Monster of the Day #3254

So I started watching The Gorilla (1939) on Amazon Prime. It was indeed completely a knock-off of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s The Bat, and Cat and the Canary, and just like Shh! The Octopus, and so on. A pretty standard Old Dark House movie with a killer in an animal suit who sends his victims a note promising to kill them.

The movie’s about an hour, which is good. The suspense stuff and atmosphere are pretty good. Best of all, the film has both Bela Lugosi (doesn’t look like he has much to do) and Lionel Atwill as both the villain and a prospective victim of the titular menace.

So the film wasn’t setting the world on fire, but you had Lugosi and Atwill. Sadly, you also had Patsy Kelly as a ‘funny’ scared maid. She was loud and screamy and annoying (and forced Bela to act as a boring straight man), and I was really wishing I was watching Mantan Moreland instead.

Then…the Ritz Brothers showed up. Somehow I had never seen the Ritz Brothers. I had see Olsen and Johnson, and Wheeler and Woolsey, but not them. And…they gave me bad comedy hives. They are basically a very unfunny, generic Three Stooges.

So I stopped watching. Maybe I’ll try to give it another look later, but man, bad comedy. Hard to watch. Anyway, if anyone else has a spare hour, give it a look and let me know if you find them more tolerable than I did. Certainly possible.

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🐻 bgbear_rnh

I think I saw this one and found it clever and funny. I guess I am easily amused.
Ken_Begg

I will say that obviously mileage varies on humor, so I cast no aspersions on those who find the Ritz Brothers funnier than I do. Otherwise you might as well start a shouting match about what’s sexier, girls dressed like maids or girls dressed like cheerleaders.
Gamera977

Girls dressed like cowgirls hands down…

All joking aside guess I need to watch this and decide for myself then.
Gamera977

Speaking of Lionel Atwill last night I watched ‘Fog Island’ on Amazon Prime with him and George Zucco. It was okay, not great, not terrible. A decent time waster.

Though I have to wonder at the correct pronunciation of Zucco. I always say it as if it if it rhymes with Stucco. Or is it Zoo-Ko???
Cullen Waters

The Bowlery Boys they ain’t. I got about fifteen minutes in, realized I had a perfectly good copy of The Cat and the Canary I could be watching and stepped out. Might go back later if I don’t have anything better to do, as it really isn’t that bad looking a film. Bela looks like he’s having fun.
🐻 bgbear_rnh

dressed?
🐻 bgbear_rnh

Some people find Will Farrell in a film funny. I see it as a warning label.
skrag2112

The problem with the Ritz Brothers is I can’t tell them apart. At least with the Stooges or the Marx Brothers, they each had distinct, separate personalities and looks.
Ken_Begg

I’ve always said Zoo-Ko. I’m sure there must be a commentary track out there we could use as an authoritative source.
Ken_Begg

Which version of CatC? The silent is terrific, and so is the Bob Hope version.
Ken_Begg

Again, I didn’t watch much of it after they came in, but I was thinking that too. It was like three Zeppo Marxes.
Cullen Waters

Bob Hope. I got the itch to finally see it and Ghost Breakers, so I picked up both on blu ray. Then, being me, I waited forever to watch them both. Excellent films. Enjoyed them both.

I’ve seen the silent CatC and I think I prefer it to the Bob Hope version. Though, again, I like the Hope film a great deal.
Cullen Waters

Yeah, it did seem like they were all trying to play the same character.
Eric Hinkle

I only ever heard of the Ritz Brothers in some of those Three Stooges from their 80’s boom, and I wondered if they were as bad as people said. I watched this and yep, they were. It’s not that they have no talent, which is worse — they seem to be in that bad spot where you’re not very bad but not very good either.

Oh well, at least we had a guy in a gorilla suit. That always makes these old B&W comedies better.
Ken_Begg

I agree. The silent version is terrific–and one of the fastest paced silents I’ve ever seen–so it probably edges out the also quite great Bob Hope version. You can’t really go wrong with either of those, though.

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