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Gorilla at Large (1954)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
May 1954 (USA)
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Tagline:
in 3-D! more
Plot:
At a carnival called the Garden of Evil, a man is murdered, apparently by a gorilla...or someone in a gorilla suit. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at 73
(From IMDb News. 8 June 2005)
Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at 73
(From IMDb News. 7 June 2005)
(From IMDb News. 8 June 2005)
Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at 73
(From IMDb News. 7 June 2005)
User Comments:
Something For Everyone
more (19 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| Cameron Mitchell | ... | Joey Matthews | |
| Anne Bancroft | ... | Laverne Miller | |
| Lee J. Cobb | ... | Detective Sgt. Garrison | |
| Raymond Burr | ... | Cy Miller | |
| Charlotte Austin | ... | Audrey Baxter | |
| Peter Whitney | ... | Kovacs | |
| Lee Marvin | ... | Shaughnessy--Policeman | |
| Warren Stevens | ... | Joe, Detective | |
| John Kellogg | ... | Morse (as John G. Kellogg) | |
| Charles Tannen | ... | Owens |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
83 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: When Joey and Audrey are talking at the concession, the roller coaster in the background can be seen operating, even though the amusement park is closed down.
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Quotes:
Sgt. Garrison:
You've always been this alert, Shaughnessy?
Shaughnessy: Always on my toes!
Sgt. Garrison: Well, get off 'em. You're a cop, not a ballet dancer.
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Shaughnessy: Always on my toes!
Sgt. Garrison: Well, get off 'em. You're a cop, not a ballet dancer.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in 1st Annual Mystery Science Theater 3000 Summer Blockbuster Review (1997) (TV)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (19 total)
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Gorilla at Large (1954)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| Kovacs | Forgotten_Hero |
| I missed something... | tinkerbell_cs |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| News articles | IMDb Mystery section | IMDb USA section |
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This semi-indie murder mystery from the fifties has a little bit of something for everyone. For one thing, it has an amazing cast: Anne Bancroft, Cameron Mitchell, Lee Cobb, Lee Marvin and Raymond Burr. It captures perfectly the tail-end of the amusement park era that was drawing to a close at this time due to television and Disneyland. Men dress in garish suits in this one, and smoke cigars, and there is, as always seemed to be the case with films with a circus or carnival setting, the air of an alternate reality just around the corner, in a sideshow or a funhouse.
This picture was an oddity even when it was new, feeling at times more like an episode of Superman than a movie. The gorilla looks exactly like what it is, a man in a gorilla suit, yet somehow this is acceptable, the way painted backdrops in silent movies are acceptable. If the big ape were presented realistically it would throw the whole film off. Method actors Mitchell and Cobb deliver fine B movie performances that give no hints that they were in fact classically trained, not to mention that they had once played together as father and son in the original Broadway production of Death Of a Salesman. Miss Bancroft was a babe, yet restrains her natural talent to give the sort of Suzanne Pleshette performance her part demands. Raymond Burr, still a few years away from Perry Mason, draws on his natural and inscrutable saturninity. His occasional moments of smiling and bonhomie remind me a little of Peter Lorre at his most forlorn, as he comes off like a grim, serious man trying awfully hard to be a good sport, which in turn makes him a perfect red herring. Lee Marvin plays a dumb cop named Shaughnessy, a good indication of the cleverness of the script.
Yet the movie works on its own terms. The color is well above average for this basically small-scale picture. Director Harmon Jones was a seasoned Hollywood veteran and knew how to slow down the action to create a sense of place, whether a policeman's office, a pier, a trailer or the ersatz jungle set, complete with trapeze. This sort of stylized, non-realistic movie was, like amusement parks, going out of fashion at the time it was made, and yet it has its virtues, notably a commitment to artifice rather than a representation of the real world, which freed the imaginations of the men behind the camera, allowing them to make little experiments with color, space and lighting. The movie is much better than camp. It's more like Edward Hopper Goes To the Circus.