A Gorilla in the Basement Pt. 1. or Half a blog is better than none

There are some things per George Bernard Shaw a person should never experience a second time – Birth, death and Braham’s Requiem. I would suggest also falling in love with the absolute wrong person and watching a movie like Bride and the Beast the second time.

It’s not really as bad as oh Plan Nine From Outer Space or Manos –but that is only in way of saying that a broken finger hurts a bit less than a broken arm and a leg. The screen play was written by Ed Wood – but the producer (Adrian Weiss) decided in a moment of sanity not to let Ed direct it. It could be he remembered what Ed did with Glen or Glenda which he produced.

The film starts out with the Male lead (who is a big game hunter) and his new bride coming to his home in the country – they have just been married and plan to spend a few days at the estate before their trip to Africa.

It turns out that the Male Lead has a gorilla in the basement (that sounds oddly suggestive in a stupid way when I write it Like in “Hey babe I got a gorilla in my basement if you know what I mean Heh heh.” Hell I’ve heard guys say stupider things to women). The gorilla is now full grown and is going to be transferred to the zoo the next day. The female lead asks to see the gorilla – who is indeed in the basement and in a special un wanted piece of business the basement has a secret door – it was in the set I assume.

The gorilla, named spanky by the male lead in an unwarranted bit of cruelty, finds the female lead (Laura) fascinating and Laura in turn is fascinated with him. (He’s a guy in suit by the way really bad suit – it looks like there where maybe three Gorilla suits in Hollywood in the fifties each more ratty and tattered and fake looking than the last one – this one’s really bad).

Later, after their wedding night – the couple are asleep on separate beds (this was the 50’s and the hays rules were still in effect, you couldn’t show a man and woman in the same bed even if they were married. No really it was true). Spanky the gorilla in basement is going nuts (“Spanky’s the name of my gorilla in the basement if you know what I mean – heh – heh” – now that’ll get you slapped, at a strip club that’ll get you slapped.) Indeed the whole thing of a gorilla in the basement reeks of Freudian repression and guilt over sex. You see that a lot in older films and such – It wasn’t Cyrano de Bergerac’s nose that was the reason he was afraid (read ashamed) to reveal his feeling for Roxanne – and there is that classic scene when Christine unmasks the Phantom of the Opera - it was the Gorilla in the basement the old devil sex.

So Spanky – enraged at the stupid name he was given among other things – pulls the bars of his cage open and gets loose and goes upstairs to the bedroom (paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud ) Laura wakes up and sees spanky in the bedroom (that felt wrong to write the phrase “spanky in the bedroom” for some reason) and for a long moment they stare at each other, the gorilla stroking her face and running his hands though her hair and her expression more of interest and wonder than fear. Then the male lead wakes up and shoots the ape dead.

It’s interesting that in the trailer to the film (yes I watched the trailer – the pain I suffer for this blog ) the ape rips Laura’s nightgown off but that scene was cut in the film. I suppose the Hays office didn’t pay attention to trailers as much.

I am going to have to finish this later personal stuff came up and blogger hates pictures again – but I figure half a blog is better than none here. The conclusion later.