Mood: quizzical
Now Playing: BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA
Well, now I've seen everything. Thanks to Horizon's White Elephant party, I was finally able to see one of cult cinema's most notorious pictures, BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA. No kidding--that's the title. I acquired it on a $1 (!) DVD from an outfit called Digiview, although I would bet that it's a bootleg of Alpha Video's DVD. Digiview might be a subsidiary of sorts, since the cover art seems to be the same, and you'd have to have balls to rip off someone's cover art as well as their DVD. That said, the audio and video presentation of Digiview's GORILLA is very good, especially for a film made in nine days for 50 grand back in 1952.
I might have to rewatch this on Toler's next visit. Not only does the plot involve mad scientist Bela changing a man into a gorilla (played by an actor in a suit), the film also features a pretty good trained chimp that walks on its hind legs, turns a key in its lock, opens doors, climbs into bed...it's actually impressive. If you're into monkeys, that is, which Tolemite definitely is.
GORILLA's reputation mainly rests on two features:
* its ridiculous title
* its unusual stars: Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo
Duke and Sammy were relatively noted at the time for being Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis impersonators. Duke didn't really look a lot like Dean, but he was a good-looking Italian guy who could sing a bit. Sammy's resemblance to Jerry, however, is uncanny. He isn't very funny, but he looks and sounds like Jerry, and is able to present a reasonable facsimile of Jerry's spastic screen persona. He and Duke could have used some better writers, though, because the gags in GORILLA are pretty weak.
In a nutshell, Duke and Jerry play Duke and Jerry, a pair of nightclub entertainers who accidentally fall out of an airplane (!) while luckily wearing parachutes (!!) and happen to drop onto a South Seas island populated by a native chief with a Brooklyn accent (!!!) and his smokin' hot daughter Nona (played by a yummy actress billed as Charlita). Also on the island is Dr. Zabor (Lugosi), who is in love with Nona, who also works as his assistant in the lab (the film establishes Nona as having an American college education, yet she has no idea what a clothing label is!!!...ah, I give up with the exclamation points). The story is as asinine as its setup; suffice to say that "hilarity" ensues, Duke does his signature tune, "'Deed I Do", Sammy screams and runs around, Bela gets to be Bela, and it's all pretty harmless, especially at 74 minutes.
Believe it or not, BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA is not Duke Mitchell's most interesting film. More than 20 years later, he wrote, produced, composed, directed and starred in a mobster flick titled THE EXECUTIONER. In this violent GODFATHER-inspired Mob movie that was filmed as LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, Mitchell, billed as Dominico Miceli, plays Mimi Miceli, the son of a notorious mobster who was exiled to Italy years earlier. Leaving his young son in the Don's care, Mimi heads to Hollywood to look up his childhood pal Jolly. With Jolly serving as his muscle, Mimi decides to get back in the Mob's good graces by kidnapping the local Mafioso, Chicky, holding him for $250,000 ransom, and sending his thumb back as proof ("Yeah, that's his thumb. I seen it on him a million times."). For some reason, the Organization doesn't seem as pissed off about that as you would think, as Chicky gladly agrees to let bygones be bygones, accepting Mimi into his inner circle. From there, Mimi attempts to increase his territory, branching into prostitution and gambling, threatening a black pimp he calls "Super Spook", and killing a helluva lot of people.
THE EXECUTIONER is as confusing and crazy as it is sincere. Mitchell is not a particularly skilled writer or director, but his performance is pretty good. He's in every scene, many of them eaten up by loopy monologues in which he tells the story of his father being bashed on the head every day by competing street-corner fish merchants (!) or how the Cosa Nostra has grown obsolete by hippies who "screw for free". In between Mitchell's nutty rants ("You're either in or you're in the way!") are plenty of nudity, sleaze, and gory killings, including a crucifixion above the Hollywood Bowl, a guy hanging from a meathook in his eye, and lots of squibbed gunshots.
Technically, THE EXECUTIONER is quite crude, suffering from a fragmented storyline and indifferent acting from the supporting cast (to no surprise, several actors are identified in the closing crawl as first-time performers). It takes place over a series of years, which is difficult to pick up on at first, due to the fact that the costumes, vehicles and hairstyles are clearly 1970's, and Mitchell, with his slight build and helmet-hard Neil Diamond hairdo, barely resembles a tough guy. However, one has to admire his devotion to getting his story, said to be partially autobiographical, on screen, and while his dialogue and filmmaking technique may be laughable, the sincerity with which he presents them is not.
After BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA, Mitchell more or less fell out of show business until making THE EXECUTIONER in 1974, although it may not have been released theatrically until after his death. It was originally distributed by Matt Cimber (director of drive-in dreck like THE BLACK SIX) and retitled MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE. Joseph Juliano's Spartan Films later labeled it THE EXECUTIONER, the title under which it appeared on videotape by Video Gems. It's relatively difficult to see today, an alternately fascinating and hilarious peek behind the personality of Duke Mitchell. Maybe I should have Duke Mitchell Night at Crappy Movie Night sometime.
I'm heading out of town for the weekend, so I don't know if I'll do any posting 'til at least Sunday. My dad and I are driving to St. Louis to spend Christmas with my brother and his wife. Should be a pretty decent time, even though the temperature has been dangling around 10 degrees all week. At least my brother's house will be warmer than my apartment, which has a few drafty spots.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (for my Jewish readers...all one of them!), friends! Hope it's a safe and fruitful weekend for you. I also want to shout out to my boy Z, who posted a howdy in the Comments section a few days ago. How the hell did you even find me, dude?