The Sis-Boom-Bah of "Bride of the Gorilla"

Published in The Literary Hatchet April 2015.

This essay is dedicated to John O’Dowd, author of Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story

The Bizarre Sis-Boom-Bah of Bride of the Gorilla

By Denise Noe

Released in 1951, Bride of the Gorilla is a cult film. This essay examines why this movie, regarded by no one as a masterpiece, resonates with audiences. Written and directed by Curt Siodmak, who wrote the screenplay for the 1941 classic The Wolf Man, Bride has a plotline reminiscent of the earlier, unquestionably superior, film. In Wolf, Lon Chaney Jr. plays a man who transforms into a wolf. In Bride, a man is cursed so that he either transforms – or believes he transforms – into a “sukurat,” a beast resembling a gorilla. Chaney also appears in Bride but does not play the man-into-beast character.

Compared to the 1941 Wolf, Bride was filmed on a shoestring budget – and it shows: sets are cheap, the overall look cheesy. Clips from documentaries about jungles are occasionally interspersed into the movie. Indeed, Bride opens with scenes of jungle footage and a voiceover telling us this is the story of how “the jungle itself took the law into its own hands.” Footage showing a puma, monkey, lizard, leopard, and an anaconda is followed by a view of a wrecked “Van Gelder Manor.”

Then we see lovely Dina Van Gelder (Barbara Payton) dancing under a ceiling fan in a beautiful Van Gelder Manor. Payton wears a tight fitting sarong that accentuates her curvaceous figure. In Andrew Dowdy’s book, The Films of the Fifties: The American State of Mine, Dowdy tells of attending an initial showing of the film: “Barbara’s appearance onscreen was greeted with instant verbal approval, accompanied by whistling, stomping, and the ecstatic tribute of flying popcorn boxes, many of them sacrificed unemptied.” John O’Dowd in his book, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story, observes that the above was “an understandable response for Barbara, who, at 24, was a mesmerizing beauty . . . fully displayed here with her long-legged, hourglass figure, sensuous mouth, provocative eyes and flawless skin. That her beauty would elicit such a vociferous reaction was proof enough that film audiences loved the sight of this new, blond bombshell. Indeed, her appearance in Bride of the Gorilla proves that in 1951, Barbara Payton was, without question, a Grade-A knockout.”

After she dances, Barney Chavez (Raymond Burr) enters. A supervisor at the rubber plantation owned by Dina’s husband, Barney is dissatisfied with his work, comparing it to slavery. Dina asks, “Aren’t we all slaves?” She soon negates her own question, saying, “Not me – I’m free.”

Barney says, “A woman like you ought to travel and wear pretty clothes.” Dina replies, “My life is here with my husband.” Barney asserts, “You’re confusing gratitude with love.”

Into the mansion come her husband, Klaas Van Gelder (Paul Cavanagh), and Dr. Viet (Tom Conway). The film shows its age when Dr. Viet expresses concern for Dina in bluntly racist terms, saying, “White people shouldn’t live too long in the jungle.”

Dina and Klaas clasp each other’s arms and head for the dining table. Klaas opens the Bible to a passage that begins, “The heart is deceitful above all things.” The verse seems appropriate when Klaas mentions the complaint of a worker about Barney’s relationship with a young South American Indian woman. Barney has apparently done a love ‘em and leave ‘em number with Larina (Carol Varga), the daughter of housekeeper Al-Long (Gisela Werbisek). Like Payton, Varga was clearly cast in part as eye candy. Varga is a shapely and beautiful young woman.

Upset that Barney has seduced and abandoned Larina, Klaas orders Barney to leave. Outside Van Gelder Mansion, Larina begs Barney to take her with him. He coldly brushes her off.  We soon see Larina complaining to mother Al-Long about Barney’s duplicitous ways. Al-Long says, “I warned you to stay with your own people.”

A powerful sexual chemistry animates scenes between Barney and Dina. Barney realizes Dina does not want him to leave. A confrontation takes place in the jungle between Barney and Klaas. The more heavily muscled Barney easily lays slightly built Klaas on his back. Then Barney watches nonchalantly as a poisonous snake kills Klaas.

Unknown to Klaas and Barney, they are being watched by Al-Long. Usually seen with a long black scarf accenting her potato head, Al-Long is reminiscent of Maria Ouspenskaya’s Gypsy Maleva in The Wolf Man. Outraged by Barney’s callous abandonment of her daughter and his murder of her employer, the sinister Al-Long casts a spell on him: “Cursed be Barney Chavez. . . . He shall be like an animal. . . . The jungle shall hunt him to his death.”

With Klaas barely cold in his grave, Barney marries Dina. At their wedding reception, he suddenly watches one of his hands turn unaccountably hairy. On his wedding night, Barney does not consummate his marriage but runs into the jungle as Dina gazes after him.

In the jungle, Barney watches his hands turn hairy and sees his reflection in water – the reflection of an ape. He is either turning into a gorilla-like creature or believes he is.

We soon see Dr. Viet talking with Police Commissioner Taro – who is played by Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney’s role in this film contrasts with his starring role in Wolf. Here his role is small but pivotal. Indeed, it was Chaney as Taro that we first heard in the opening voiceover. Taro is a South American Indian who was educated in a white-run system. He often feels alienated from his “own people” and torn between two ways of thinking. In the conversation with Dr. Viet, Taro discusses recent reports of a strange animal in the jungle. Taro then relates the legend of the “sukurat,” a “jungle demon” that is really a human being transformed into an animal. The conversation turns to Barney and Taro says, “I know that Barney Chavez murdered Klaas Van Gelder” but acknowledges lacking proof. Taro elaborates, “He cannot escape punishment. Barney Chavez will be brought to justice.”

In one scene, the film ambivalently comments on gender roles. Barney and Dina plan to sell Van Gelder Manor. Van Heusen (Paul Maxey) wishes to buy. Van Heusen and Taro are at Van Gelder Manor but Barney is not. Van Heusen fumes about Barney’s absence when Van Heusen has brought over the papers to transfer ownership. Taro observes, “Mrs. Chavez can sign the papers. She’s the legal owner.” However, Dina retorts, “My husband is the boss in this house.” Van Heusen says, “I wish my wife could hear that.” Dina’s retort indicates that she subscribes to traditional sex roles, a common stance in 1951. However, Van Heusen’s reply indicates that, even in 1951, sex roles were not rigid with a rough equality, and even wifely dominance, being possible.

A later scene between Barney and Dina has him informing Dina that he will not sell Van Gelder Manor. He tells her he “belongs to the jungle. . . . The animals talk to me. I understand them.”

Toward the end of the film, Dina follows Barney into the jungle. Transformed into an aggressive were-ape, Barney attacks Dina. Police shoot him dead. In a final voiceover, Taro somberly declares, “The jungle had risen up to punish Barney Chavez for his crimes.”

Made on a sadly limited budget and hampered by a mediocre script, Bride’s cult status is nevertheless assured. As O’Dowd observes, it is “the second of two films” for which Barbara Payton “will forever be known.” (The first film for which Payton is famous is the 1950 crime drama, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, in which she starred opposite James Cagney.)

Why is Bride a cult film? This writer sees several reasons. One is that it is so easily ridiculed. The film has been comically referenced in an episode of the M*A*S*H TV series, the 1^st Annual Mystery Science Theater 3000 Summer Blockbuster Review, This Movie Sucks! and elsewhere.

Another reason for its cult film status is the odd way it combines a cheesy atmosphere with excellent performances and depth of meaning.

Raymond Burr plays Barney Chavez with a menacing machismo and an undercurrent of animalistic sensuality perfect for the man-into-beast part. Gisela Werbisek as Al-Long is fascinatingly eerie. Perhaps the most notable performance is that of Barbara Payton who is luminous as the passionate but often frightened and confused Dina.

In this writer’s opinion, Bride possesses more meaning than its campy title suggests. As a “User Review” at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) asserts, “The somewhat sketchy story reads like a medieval legend, the stuff Shakespeare plays like MacBeth were made of.” This reviewer later observes, “The strangeness of the sets and the seemingly deliberate evasion of authenticity heighten the symbolic significance of the story in an odd sort of way. On the set there is a strong separation between the inside and the outside. Inside, people move about in the usual Hollywood parlor surroundings you can see in numerous movies of that period. Outside, right in front of the parlor window, there is the vicious jungle with its fleshy greenery. Inside, there is civilization or at least a civilized façade. Outside, men become beasts.” Another User Review at the IMDB describes the film as having “a lot more to it than you would think at first about crime, justice, and revenge, and makes you think about it, too. More penetrating and thought-provoking than many of the big budgeted films about courts and law that in many cases the criminal gets away with his or her crimes due to a technicality or a smart and skillful lawyer. There are not technicalities or lawyers in the jungle.”

There may also be an ugly subtext to this 1951 movie. It is possible it represents a white racist metaphor for sex between blacks and whites. Although the white racist stereotype seeing black people as especially “ape-like” is contrary to fact – simians lack curly hair and thick lips – it is possible the film is informed by such racism. The title card for the film stated: “A blonde and a savage, alone in the jungle . . . Her clothes torn away, screaming in terror . . . Her marriage vows were more than fulfilled!” Dr. Viet’s early racist statement, “White people shouldn’t live too long in the jungle,” may indicate racist underpinnings to the entire plot.

Another reason Bride is a cult film might be the way in which it echoes the lives of its stars both before and after its 1951 release. As noted, Lon Chaney Jr. plays in this movie that has a human-into-animal transformation like the one his character endured in Wolf.

Bride was not the only time Raymond Burr appeared in an ape-themed film. Three years later, in 1951, he played in Gorilla At Large. A cheap and cheesy film like Bride, Burr does not transform but works in a circus around a gorilla.

However, the main true-life resonances in Bride are with the life of its female star, Barbara Payton. Her riches to rags story is one of the most tragic in Hollywood history. In 1949, Payton earned $10,000 a week for her acting at a time when the average American family income was less than that. By 1963, she was an alcoholic prostitute selling herself for as little as $5.

Payton got her big break co-starring with Lloyd Bridges in the 1949 film noir Trapped.  Positive reviews of her beauty and acting led to the previously mentioned role opposite James Cagney in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye. About her performance in that film, a New York Times article stated, “As the moll, a superbly curved young lady [named] Barbara Payton performs as though she’s trying to spit a tooth – one of the few Mr. Cagney leaves her.” Despite the positive notices, Warner Brothers (WB) began casting Payton in small roles in undistinguished Westerns like Dallas and Only The Valiant. Part of the reason for this may have been that Payton was getting negative publicity for associating with real life gangsters and for raucous partying. To punish Payton for her “wild” ways, WB production chief Jack Warner assigned her a tiny role in a mediocre film. She refused it and he placed her on suspension. He took her off suspension to turn her over to independent producer Jack Broder to film Bride of the Gorilla. O’Dowd comments, “Although it was meant to be yet another act of punishment, the loan out was actually an unintentional blessing as it would provide Barbara with the second of two films for which she will forever be known.”

Payton was engaged to A-list actor Franchot Tone when working on Bride. During production, she met B-list actor Tom Neal, best known for the acclaimed film noir Detour, and became strongly enamored of him. Payton shuffled back and forth between the two men. Finally, a confrontation led to a physical fight between the two males – one oddly resembling that between Barney and Klaas over Dina in Bride. Like Klaas, Tone was lean; like Barney, Neal heavily muscled. Neal battered Tone into a coma. Luckily, Tone survived and recovered. Payton married Tone.

However, within months, she returned to Neal. Much of the public turned against Payton and Neal who appeared in low-budget films for a few years and then found themselves unable to get movie work. Payton’s last movie, Murder Is My Beat, was released in 1955. By the time her final film was made, her relationship with Neal, whom she never married, had ended. Neal left the film industry for landscaping. In 1965, he shot and killed wife Gail. He was convicted of manslaughter, and served six years in prison. Paroled in 1971, he died six months later.

Depressed by being blacklisted from the motion picture industry, Payton became an alcoholic prostitute. Her price slid as she lost her looks, going from a curvaceous beauty to a bloated, toothless hag. The enviable waistline in Bride became a potbelly distended by liver disease. She died of liver failure in 1967 at the age of 39. The devastation of her life is reminiscent of the devastation of Van Gelder Manor in Bride.

Cheesy, cheap, camp, thoroughly entertaining, remarkably well acted, and oddly meaningful, Bride of the Gorilla well deserves its cult film status.

Bibliography

Bride of the Gorilla (1951). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043360.

Bride of the Gorilla on ALLMovie. http://www.msn.com/en-ca/movies/movie/bride-of-the-gorilla/AA4ejIh.

Bride of the Gorilla (1951). Cult Movie Reviews. http://princeplanetmovies.blogspot.com/2008/12/bride-of-gorilla-1951.html?zx=7ef5417b57436ce3.

Bride of the Gorilla (1951). Movie Mis-Treatments. http://www.movie-mistreatments.com/Bride%20of%20the%20Gorilla.html.

O’Dowd, John. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story. BearManor Media. 2006.

Shamout, Omar. “’Bride of the Gorilla’ in Classic Cool Context.” http://www.kcet.org/shows/classic_cool_theater/web-extras/bride-of-the-gorilla-in-classic-cool-context.html.

Terkelsen, Edward Larsen. “Bride of the Gorilla.” The Film Palace. May 3, 2005. http://www.thefilmpalace.com/bride_of_the_gorilla.htm.