Bride of the Gorilla

The cast and crew of this cheap horror potboiler are more interesting than anything that occurs throughout the movie itself; we have Barbara Payton, Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr., Tom Conway, Paul Cavanaugh and Woody Strode in front of the camera and writer-director Curt Siodmak, cinematographer Charles Van Enger, editorial supervisor Francis D. Lyon and production assistant Herman Cohen behind it. The ill-fated Payton turns the head of virtually every male she comes in contact with deep in the African jungle where she lives on husband Cavanaugh's plantation: doctor Conway secretly desires her while hot-headed foreman Burr's approach is, quite literally, more hands-on. On the other hand, Chaney is (surprisingly enough) the laid-back but knowing authoritarian figure and Strode is a native police official. The plot is very simple but, frankly, does not make a whole lot of sense: after a particularly agitated dinner complete with thunderstorm, Burr and Cavanaugh (art imitating life – more on that later) come to blows in the garden over their affection for Payton and, conveniently for Burr, a large snake just happens to be crawling near where Cavanaugh hits the ground! Witnessing the event from behind the bushes, Payton's enigmatic maid (a native witch, no less), for some inexplicable reason, puts a curse on Burr (who has in the meantime married Payton) that periodically turns him into a gorilla...starting from his very wedding day (when his hand briefly turns hirsute)! Consequently, Burr takes to losing himself in the jungle for days on end – even if the ape creature itself is barely glimpsed throughout the film. It must be said, however, that the version that I watched ran for just 56 minutes when the 'official' length is elsewhere given as either 66, 70 or 76!! Therefore, the film feels understandably rushed and disjointed if never less than campily enjoyable as it culminates in the gorilla's subjectively-shot chasing of Payton in the jungle, with the former being itself pursued by the gun-toting Chaney and Conway. To get back to the film's tragic blonde leading lady for a minute: after a promising start in movies next to such Hollywood legends as James Cagney and Gary Cooper – in, respectively, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE and DALLAS (both 1950) – her career soon nose-dived into B (and lesser) grade territory thanks to her own 'colorful' off-screen antics: her most notorious misdemeanor was being the cause of a much-publicized bar-room brawl between suave husband Franchot Tone and brutish former lover Tom Neal which ended with the former in a coma and Payton actually deserting him for the latter shortly thereafter!! But that was not all: nymphomaniac Payton also boasted that Woody Strode was among her conquests (a controversial issue at the time); short-lived husband Tone, having caught Payton's infidelities on camera, spread the damning photographic evidence around Hollywood and this virtually served to end her days as a starlet – her last film appearance being Edgar G. Ulmer's MURDER IS MY BEAT (1955) which I happen to have in my "Unwatched Movies" pile. The last 12 years of her tumultuous life were spent on Skid Row in the throes of booze, drugs, prostitution, beatings, arrests and even a stabbing – before, eventually, dying in 1967 in her parents' home at the young age of 39!

Don't be deceived by the prominent billing of Lon Chaney Jr or the advertising that stresses all the horror in this little yarn. In point of fact, Mr Chaney is confined to a rather small role. He's neither our heroine's husband nor lover. He's not even the gorilla! Mr Chaney stays firmly on the right side of the law for once, while Raymond Burr in his usual confidently cool, surly, self-assured manner enacts the title role opposite the legendary Barbara Payton (here looking extremely attractive, thanks to flattering photography and most seductive—if rather inappropriate by jungle standards—costumes. She speaks her lines with more than adequate conviction too).

Tom Conway walks through his part with his usual, blandly smooth impeccability, whilst Carol Varga's eye-catching native girl gives Barbara a fair run in the beauty stakes. Woody Strode is also on hand as a policeman who has a key scene with a black-robed, rather sinister servant-lady.

As a director, Mr Siodmak takes great care that every word of the marking-time hokey dialogue he has contrived for his script, be clearly and distinctly heard. His actors are coached to speak carefully and to enunciate with great deliberation so that not one time- consuming cliché be lost. In other respects too, Siodmak's handling has not a great deal to recommend it. Even at 65 minutes, the pacing appears remarkably slow, even tired, listless, dull. Except for a few shots of the camera tracking subjectively through the undergrowth and the jaws of the gorilla flashing momentarily right in front of the lens, Siodmak does little to capture audience interest in his tale. He focuses more of his attention on the bride than the gorilla—which is fine for us Barbara Payton fans, but may leave horror and fantasy devotees feeling rather short-changed.

All told, from a horror perspective Bride of the Gorilla turns out as a tame and tedious affair that signally fails to deliver the frights and the terror promised by its script and its advertising. We see only a few flashes of the gorilla (an obvious impersonation by a stuntman in the same well-used monkey suit the costume company has been renting out for twenty years) and there's no impressive special effects work either. Most of the movie perambulates around three or four sets and was obviously lensed on an extremely tight budget. (In fact, it was reportedly shot in ten days).

Bride does have one other important factor (aside from Miss Payton), in its favor, however. It was superbly photographed by Charles Van Enger. If you love glossy photography, Bride of the Gorilla is your meat.

Beautiful Barbara Payton is married to a much older man who has little time for her. What is a blonde, buxom girl to do? Well, no secret here that she has an affair with the foreman of her husband's plantation, Raymond Burr, who gives a performance worthwhile yet plays a guy with which you will have virtually no sympathy. Things get nasty in the jungle: Barb's husband is killed and Ray marries her. Yet, a native old woman seeks revenge on Burr by poisoning him so that he will turn into some jungle demon...a big gorilla. On his track is none other than Commissioner Tarro - Lon Chaney Jr. playing a native-turned-educated policeman from the jungle land. Chaney isn't really bad, just unbelievable in his role. Curt Siodmak directed this film and wrote the script. Siodmak was the writer of Universal's classic The Wolfman. In both pictures we have an average man turn into a beast at night. In both pictures we have transformation scenes - grand ones in The Wolfman and pitifully cheap ones in this production. Chaney also is in both films. Siodmak really does a less-than-average job behind the camera. My guess is budgetary constraints really held his hand in check. This is a very cheaply made film. The jungle house looks fine, but jungle scenes look less than real. Siodmak does have a few nicely shot scenes, particularly as the lens becomes a character walking into the jungle. What about the gorilla? No Jack Pierce here. In fact the gorilla maybe makes three appearances and none of them very substantial. The film has a lot of talking, Raymond Burr brooding a lot, and Chaney lecturing us on the "laws of the jungle." Payton does a decent job, but let's face it. She is there for one reason only. And Evelyn Ankers she is not! Character actor Tom Conway rounds out the leads, giving another one of his wooden but amiable performances.

Certainly not a bad little low budget film, this "Bride of the Gorilla", but nothing special, neither, and not memorable enough to be ranked among the meaningful Sci-Fi efforts of its time. Director Curt Siodmak was an eminent scriptwriter during the 1930's and 1940's and delivered stories for some true genre classics ("I walked with a Zombie", "The Wolf Man") but, as a director, he obviously lacked the required competences. "Bride of the Gorilla" is similar to the aforementioned "The Wolf Man" in story and atmosphere, but the film looks a lot more amateurish and pitiful. Both handle about cursed men that turn into large animals at night, but the titular gorilla doesn't look half as threatening as the werewolf, even though the film got released a whole decade later. During a cheesy opening speech, actor Lon Chaney tries to convince us that the jungle is an ominous place and hiding many mysteries, but actually there's no real mystery in the plot. It's just handles about a plantation manager who's jealous at his older colleague for having such a beautiful young wife and he kills him. A native woman witnesses his crime and puts a spell on Barney that causes him to transform into a hideously big gorilla at night... Or maybe she just wants him to believe he's turning into a hideously big gorilla…Lon Chaney himself plays the police commissioner charged with the murder investigation while Raymond Burr (who starred in about a thousand Perry Mason TV-movies) portrays the greedy plantation manager/nightly gorilla. Siodmak attempts to make the film look like a supernatural thriller – is it or is it not all just happening in Barney's head? – fail miserably and it causes way too much talking and too few jungle-action. Several of the jungle-settings are nicely pictured but the rest of the "special" effects are tacky and poorly done. Still the acting is pretty good, Barbara Payton is looking beautiful and – although very predictable – the story is strangely compelling until the very end. Weird movie, it probably voodoo-cursed me

In my movie reference books this movie is variously described as a "bomb" or recommended as a suitable choice for inclusion in the 100 worst movies of all time. Nevertheless, I have no qualms in saying that it is not that bad, and was quite happy to sit for 65 minutes (the short running time probably helps) and see it through until the end.

To begin with Curt Siodmak's story is interesting enough (as are many of his screen writing efforts), and has more than a touch of complex moral ambiguity. His direction here however has very little flair and tends to be on the perfunctory side. The low budget is a major constraint, and for the most part the film tends to be on the flat side visually, with unimpressive jungle scenes and minimal interior set pieces of the kind typical for a low budget production.

The cast (described in one reference book as 4 non-actors) are actually all competent, and Raymond Burr, in fact, is quite good in the part, managing to impart a human dimension to what could have been merely an unsympathetic villain. In fact it is interesting to actually analyse how much of the films dramatic load actually rests on his shoulders.