Movie review – “The Gorilla” (1939) **

The Ritz brothers were a popular comedy team who made a number of films in the 1930s; they are not well remembered today, with no real accepted classics on their resume, despite being favourites of Pauline Kael (she would invoke their name when showing off how non-elitist her taste in movies could be). Their vehicle here is the sort of thing Abbott and Costello would shortly be doing – to wit, detectives investigating mysterious shenanigans in a haunted house. Like A and C there is a strong support cast including Lionel Atwill (everyone’s favourite 30s perv), Patsy Kelly (everyone’s favourite 30s wise-cracking lesbian) and Bela Lugosi (everyone’s favourite 30s red herring butler), plus a pair of juveniles. There is a lot of running around (including antics involving gorillas, pretend and real) and Alan Dwan’s direction is as professional as always, but I prefer A and C films – mainly because with them there’s a contrast in characters so you have a bit of conflict, whereas the Ritzes all look alike. Lugosi enters into the spirit of things with aplomb and bounces off the boys well.