Spooktober 13: The Gorilla (1927)

 

One of the first in a long line of gorilla horror films that lasted through the 1940's; (productions occurring at some regularity), Alfred Santell's 1927 The Gorilla was a mystery/horror by First National, and is another lost film. For a lost film however, there are a surprising number of remnant materials from stills to posters. It's very wide distribution also provides a generous amount of hope that a print will turn up somewhere.  The story line, however, is mundane and well known; and though it is based on a Ralph Spence play, there is little doubt that it's based in no small part on Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (though Poe does not get a credit). Basically it is your average creature feature story line of a killer animal after human prey, the twist is (spoiler alert!), it turns out to be a man in an ape suit...so it's also a serial killer film, complete with the victims only being female. If you are a fan of old B horrors, you might be asking yourself...um that sounds familiar...wasn't Lugosi in a film like that? Answer: Yes! This film was remade in 1939 with Lugosi and Lionel Atwill and the Ritz Bros as a horror comedy (it was the second remake, with the first coming in 1930 as an all sound affair, it too is a lost film). In another Universal Monster connection, cameraman Arthur Edeson went on to photograph Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933), as well a whole host of other classics including Casablanca.