You won't be disappointed!

To me, this movie is perfection.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a very fun comedy-horror film that is very much underrated. If you enjoy comedy-horror movies, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, The Ritz Bros. or Gorillas then look no further than this funny mystery horror classic.All of this film is good right from the very beginning but I think my favorite part of the film is the "invisible butler" (Lugosi) carrying the trunk from upstairs to downstairs right in front of the Ritz Bros.The biggest question or mystery in this film is "who or what is the gorilla"? This one may surprise you a bit towards the end.This is a great matinée type of film and could easily be a double feature with a movie like "King of the Zombies (1941)" or "One Body Too Many (1944)" 8.5/10

This film would have worked a lot better if they had played it straight and taken out the Ritz Brothers. There's a serial killer called The Gorrila who sends people threatening letters and then kills them within twenty-four hours of sending the message. Some rich insurer's just received such a message, so he's hired the Ritz Brothers to find out what's going on. They all meet at the rich guy's house. Also present is his daughter and her fiancé, butler Bela Legosi, and a maid who's voice could strip paint. There also does seem to be a gorilla present, plus a mysterious man who likes to hide in the secret passageways of the house.I'd read bad reviews of this one, but luckily it's not quite as painful as people make out. The Ritz Brothers, however, are pretty bad, although I've never been a big fan of The Three Stooges either. The actress who plays the maid is even worse, just screaming at the top of her voice until you'll be wanting to shove your feet inside your ears. Or her mouth.Terrible comedy aside, a film with a gorilla in it, set on a stormy night in a house full of secret passages, with Bela Legosi in it as a creepy butler, isn't a total failure. There's plenty of mystery, double crosses, and gorilla action that I couldn't but enjoy it. I just wish they had played it straight.

Newspaper headlines proclaim the notorious 'Gorilla' has murdered several people. The setting for this spooky comic murder mystery is the house of Warren Stevens. Stevens' estate is no ordinary edifice. The place is a maze of secret passages. Virtually, every room boasts a concealed panel. The maid Kitty (Patsy Kelly) is reading the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. before she goes to sleep when she sees the arm of a gorilla pin a note to her robe. Kitty raves hysterically with fear about her close call with danger, and Peters (Bela Lugosi) the butler examines that document. Stevens (Lionel Atwill) arrives to investigate and peruses the note, too. The note is a death threat for him. A thunder storm with recurring lightning enhances the atmosphere laden with paranoia about when the 'Gorilla' will next strike. The same night that this happens, Stevens sends an urgent radiogram to his niece Norma Denby. It seems that Stevens and Norma are joint heirs under the terms of her late father's will. Until Norma marries, Uncle Walter is the executor of her estate. Walter wants Norma and Jack to know what the contents of the estate are. The next day Norma and her boyfriend arrive to find Walter feeling a little apprehensive about the death threat. Of course, Walter has no idea why anybody would want to kill him. Earlier, we see him on the phone begging for clemency in regard to a monetary debt of $250-thousand. Later, a genuine gorilla enters the mansion. Somebody has knocked the gorilla's trainer out and unlocked the beast's cage. Later, we learn that the gorilla is named Poe.Stevens hires three detectives from the ACME Detective Agency. The nitwit Ritz Brothers play the numskull private eyes that Stevens hires to protect him from the homicidal ape on the loose. They make their entrance about ten minutes into the action. They arrive in the pouring rain in a convertible with an umbrella serving as their roof. They have cut holes for their eyes so they can see where they are driving. "I'll bet there's a dead body in every room," Garrity (Jimmy Ritz) observes before they climb out of her automobile. At best, the Ritz Brothers are low-brow comics that rely on verbal wit and hammy acting to yield laughs. They freak out at the very mention of the Gorilla's name and Harrigan puts on a dumb show when he encounters the ape. Everybody is in the study when the lights go out and Stevens vanishes. The Ritz Brothers try to reenact Stevens' disappearance by using a stand-in for him. "Look," Mulligan says, "I've got an idea. If we can figure out how Garrity disappeared, we can figure out how Stevens disappeared." Mulligan (Al Ritz) sits where Stevens sat behind the desk. Harrigan (Harry Ritz) switches off the lights and Mulligan disappears. The next stand-in for Stevens that Harrigan uses is Kitty. This time the lights go out and Harrigan rather than the stand-in for Stevens disappears. Suddenly, Kitty finds herself face-to-face with Peters.At the halfway point in the film, a couple of other people arrive. Not only does a mysterious but natty stranger (Joseph Calleia) appear without invitation, but our bumbling heroes discover a sailor in a closet. The stranger prowls the premise after Harrigan has vanished as a part of his reenactment ploy. The stranger finds Harrigan. Initially, Harrigan suspects the stranger is the 'Gorilla.' The stranger explains he stepped into the house to use the telephone because his car broke down. When Harrigan brandishes his revolver, the stranger assures him he is making a big mistake. The stranger surprises Harrigan, knocks him unconscious, and claps handcuffs on him. About forty minutes into the plot, A.P. Conway (Paul Harvey) storms into the mansion. He is adamant about collecting a quarter of a million dollars. "I have proof that Stevens have been stealing from his client's accounts for over a year." He refuses to leave until he has his money. More than ever the Ritz Brothers are determined to solve the mystery. Eventually, they venture into the cellar and encounter the real gorilla. During their search, Harrigan gets himself snagged to a dressing dummy and freaks out. The fake gorilla attacks Norma. Jack suspects Peters is the culprit because the butler is never around when anything occurs. Later, Harrigan confronts the real gorilla in a clever scene when he thinks that his partners are accompanying him. The sailor recovers and warns them about Poe. Poe hates women. The sailor says a man hired him and Poe. Somebody clobbered the sailor and released Poe."The Man in the Iron Mask" director Allan Dwan's version of "The Gorilla" is the second remake of the Ralph Spence stage play. Spence was a comic scriptwriter, too. He wrote the screenplay for the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy "Hook, Line, and Sinker." Scenarists Rian James and Sid Silvers have penned some snappy, rapid-fire dialogue for the Ritz Brothers that aptly illuminates their idiocy. The gobbledygook dialogue is amusing in its lunacy. Dwan doesn't squander a second in this fast-paced laffer. He gets more mileage than you might imagine out of the weird sounds that a Zenith radio receiver emits with warnings about Stevens' impending demise. Bela Lugosi is cast as a sinister butler. Typically, the cliché in murder mysteries such as this one is that the butler committed the crime. Dwan uses Lugosi as an effective red herring. Nobody likes or trusts the butler. Dwan gets as much mileage out of Lionel Atwill as Stevens. Patsy Kelly spends most of her time screaming in fright. The fake gorilla that is supposed to be a real gorilla is hilarious because it is so obviously ersatz.

"This Ritz Brothers vehicle features them as detectives hired to protect lawyer Walter Stevens (Lionel Atwell) from 'The Gorilla', a killer working under the guise of an escaped circus animal. Garrity, Harrigan, and Mullivan (Jimmy, Harry, and Al Ritz) discover that is really heiress Norma Denby (Anita Louise) who may be the target of the killer. To complicate things even further, a real escaped gorilla shows up to befuddle our trio of detectives," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Another in the long line of comedy in the haunted house capers, "The Gorilla" works well if you're familiar with the Ritz Brothers, and unfamiliar with the often filmed storyline. It will also help if you like movies featuring men in gorilla suits. Director Allan Dwan and photographer Edward Cronjager make it look all right. The cast is strengthened by a high-key performance from literary maid Patsy Kelly (as Kitty), and a low-key play by butler Bela Lugosi (as Peters); their names, "Kitty" and "Peters", are certainly amusing.**** The Gorilla (5/26/39) Allan Dwan ~ Harry Ritz, Patsy Kelly, Bela Lugosi