Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla

Like most everyone else here I picked this up in the dollar bin. The quality of the DVD wasn't bad at all and if, as I've heard, this picture was produced for only $50,000 then they did a hell of a job. It's slickly shot and at least as well produced as your average Universal B feature. None of which is to deny the fact that the movie stinks. I've heard that when BROOKLYN GORILLA came out the producers took some heat from Martin and Lewis' lawyers and it's easy to see why. The only other time I've seen a comedy team's act so blatantly stolen was yonks ago when an obscure group called the Pickle Brothers tried to pass themselves off as the Marx Brothers, and who the hell even remembers the Pickle brothers? At any rate Sammy Petrillo's Lewis impression is positively eerie, and to be fair he's only slightly more annoying than the original. Duke Mitchell is another matter entirely. He's so constricted he seems in the last stages of terminal stage fright, afraid to move and frequently slurring his lines. He sings the old standard "Deed I Do" in what is supposed to be a sexy croak which actually makes him sound like a sort of hipster Walter Brennan.

On the plus side: one or two funny gags (inluding a grotesque impression by Petrillo of a totem pole) and a very attractive leading lady. And as I said, the producers sure knew how to stretch a buck.