 | |
List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Image Entertainment
Salesrank: 142104
Released: September 18, 2001 |
| Our Price: $5.99 |
| Used Price: $3.99 |
|
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
The time is the 1950s, and the hottest comedy act in Hollywood is Martin and Lewis. Taking full advantage of the trend, Dean Martin look-alike Duke Mitchell and his partner, Jerry Lewis clone Sammy Petrillo, play a pair of nightclub performers who fall out of a plane and find themselves stranded on a jungle island. They discover Bela Lugosi, who is experimenting with a serum that turns people into gorillas! Also included: Interview with star Sammy Petrillo.
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla Reviews:
Sammy left his wife and 4 kids in 1969 
2009-05-20 - Sammy is often deemed a cult hero for his work in this film. While he is a funny man, he is far from being a hero. He left his wife and four small children in 1969. They came home to find that he had moved back to New York. He did at least leave them with a dollar. I know, I was 7 years old at the time. I'm one of the 4 sons he left. The oldest. Our last names are slightly different as he changed his to try to benefit from the current head of the musicians union at the time; who bore the last name Petrillo (same name as my brothers and I, new spelling).
If this movie were any more of a dog, it would have shed all over my DVD player SPOILER IN REVIEW
2008-10-29 - This movie was basically a vehicle for Sammy Petrillo and Duke Mitchell, who were kind of a low-rent Martin & Lewis. Sammy had, in fact, appeared on a Dean & Jerry TV show as Jerry's infant son. He was 17 at the time this movie was made and shamelessly imitates Lewis in it, but he does it very well! He looks amazingly like him and although his voice gets grating when he yells (which he spends a lot of the movie doing), his imitation is first rate.
This movie was obviously knocked off in about a week's time (including writing, no doubt) and made it into theaters despite threats from Jerry Lewis to sue the studio. I think we would have been better off if they DID burn the prints.
BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA is about as good as it sounds. It has a simplistic, not-a-thought-in-its-head story, incredibly unfunny jokes, dull direction, dinner-theatre level performances, and
*SPOILER*
in the end, it all turns out to be a dream!
If only I could chalk watching this movie up to being a nightmare, we'd all be happy. Absolutely not to be missed under any circumstances.
Blessed are those who have never seen this 
2007-09-24 - All the black and white comedy teams have one thing in common, they have all been in movies or shorts with a guy in a gorilla suit; The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, Mitchell and Petrillo, ........ what you have never heard of Mitchell and Petrillo? Then my friend you have been fortunate enough to have never seen "Bela Legosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla"! Folks, this movie is bad, bad, bad.
We'll start off with Duke Mitchell. Well he wears his shirt like a flaming homosexual for one, tied in a knot in front like Daisy Duke or something. He is supposed to be the 'straight guy', pardon my pun. He sings somewhat, and is the love interest of the chief's daughter on the island of Kola Kola. Kola Kola by the way is an island somewhere in the Pacific, along a flight route to Guam. But on the island there are lions, girraffes, and many other African animals. Go figure.
Sammy Petrillo cannot be described in one word, it takes several; nincompoop, buffoon, child-like, idiotic, and goofy, but I prefer the word retarded. I can't stand Jerry Lewis, and the only thing worse than Jerry Lewis is a poor, second-rate imitation of Jerry Lewis. I wonder what the French think of Mr. Petrillo? Anyway, he is the love interest of the other chief's daughter, the obese one.
Bela Lugosi comes along for the ride in this inane film. I do not know if it was sepcial effects or bad photography, but all of his bottom teeth look black. Well anyway, 30 years after starring in the movie Dracula, Duke and Sammy think he's Dracula in Bela's very first scene.
The chief's daughter (the hot one) is the eye candy of the flick. She has great legs and shows uite a bit of cleavage.
Probably the most talented cast member of this movie is the chimpanzee. She can open doors, turn keys in locks, and a number of other things.
I would recommend this movie for Halloween night for very young children or the extreme elderly. Anyone above the age of 5 would find very little entertainment value and anyone over the age of 79 is probably too tired to care what is on.
Low Budget Fun Fest 
2007-09-18 - This film is not as bad as the title would make it seem.
Duke Mitchell & Sammy Petrillo are the poor man's Martin and Lewis.
Petrillo's "humor" makes Jerry Lewis appear understated in comparison and I'm sure Dino never felt threatened by Duke.
Bela Lugosi turns in his usual credible mad scientist performance.
Charlita plays the love interest and is smokin' HOT, scantily attired in her best South Sea togs.
The video and audio quality are very good as was the print used for the transfer.
Add another star if you're a diehard Lugosi fan.
A Gorilla, A Mad Scientist, And The Most Annoying Man In Show Business
2007-02-12 - This is a stunning film in both concept an execution. The premise is simple: two talentless hacks...I mean...entertainers, parachute onto a primitive island, Cola-Cola. There they meet crazy natives, beautiful girls, and an evil genius in a castle. Mayhem ensues, comedy erupts, the entertainers sing, the natives dance, and Bela Lugosi turns Duke Mitchell into a gorilla. Nefarious schemes are hatched, romance rears its ugly head, and slapstick is in vogue. Lugosi gets his comeuppance and love conquers all. The end.
Seriously, this film is an absolute abomination. I once heard that Bela Lugosi thought this was his worst film; I can't confirm that, but I can believe it. This is a stunning find, unavailable for a long time, but now available to all camp lovers. The movie is definitely in the "so bad it's good" category, and the single worst feature is, without doubt, Sammy Petrillo, the poor man's Jerry Lewis. I personally find Jerry Lewis insufferable, but Petrillo is like a caricature of Lewis: even worse, and infinitely less funny than the original. The French would love this guy.
The standup routine and songs are especially noxious. I would have given this film five stars as a perfect camp classic, were it not for the two star penalty (one each for Mitchell and Petrillo) for the "live entertainment" performed within the film. You have to be pretty hardened to be able to tolerate Petrillo, especially when his partner turns into a gorilla leaving him an even higher percentage of the lines. Adding a predictable twist, Mitchell (the Dean Martin wannabe) romances the pretty islander, Nona, which leaves the morbidly obese island girl to chase stick-like Petrillo about, finally driving him into the clutches of a chimpanzee. Meanwhile Dr. Zabor (Lugosi at his most crazed) is doing evolutionary experiments and wants to stop the budding romance between Nona and Mitchell. I was grateful that he transformed Mitchell, as it stopped all the singing (for a while anyway.) In a dramatic finale, all subplots are resolved and we are able to contemplate those 74 minutes of our lives which we'll never get back.
This movie is a grade-Z cheesefest, and I recommend it to all lovers of tacky, stupid camp films; just be advised that Sammy Petrillo may be the most annoying man in show business. With that admonition in mind, enjoy the cheese.
