By the eighth take, the gorilla, already deprived of a credit, was distinctly crabby.
Which was exactly how Laura likes her gorillas.
The Bride and the Beast (1958) is an odd collage of a film. The first chunk presents the new bride of African explorer and hunter Dan Fuller, Laura Fuller. Plagued by odd dreams about living with gorillas on her wedding night, Dan’s long-time pet gorilla breaks out of his cage and entrances Laura when she awakens. She is only freed of his influence when her husband finds her being led out of the house and shoots the pet gorilla to death. A later examination of her by a doctor, using hypnosis, reveals that in a previous life she … was a gorilla!
Then comes a long, long section of film best described as a safari documentary, utilizing what appears to be authentic video of the era, as Dan and Laura travel across the continent in search of … I forget. Probably gorillas. The cinematography throughout the movie is B&W gorgeous, and may make the movie worthwhile if you are a safari video aficionado.
Once they reach their destination, the movie reverts to the previous storyline, resulting in Laura being kidnapped, not entirely unwillingly, by the local gorillas, and, despite Dan’s frenzied attempts to rescue her, she is lost to the gorilla clan, much to his dismay.
It’s all a little disjointed, feeling more like the moviemakers happened to have some primo footage that had to be worked into what was otherwise a fairly hollow, even silly, story. But I have to admit that footage really was good, if violent, so I can see why they succumbed to its lure.
But in the end I fear I was overcome with incredulity.
