TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Neil Doyle
GORILLA AT LODGE is an oddity--a "B" picture with a distinguished cast of more than competent actors--CAMERON MITCHELL, ANNE BANCROFT, LEE J. COBB, LEE MARVIN, WARREN STEVENS and RAYMOND BURR--and is filmed in excellent Technicolor using the gimmick of 3D which was just a passing fad at the time.It's a murder mystery with most of the action taking place in a colorful amusement park called "The Garden of Evil", all of the atmosphere fully taken advantage of by the color photography which accents the garish while the story accents the puzzling background of several suspects who might be involved in the shady doings.ANNE BANCROFT was at her physical prime in a part that requires more acrobatics than acting skill, but still there's a glimmer of the actress to be. LEE J. COBB is a gruff cigar smoking detective who treats everyone like a suspect, and LEE MARVIN is amusing as an Irish cop whose intelligence is questionable. PETER WHITNEY (who played those amusing twin brothers in a screwball comedy from the '40s called MURDER, HE SAID), is creepy as the chief suspect and the Gorilla is obviously a man in a gorilla suit.But it's all meant to be strictly lightweight entertainment, a no brainer for the kiddies and nothing that puts a strain on anyone's thinking cap. It's mildly entertaining but strains credibility at almost every turn.
vanderbilt651
It's not so much that there's more than meets the eye as it is whatdoes meet the eye that makes this picture worth a look-see.Sure, if you want to be all serious, then you could easily object to arather predictable plot, or some wooden performances (though I'dhave something to say about that), or a delightfully inept gorilla suitthat looks more like an animated swatch of shag carpet (the eyesare so...human!). You could moan and groan about the film'sportrayal of women, etc., etc. You could call it a bad movie.But you shouldn't! Firstly, it does offer the sorts of thrills thatB-movie fans relish: the lurid carny life, cartoonish violence,trapeze artists in skimpy costumes, emotions writ large andunambiguously (at least ostensibly).In fact, I'd say that many of the performances are great, notbecause they are especially moving or "realistic," but rather,because the conventions of the genre frame them in such a wayas to be quite effective, and not least of all, gratifying. AnneBancroft smolders magnificently as a trapeze artist with quite ashady past. Raymond Burr's controlling, yet ambiguous carnivalmanager never fails to intrigue. Lee Marvin is great as a feckless,blow-hard police officer. And perhaps most compellingly, there isLee J. Cobb, as a no-nonsense, cigar-chomping gumshoe. Youreally get a sense of what an entirely watchable performer he is inthis picture, and personally I think he's better here than he is in "Onthe Waterfront" (gasp!).Camp values aside, the technical aspects of the film arebreathtaking. The picture's technicolors blast out of the screen,aided by 3-D that is so sharply defined and brilliant that you feellike you are watching some sort of moving ViewMaster reel. Arestored print has recently been struck and you'll be blown away ifyou have a chance to see it. I'd say that its use of technicolor and3-D are perhaps more impressive than even "House of Wax," andcertainly more accomplished than such unnecessarily 3-D'dfeatures such as "Dial M for Murder" or "Miss Sadie Thompson."Color, violence, a beautiful girl and a gorilla--and in not one, nortwo, but THREE dimensions. What's not to like?
Chung Mo
Just saw the new print of this maligned fun house of a production. First of all if you can't see this in real projected 3-D, I suggest skipping it. The color 3-D photography is excellent and the crew only pulls off the typical stick-it-in-the-camera 3-D hijinks a few times. The opening sequence of Raymond Burr walking through the carnival is some of the most effective 3-D photography I have ever seen.The story...yipes! It's campy and weird in an Ed Wood sort of way but it seems that the entire cast and crew were in on the joke. Lee Marvin and Lee J. Cobb both time their performances in a very strange but funny way. Anne Bancroft vamps up a storm in some scenes and Raymond Burr plods thru his role. The gorilla suit is funny too. Good movie? No! Fun? Yes!The second half drags at points and the 3-D photography loses a little steam here. I wouldn't want to sit through this movie in 2-D at this point. Who knows if this is ever going to be projected again, but if it is and you enjoy 50's kitsch make it a priority. The screening I was at, during the intermission, projected 1950's era 3-D nudie slides by...HAROLD LLOYD, the silent film comedian! Unfortunately, I don't think that will ever happen again.
galaxy2069
This movie was dusted off in the 1980's and used as a promotional gimmick for Channel 46 (in some areas). The 3-D glasses (distributed at local restaurants, stop-n-gos, and radio stations) had Channel 46 plastered across the center. And I also recall the commercials & promo spots (quite a few actually). The significance of all this over-hyped "Gorilla at Large-mania" was unknown to me as a young child...and still is today. Because to this day I can't recall any other spectacularly hammy 3-D movie promotions...especially movies that had died in the vault 30 years before! Does anybody out there in TV Land recall seeing this movie back in 1954? I'm quite curious to learn about their perspective on the whole thing. All I can remember was getting "very" bored about halfway through the film...and the 3-D effects were quite poor...and there was lots and lots of dreadful acting. There is nothing quite as pitiful as a grown man dressed in a gorilla costume parading around in front of a camera.
