Bride of the Gorilla (1951)

Face in the Water

Cast:

Barbara Payton is Mrs. Dina Van Gelder
Lon "The one true wolfman..." Chaney Jr. is Police Commissioner Taro
Raymond "Steve Martin from Godzilla" Burr is Barney Chavez
Tom Conway is Dr. Viet
Paul Cavanagh is Klaas Van Gelder

What the box says:

Love, treachery, voodoo, and a a freaky gorilla-man: this campy ape flick has it all! Raymond Burr stars as a lovelorn plantation manager who kills his employer in order to get his beautiful wife (Barbara Payton). Now someone is out to avenge his employer's death, and Burr is the target of the sinister voodoo ritual - one that transforms him into a lecherous cross between man and beast!

Plot:

Police commissioner, Taro, in his super narrative explains how evil grows in the jungle.

Doesn't every jungle movie need some stock footage? Flash back to the start of our story at the Van Gelder mansion. Barney, the plantation manager, comes in and is hitting on the boss’s young and hot wife, Dina.
Oh, Della Street, wait a minute, you're not Della.... Klaas, the boss, is finally tired of Barney, and fires him.

Dina tries to talk Barney into staying.

Dr. Viet checks on Klaas who is very weak.

One of the servant girls, Larina, learns that Barney has been stringing her along and dumped her. Al Long, Larina’s grandmother, is going to handle things.

Barney talks with Klaas, who slaps him. Barney punches him down. Al Long watches them from a distance. A snake bites Klaas, who dies from its bite.

Barney visits Dina and plans to leave the plantation.

Al Long swears a curse on Barney.

At the inquest, Taro questions Barney. Al Long claims that a snake bit Klaas, and Barney wasn’t there but with Dina. Taro closes the inquest.

Al Long tends to the phae de guan plant and curses Barney again.

Barney marries Dina. Signing the license, Barney notices his hand turning furry. He runs off. Dr Viet checks on Barney’s hand, but it is normal.

That night, Barney heads into the jungle and turns beasty.

Feel the power of the attorney, Perry Mason... Later, Dina finds him and has him taken back to the mansion. Dr. Viet checks on Barney’s who is rambling. The good doctor is sure that Barney was involved in Klaas’s death.

Taro talks with Viet about a strange jungle creature, the sukara. Taro is sure Barney killed Klaas and the sukara from the jungle will punish Barney’s action. They get a call about the sukara was spotted and check the scene. The natives had hid traps around the jungle.

Barney beastifies and breaks a mirror. He approaches Dina but runs off into the jungle. Dina grabs a gun and opens fire. Taro and Viet arrive.

Later heads into the jungle and finds Barney. He got his foot in a trap. Barney explains how he’s drawn into the jungle. They decide to leave the plantation the next day.

Al Long is still cursing Barney.

Barney is going to sell the plantation and move off to Rio. Viet talks with Dina. He’s worried about Barney and thinks he’s been poisoned.

Barney heads into the jungle again. In the morning, Barney returns to the mansion. He’s decided not to sell the plantation and stay and live in the jungle. He claims that Dr. Viet is in love with Dina. The native workers have decided to move away because of the sukura. Viet finds dried blood on Barney’s hands.

Viet and Dina are talking.

You can't convince me that Perry Mason is a murderer... He thinks Barney killed Klaas and is suffering from psychological guilt.

Barney won’t stay. Dina tries to talk him but follows him into the jungle.

Viet and Taro find the poison plant that Al Long used to curse Barney. They head into the jungle. Beast Barney grabs Dina. Viet and Taro open fire on him. Viet checks on Dina as Barney collapses. The Taro narration explains how the jungle punished Barney.

What I say:

Jungle movies have for all intents and purposes seem to have died almost as much as westerns to most people. Several number of the typical cheap action movies set in some jungle countries have been done in action movies for the last couple of decades. Back in 1950s, jungle movies are required to have plenty of stock footage of the jungle in them like Perils of the Jungle.

Long ago, I separated my writing from what I have to refer to in an insulting manner as "reality" and "normalacy." However, some times, that bit of nit-picking into reality does bear it's ugly nasty little head. Shouldn't a movie about a "Bride of the Gorilla" actually have a bride married to a gorilla? Well after so many of gorilla in jungle movies that have already popped up like White Pongo or will be popping up soon, one has to expect that sometimes the gorillas just aren't going to be in the movies.

Raymond Burr is best known for Perry Mason or Ironsides on TV when he's not contending as Steve Martin with a certain giant, angry lizard, Godzilla. It is a little hard to see him as a sleazy plantation manager who let his boss die from a poisonous snakebite so he can get the boss's wife. It is hard to say "Barney" who turns into some sort of monster and rampages through the jungle.

Somehow, it is a little hard to have Lon Chaney Jr. as the guy who knows the superstitions but not in the typical Wolfman/Larry Talbolt role. After all, he seemed to almost be typecast totally into that role for most of his career. Here, he doesn't quite have the superstitious when the "wolfsbane blooms during the full moon" knowledge. Though as he got older, he seemed to get more of the typical older horror star movies like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi final roles except for a few things like Spider Baby.

Granny, the witch doctor, has been spiking his food with the poisonous plant. In fact, the doctor mentions Barney could be suffering from a guilty consciense or Granny's plant. We never see whether Barney is slowly going crazy or actually physically changing. No one else sees him furry or monstrous. The notion that he may just be going crazy doesn't seem to have such as annoying feel that so horror movies that have the "dream or is it type?" ending do. Curt Siodmark is probably best known for a few of the movie screenplays he wrote including Wolfman, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein. The writer of one of the best known werewolf movies directing a movie that is very similar to the Wolfman makes some sense.

Quotable Dialogue
"The world's a lot bigger than this jungle."
"I don't want a witch near my children."
"It's an unusual animal."
" White people shouldn't live too long in the jungle. Brings out their bad side, their jealousies and impatience."
Morals of the Story
Being bitten a poisonous snake is typically considered a murder.
Jungle curses enhance hearing.
Raymond Burr is a secret jungle monster.
Raymond Burr has superhuman enhanced senses.