Cinema Revisited: "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" (1952)
Directed by William Beaudine. Cast: Bela Lugosi, Duke Mitchell, Sammy Petrillo, Charlita, Muriel Landers, Mickey Simpson. Released October 8, 1952. Running Time: 74 minutes
Because it is among the strangest and most cult-beloved movies in William Beaudine's entire filmography, “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” truly deserves a chapter of its own. Certainly not because it is a good movie. It is not. But it is a very curious one.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were the hottest thing in show business in 1952. Their films, TV appearances, radio appearances, and nightclub gigs had a level of popularity that could only be compared to the likes of Elvis Presley and The Beatles in later years. Sammy Petrillo was a tall, gangly teenager with an aptitude for silly humor, who looked uncannily like Jerry Lewis. When the resemblance resulted in his being introduced to Lewis, Jerry hired him to play his baby on an episode of TV's Colgate Comedy Hour. Petrillo would later recall he received sixty dollars for the appearance.
Petrillo eventually studied Lewis's delivery and mannerisms to the point where he could parlay his resemblance as a mimic and perform his act in a few of the smaller nightclubs. He teamed with a young singer named Duke Mitchell who cut his hair like Dean Martin. As Mitchell and Petrillo, they essentially copped Martin and Lewis's act and played a few smaller clubs around the Las Vegas area. This wasn't a problem, as they made little impact even within the confines of their region. They were really no more than an oddball novelty act.
However, Mitchell and Petrillo, along with their manager Maurice Duke, made a deal with Jack Broder, president of Realart pictures, for the duo to perform in their own low budget movie as its stars. Broder's company had been re-releasing older Universal productions, including the horror films, so he had a connection to Bela Lugosi. He had also produced his own low budget horror film Bride of the Gorilla, so he had that idea established. Discussions eventually resulted in their planning a horror comedy with a jungle setting, featuring Bela Lugosi along with Mitchell and Petrillo. While the comedians would be performing in much the same manner as Martin and Lewis did in their movies (with Mitchell getting a couple of songs, playing straight, and being the romantic lead, while Petrillo handled the crazy comedy), the film itself would be closer to what The Bowery Boys had been doing at Monogram.
William Beaudine was, at the time, directing the Bowery Boys films, so he was considered by producer Howard Cohen to supervise this movie. Of course what attracted Cohen was that Beaudine had notably developed a really solid reputation for efficiency. He was known for being able to get a lot done on a low budget and limited shooting schedule. Also, Beaudine had already worked successfully with Bela Lugosi on a few projects and it was a happy collaboration. Thus, Bela not only agreed to the hiring of Beaudine, he encouraged it. Of course Beaudine was also known for his ability to handle comedians, so that would jibe well with Mitchell and Petrillo. Finally, the screenplay for “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” was being written by Tim Ryan, who wrote for The Bowery Boys movies and had been working comfortably with Beaudine as well.
A film like "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" really can't fit in any other category. It stands alone as one of the most bizarre low budget films in the annals of B movies. Some have called it one of the worst movies ever made. Others have embraced it as a cult item. While it is by no means a great movie, it is not the worst, and it benefits significantly from Beaudine's direction.
It isn't clear how few days it took to shoot “Bela Lugosi Meets Brooklyn Gorilla." Research indicates anywhere from six days to nine days, which is roughly the same amount of time it took Beaudine to helm a Bowery Boys feature. And the budget has been claimed to be anywhere from $12,000 to $100,000. Bela Lugosi, suffering from morphine addiction at the time, was said to be pleasant and friendly on the set, and comfortable with Beaudine's direction. Mitchell and Petrillo, when they didn't rely so completely on mimicking Martin and Lewis, and settled into the narrative as actors, come off reasonably well despite having limited skills and being in their first movie. Both also benefited from Beaudine's guidance and patience. Finally, William Beaudine's genius for shooting to make the budget look higher was an asset.
Mitchell and Petrillo play nightclub comics who crash on a jungle island en route to a gig entertaining the troops in Guam. Nona, a native girl, tries to help the duo get off the island, introducing them to Dr. Zabor. Zabor is in love with Nona, who also has designs on Mitchell. To get him out of the way, Zabor turns Mitchell into a gorilla.
Much has been made about Petrillo's annoying mimicking of Jerry Lewis, but he actually comes off best when he gets away from that limitation. He is a silly, amusing presence in a low budget horror comedy not unlike Huntz Hall in the Bowery Boys features. The Italian-born Petrillo exclaiming "Oy vey" or "Oy gevalt" as per the Jewish-born Jerry Lewis is not as amusing as when he stands by a laboratory and tells a busy Lugosi, "when you're done make me a milkshake," as Huntz Hall might have said. Duke Mitchell, however, is not only a far cry from the talent and presence of Dean Martin, his two song numbers are pretty awful. Dean Martin's smooth style as both a singer and an actor is nowhere to be found in Duke Mitchell's performance.
What makes the film work at any level at all is director Beaudine's approach to the material. The limited indoor trappings really do look like a low budget jungle set, Beaudine knowing how to choose the right camera angles to make what little he has to work with most effective. Along with being able to reach Lugosi during a real low ebb in the actor's life and career, he was able to take the limited skills and inexperience of Mitchell and Petrillo and make it work as well as it does. Beaudine doesn't just point the camera and print the first take without any ideas or approach. Even when Mitchell is warbling his lousy song numbers, Beaudine cuts from close-up, to medium shot, to reaction shots of Charlita, playing Nona. He offers a nice visual contrast of the actors in native garb with a suit-clad Lugosi sitting cross-legged in the hut with them. There is a delightful absurdity when Lugosi strolls in formal attire, and a cane, through the jungle with his native manservant (played by Mickey Simpson).
Beaudine uses darkness effectively to disguise the cheapness of the set's background. He tracks his actors, holds his shots to let the dialog carry the narrative, and uses a nice succession of shots to enhance the comedy. It all works effectively as good low budget B-level cinema for which William Beaudine was an expert.
However, because the Martin and Lewis movies are enduring classics, this film comes off as a cheap imitation with a comedian who isn't as funny, and a straight man who is pretty awful at every level. Viewers balk at the comparison and don't accept the film on its own merit. Conversely, “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” has generated a cult following because of how much worse it is than any Martin and Lewis movie. There are those who celebrate badness for its own sake and embrace the film at that level. Truly, the film is a mildly amusing trifle among low budget cinema of the post-war era and nothing better or worse.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” is the story of its production. Jerry Lewis told this author: "Oh god, Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo! I created my own monsters! I remember Dean and I were aware of what they were doing in some of the smaller clubs. But they didn't go beyond that so we didn't pay a lot of attention. Then we found out they were going to make a movie. Dean said to me, "we have to stop these guys." They were stealing our act. We weren't going to let that happen. Dean was never confrontational so I went to see Jack Broder and gave him hell. Then Hal Wallis went to see him and gave him hell. But they made and released the movie anyway. It wasn't successful at all, but you'd be surprised at how many people have told me how much they liked the movie Dean and I made with Bela Lugosi! Well, we never made a movie with Lugosi. So I say to those people, "my god, you can't tell the difference?" (laughs)"
What happened was, Jack Broder offered to allow Hal Wallis and Paramount Pictures to buy the film and destroy it. He wanted more than the amount of the film's budget. Wallis refused and eventually their talks broke down. Not wanting to take a complete loss, Broder had to release the film.
Duke Mitchell told interviewer Bill Cappello in a 1980 interview that he believes the lawsuit was planned all along: "I think the concept was to get involved in a lawsuit in the first place, then sell it back to Martin and Lewis and Paramount for big numbers. A lawsuit was filed while we were shooting the picture so I figure Broder tried to sell out to Paramount and they told him, "we don't want it." His asking price must have been too high."
"“Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla”" played a few neighborhood theaters like a lot of B product at the time. While a series was considered, Mitchell and Petrillo made no other films together. In 1954, Broder re-released the film under the title “The Boys From Brooklyn” but it played even fewer theaters than before.
Legend has it that while Martin Landau was preparing for his Oscar-winning role as Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's film Ed Wood, he screened “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” more than once, stating: "It makes Ed Wood's actual films look like Gone With The Wind."
And there is a bit of final irony regarding Jerry Lewis as well. In an appearance on television's Today show, an interview with Lewis opened with several clips of him appearing on that same network, NBC's, Colgate Comedy Hour. Except one of the clips featured not Jerry, but Sammy Petrillo. An amused Lewis pointed this out to humiliated host Bryant Gumbel stating, "I was never that good looking."