In the 1930s and 1940s there were scores of them.
A man in a gorilla suit was always killing someone, or kidnapping a pretty girl (boy gorillas never seemed to be interested in girl gorillas).
A man in a gorilla suit was always killing someone, or kidnapping a pretty girl (boy gorillas never seemed to be interested in girl gorillas).
Some were brain transplant movies - more mayhem. These were normal sized apes, not giants such as King Kong.
They had largely disappeared by the 1950s. Planet of the Apes set a much higher standard for ape costumes.
There was even a killer gorilla movie on the British Video Nasties list - Night of the Bloody Apes (why the plural ? There is only one ape on the rampage).
Not a lot in the way of toys or models either, except for King Kong; the Planet of the Apes Scene in a Bottle kits by Addar in the 1970s, and the gorillas in various zoo ranges.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Which killer gorilla films do you like?
No killer gorillas as such but a bloated Godzilla vs Kong movie is threatened for the end of March. Neither computer generated creature looks as endearing as either of the originals.
ReplyDeleteYeh, the upcoming Godzilla v Kong "movie" (cough cough bloated two-hour video game) is a must-miss!
DeleteI have a great DVD set called Sons of Kong which has a lot of those great crummy 30s/40s gorilla movies. I think The White Gorilla might be my favorite, cuz it uses stock footage from a SILENT movie to pad out its meager running time. What a glorious cheat! By the 1950s, the gorilla suit monster was pretty much a thing of the past, although it made appearances in some Bowery Boys and Abbott & Costello comedies, and of course was HALF of Ro-Man in the incredible ROBOT MONSTER!
ReplyDeleteI too have a few of these movies on DVD, but only a tiny fraction of what was made in the Golden Age of Killer Gorilla movies. I was really thinking of normal sized gorillas, not the giant apes such as King Kong. Of course, Murders in the Rue Morgue featured a killer Orangutan, but still a normal sized ape.
ReplyDelete