Expected more

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Barney Chavez (Burr) is in-love with Mrs. Dina Van Gelder (Payton) but she is married to his employer. Chavez ends up killing the employer but is seen by a voodoo priestess who casts a spell, a curse, on him that turns him into a murderous Gorilla. Barney and Dina end up married but with lots of problems. Police Commissioner Taro (Chaney) is on the trail to find out the answers. The question is: Is Chavez' transformation into a Gorilla real or all in his mind.Raymond Burr is good in this role - convincing, Barbra Payton does well as a woman tormented, Lon Chaney Jr makes a good police commissioner - so the film is overall fun to watch.This film is not nearly as bad as the critics say it is - it's actually interesting. There are some intense moments and it's a good ending. If you like movies where one of the characters is transformed into a creature and film concerning voodoo then you might like 'Bride of the Gorilla'.6.5/10

Absolutely dismal movie.It will bore the pants off you. Raymond Burr might have liked that, tho.The Plot Deep in the South American jungle plantation manager Barney Chavez (Raymond Burr) kills his elderly employer in order to get to his beautiful wife (Barbara Payton). However, an old native witch witnesses the crime.She puts a curse on Barney.He finds himself turning nightly into a rampaging gorilla. But is his transformation real or is it all in his head?

A plantation manager (Burr) defies his boss (Cavanagh) by courting his wife (Payton) then is implicated in a web of murder, deceit and witchcraft whereby he becomes a marauding jungle ape, a feared symbol of the local folklore and fable. Local police captain (Chaney) has his hands full dealing with the monster's wake, and Burr's erratic behaviour culminating in his suspicion that the two matters might be one in the same.Difficult to predict that Raymond Burr would go on to become a household name after a performance as pedestrian as the one he casually delivers here, his rich baritone a clue to why he prospered in spite of some early, lacklustre performances such as this effort. Payton plays Payton, the over-rated alternative to Marilyn Monroe, whose life descended into a tragic abyss after only a handful of films. Interesting to see Woody Strode in an early, minor role as a police officer (two brief scenes) as Chaney's offsider early in the picture.Chaney is a likable character actor, but the dialogue and plot here is very weak and uninspired, director Siodmak has difficulty with momentum and the film never hits its straps. While it might be attempting to imply the "monster within" concept, Burr never reaches deep enough to make you believe he's a man possessed, and the dialogue doesn't support that angle. In this vein, there's one effective scene in which Burr confronts his alter ego in the reflection of a mirror, but otherwise, it's a dull, soap opera fantasy.

The most interesting thing about Bride Of The Gorilla is that Lon Chaney, Jr. and Raymond Burr seemed to switch roles. As the film bore more than a passing resemblance to one of Chaney's wolf man features at Universal it seemed like both were in each other's roles. Would that Bride Of The Gorilla were as good as one of those Universal Gothic horror films.Chaney is a police inspector and Burr is the foreman on a rubber plantation in one of those northern South American colonies, my guess would be Dutch Guiana as Tom Conway as Dr. Viet says he's there under a government contract. Burr's got eyes for the plantation mistress Barbara Payton who is married to the much older Paul Cavanaugh. After Cavanaugh is killed by a poisonous snake after Burr knocks him down in a fight he gets Payton and weds her.Unfortunately he left a witness in old Gisela Werbisek who is a Maria Ouspenskaya wannabe. She puts a curse on Burr and after that some strange killings of animals start happening in the jungle. Like a werewolf on a prowl. And Burr starts behaving real strange as well.This very talented group of players deserved a whole lot better than this wolf man ripoff.