at the same time. 7/10