Tonight's film was chosen for it's cast as well as an intriguing title. When you've got Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr., Tom Conway and the tragic Barbara Payton all starring in a picture called "Bride of the Gorilla"(1951), you should have a winner on your hands, especially when said picture is written and directed by Curt Siodmak, who penned quite a few classic horror films including "The Wolf Man" and "The Invisible Man Returns". He also wrote the original novel "Donovan's Brain", a bestseller that was made into the movie we watched last month. With all of this talent, the lineup is there to knock it out of the park, but did the movie live up to the names on the marquee? Let's find out.
Raymond Burr is the foreman on the jungle plantation of Mr. Klass Van Gelder (Paul Cavanaugh). He's fed up with being underpaid and he's got a thing for Van Gelder's young wife (Payton, whose train wreck of a life could fill a separate blog). One night when they are alone, he confesses his love for her. At first she brushes him off, swearing loyalty to her much older husband, but Burr - thin and handsome here - is persistent. Before long, he's worn down Payton's defenses. She falls for him and they make plans to get away. Before they can leave the plantation however, Mr. Van Gelder gets word of their tryst. He confronts Burr and within moments, the heated discussion turns deadly. Burr pushes Van Gelder into an outdoor snake pit, where he dies after being bitten. Burr assumes there were no witnesses, and tells Payton it was an accident, but just yards away, sitting in a little cove, was an old woman, a native witch whom Van Gelder kept on the property to protect his workers against evil spirits. She saw Burr kill Van Gelder and overhears his conversation with Barbara Payton, telling her he found her husband dead. The witch was devoted to Mr. Van Gelder, so she puts a curse on Raymond Burr, who will very shortly begin to feel it's effects.
Meanwhile, Burr has had a change of plans. With Van Gelder dead, there is no reason for he and Payton to elope. She is going to inherit the plantation and her late husband's fortune. Burr convinces her that they should stay put. He has a personal motive, for when they are married, as Payton's new husband he will be rich, too - large and in charge, as they say. Lon Chaney Jr. will come snooping around as "Police Commissioner Taro" a jungle native himself who has been educated abroad. He strongly suspects Mr. Van Gelder was murdered, but can't prove it because the Old Witch won't testify. She trusts her curse to provide justice and claims she saw nothing.
By now, Burr has had his first blackout, after wandering into the jungle late at night all alone. He will later tell Payton that he "felt it's pull".
"It was as if all my senses were sharpened. I could hear leaves fluttering a mile away, and could spot a tiger cub sitting on a mountaintop". The village physician, Dr. Viet (Tom Conway of "The Falcon" fame), wants to examine him but Burr steadfastly refuses. In confidence, Viet tells Payton of his own suspicions : "I believe he's been poisoned. The blackout, the hallucination, his extreme anxiety and even the lividity in his skin"........all are signs, according to Dr. Viet, of A Rare Form of Jungle Poisoning, the specifics of which you'll have to pay closer attention than I did, haha. Dr. Viet, a friend of Van Gelder's, also suspects Burr of murdering the man, but for now he is keeping it to himself to avoid upsetting Barbara Payton.
All of this would normally be a strong start to the kind of adventure/horror mysteries that were popular in the 1930s and early 40s and were set in exotic locales, and with Siodmak writing the script it should be money in the bank, but apparently directing was not his strong suit. That skill was best left to his brother Robert, who made several quality Noirs in his own career and was known, according to Wiki, as an "actor's director". Curt, on the other hand, manages only wooden performances out of everyone except Payton, who looks like she had a fair amount of talent. I've only seen her in one other movie (and she only lived to be 39), but after watching her give the only inspired portrayal in "Bride of the Gorilla", I feel it's unfair that she be remembered only for the turmoil in her life, or as a bimbo, the same old story we always hear about such women.
She will be one of the reasons I'll give this film a favorable review (just barely), because if not for her energy, the story would fall flat. Burr, normally an engaging performer (he was Perry Mason for cryin' out loud), recites his lines without expression, as if he were sitting at a pre-production "read through", but compared to Lon Chaney, he's putting on a Shakespearean Performance. In every scene he's in, Chaney stands facing to one side, without a doubt reading from cue cards in a formal, almost phonetic manner. He must've signed on at the last minute, or was likely just cashing a paycheck, because he was usually pretty reliable even in later years when he was boozed up to the max. But maybe in this case, the lackluster acting is all down to Curt Siodmak, who perhaps just wanted to be done with it. He doesn't even give you a lot of Gorilla, much less than you should feel entitled to, given that the big ape is in the title.
I can't pinpoint what went wrong here; you've got Perry Mason, The Falcon and The Wolf Man all in one cast, in addition to the talented bombshell Payton, and you've got a good story by one of the better horror/mystery/sci-fi writers of the era, featuring a jungle setting, a witch and a voodoo curse that turns it's victim into a gorilla. It should be at least a 7 out of 10 and likely higher, but I can only give it Two Regular Thumbs Up, and that's being generous, but I still recommend you see it because the potboiler story keeps things interesting even when the acting does not. When you are done with the movie, make sure to read up on the lives of Burr and Payton. It turns out he made a fortune and was quite a philanthropist, a really good guy by all accounts. Payton, in turn, was taken advantage of and turned to drugs and alcohol. She did herself no favors with her own tempestuous behavior, but you get the feeling she was too intelligent for her time, and like Frances Farmer, was too much for Hollywood to handle during the era in which she worked. Anyhow, interesting biographies on both Burr and Payton. I often like to read about the cast members after watching a show or movie, which is how I get the tidbits I pass on to you. :):) ///////
That's all I have for this edition of the blog. I've finished reading "Gobekli Tepe" (did I mention that?), and I highly recommend it for it's in-depth look at the world's oldest temple and also the mindblowing story of the author's search for the actual, geophysical location of the Garden of Eden.
See you in a little while at the Usual Time. Stay well. :):)
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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