The Gorilla. Allan Dwan. 1939.
I wonder whether this DVD has been sourced from a recording from a broadcast? Hm… probably not? It’s very artefactey, but it doesn’t look like VHS artefacts.
This is a Ritz Brothers movie? I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never heard of them. But:
That’s a lot of movies. They were Marx Brothers knockoffs or something?
Patsy Kelly is fun.
Finally! The Brothers!
Anyway, this is a cheap and cheerful B movie. Sometimes these can be way better than they have any reason to be… but this isn’t one of those. I mean, it’s fine! It’s amusing throughout, and has some good scenes going, and some dramatic cinematography, but it’s not actually funny? The gags keep coming, but they all make you go “yes, that’s a gag” instead of laughing.
It’s almost good.
I love Dwan’s “partial filmography as director”:
The death of the Ritz Brothers’ father caused production of the film in January to be delayed. Fox placed a $150,000 suit against the Ritz brothers for a breach of contract as the film was stated to start production on January 30, but was halted when the Ritz Brothers did not show up.
This blog post is part of the 1939
series.