Director
Curt Siodmak
Cast
Barbara Payton - Dina VanGelder
Lon Chaney, Jr. - Commissioner Taro
Raymond Burr - Barney Chavez
Tom Conway - Dr. Viet
Who hasn't asked themselves what would happen if a movie stuck horror icon Lon Chaney, Jr., (The Wolfman) and TV's Raymond Burr (Perry Mason himself) in a movie together? If you're a person who's asked themselves that, the answer is Burr would turn into a gorilla, Chaney wouldn't know what to do about it, and viewers like me would be completely disappointed with all of it.
If you've never asked yourself that, the answer still stands.
That answer can be seen in the 1951 movie Bride of the Gorilla.
Aside from casting two well known actors of Hollywood's golden age, this movie has nothing going for it. Not even the gorilla. (Spoiler warning) We don't see the gorilla... ever... until the very end of the movie. And I mean, the very end! I admit I did doze off for a bit while I watched this so I might have missed a quick gorilla scene, but I'm willing to bet I didn't miss a thing.
Bride of the Gorilla takes place in the South American jungle where rubber plantation owner, Barney Chavez, murders his old employer just so he can be with his gorgeous wife, Dina. I had to Google this plot point because I just couldn't fully grasp the purpose of the murder.
His crime doesn't go unnoticed. An old witch named Al Long, who roams South American jungles, witnesses the murder. She's also mad because her granddaughter (I think she's referring to her granddaughter. That relationship seemed vague to me) is upset Chavez rejected her love. Evidently, Al the witch isn't very reasonable. Rather than report to the police what she witnessed, she has to cast a spell on Chavez that'll turn him into a rampaging gorilla each night. I guess when you're a witch with magical powers, why bother with the police?
Meanwhile, a superstitious police commissioner named Taro (played by Chaney) is investigating the death, along with strange mutilations of animals around the jungle. I can't blame Taro for being superstitious when witches wander around the jungle.
On top of all that, Dina is getting weirded out as Chavez is losing interest in her, and taking a lot more interest in roaming the jungle at night. She finally decides to follow him, and that's when she sees the truth. He turns into a gorilla at night.
This storyline is mixed with a bunch of stalk footage of jungle animals, tons of dialogue, and the rest is left up to the audiences imagination.
The ending is one big hodgepodge of unclarity. It tries to resolve the story, but just fails.
It's worth mentioning this movie supposedly took ten days to shoot. Also, the name "Barney Chavez" sounds like it should be a side character on the Simpsons.
This flick tries to play up the suspense, but fails because there's no payoff. The main concern among the characters is how they are going to deal with the looming threat of a beast roaming among their part of the jungle. They talk about it too much,
What made me laugh were the scenes with Barbara Peyton firing a gun. She'd hear a noise, and starting firing round after round blondly...I mean, blindly. There's an argument for gun control if there ever was one. She would just start shooting without knowing what made the noise in the first place. And in good ol' 1950s American fashion, no one seemed to care much.
All this movie led up to was disappointment. Raymond Burr looks angry and confused during most of the movie. Lon Chaney, Jr., seems to be the only actor taking the role seriously despite also looking worried and confused. It wouldn't surprise me if he wished he could have been the monster in this film as he would have done a much better performance than Burr, who belongs in an attorney role anyways.
#KeepGunsOutOfBarbaraPaytonsHands
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