Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla

A fantastic, or fantastically bad, movie, depending on your viewpoint.  So bad that it’s good.

A “poverty row” production from 1952, this is a tale of two entertainers meeting up with jungle tribespeople, and a mad scientist.

Starring Lugosi, in the throes of his morphine addiction, and Mitchell and Petrillo, a hastily created comedy duo who were basically impersonating Martin and Lewis.

And piggybacking on the Abbott and Costello route of the time, when Universal paired that duo with a succession of horror and sci-fi characters and settings.

The poster is simply wonderful – a great image of Lugosi dominates, but the rest of the movie is summed up in it as well.  This is the original US One Sheet from the film’s first release.