Tuchergson Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Tom DeFelice "Gorilla At Large" is a very good example of a 1950's 3-D film. If you only see it in 2-D, you are literally seeing only half the picture. Why do you think the bars are in the foreground, the gorilla jumps at the screen, the girl is trapped in a house of mirrors, or the rockets are shot at the gorilla? Because it is supposed to be seen in 3-D. That's why.Having said that, 23 year old Anne Bancroft gives an interesting sex-pot performance. She spends most of the time either in her trapeze costume or in lingerie. Raymond Burr, known as a bad guy at this time, gives a very offbeat performance. And a very young Lee Marvin is extremely funny as a cop who doesn't have a clue.The 1950's saw a great many 3-D films that are no longer available in that format. It is really too bad we can't see "Gorilla At Large", "House Of Wax" and "Dial M For Murder" the way they were meant to be seen.

MARIO GAUCI I had originally watched this one a long time ago during my childhood days on a now-defunct Sicilian TV channel; in hindsight, it can now best be considered as a guilty pleasure and, besides, the fact that it isn’t really a bona-fide horror film (given that the murders are not actually committed by the titular beast but rather by somebody conveniently donning a simian costume) might perhaps endear it to those film buffs who normally shun the genre.The terrific cast is also a definite attraction here: Lee J. Cobb and Lee Marvin are particularly fun to watch as, respectively, the cigar-chomping Police Detective heading the murder investigations under the Big Top and a loudmouth but sleepy-eyed cop left to guard the caged gorilla but, inevitably, ending behind its bars himself! Cameron Mitchell, Raymond Burr and Anne Bancroft – who, arguably, never looked lovelier on screen than she does here as the star trapeze artist of husband Burr’s circus – all have good roles and gleefully enter into the fun spirit of the thing. Interestingly enough, both Cobb and Burr were about to embark on their signature screen roles that same year in, respectively, ON THE WATERFRONT and REAR WINDOW! The gorilla keeper (Peter Whitney) is also a noteworthy and malevolent presence, particularly when trapping a victim into his self-designed mirror maze and when offering to teach Mitchell how to raise ex-wife Bancroft over his head for the crowd's pleasure! The belated identification of the real killer is a big surprise – which makes the sequence of Burr taking on the blame for the circus murders and his eventual revelation as a cripple by Mitchell in front of Cobb a moving one and the film’s highlight. While the ape itself is clearly a man in a suit, it’s not a particular liability to one’s enjoyment of the show; the 3-D effects are not especially obtrusive either and are limited to the beast swinging by rope or walking into camera and passing through the revolving merry-go-round at the film’s climax. In conclusion, this modest production proved to be highly enjoyable hokum – although, admittedly, the nostalgia factor may have had a hand in how much I wound up liking the whole thing. Being a picture originally distributed by Fox, it was surprisingly (but thankfully) added to the coveted “Midnite Movies” line of DVD releases (which has recently been taken over by Fox from MGM) along with the unrelated Spanish adventure effort MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND (1981) featuring genre icons Peter Cushing and Paul Naschy and which I will get to later on during this Halloween marathon.

Neil Doyle GORILLA AT LODGE is an oddity--a "B" picture with a distinguished cast of more than competent actors--CAMERON MITCHELL, ANNE BANCROFT, LEE J. COBB, LEE MARVIN, WARREN STEVENS and RAYMOND BURR--and is filmed in excellent Technicolor using the gimmick of 3D which was just a passing fad at the time.It's a murder mystery with most of the action taking place in a colorful amusement park called "The Garden of Evil", all of the atmosphere fully taken advantage of by the color photography which accents the garish while the story accents the puzzling background of several suspects who might be involved in the shady doings.ANNE BANCROFT was at her physical prime in a part that requires more acrobatics than acting skill, but still there's a glimmer of the actress to be. LEE J. COBB is a gruff cigar smoking detective who treats everyone like a suspect, and LEE MARVIN is amusing as an Irish cop whose intelligence is questionable. PETER WHITNEY (who played those amusing twin brothers in a screwball comedy from the '40s called MURDER, HE SAID), is creepy as the chief suspect and the Gorilla is obviously a man in a gorilla suit.But it's all meant to be strictly lightweight entertainment, a no brainer for the kiddies and nothing that puts a strain on anyone's thinking cap. It's mildly entertaining but strains credibility at almost every turn.

galaxy2069 This movie was dusted off in the 1980's and used as a promotional gimmick for Channel 46 (in some areas). The 3-D glasses (distributed at local restaurants, stop-n-gos, and radio stations) had Channel 46 plastered across the center. And I also recall the commercials & promo spots (quite a few actually). The significance of all this over-hyped "Gorilla at Large-mania" was unknown to me as a young child...and still is today. Because to this day I can't recall any other spectacularly hammy 3-D movie promotions...especially movies that had died in the vault 30 years before! Does anybody out there in TV Land recall seeing this movie back in 1954? I'm quite curious to learn about their perspective on the whole thing. All I can remember was getting "very" bored about halfway through the film...and the 3-D effects were quite poor...and there was lots and lots of dreadful acting. There is nothing quite as pitiful as a grown man dressed in a gorilla costume parading around in front of a camera.