“THE GORILLA”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 252, 14 January 1928, Page 14

“THE GORILLA”

MYSTERY COMEDY FILM Charlie Murray and Fred Kelsey have the leading roles as Garrity and Mulligan, two dumb detectives, who furnish most of the hilarity and humour of First National’s thrilling and weird mystery-comedy production, “The Gorilla.’* While they both do good work by interspersing with laughter the chillingly mysterious situations, Murray of course, is incomparable, and provokes laughter right throughout the eeriest of sequences. A giant ape-man, standing 9ft tall, and tipping the scales at 400 pounds, has the title role in this spine-tickling, spooky production, and when the two dumb detectives, overcoming their fear of this terrible creature, endeavour to solve the mystery of several murders reputed to have been committed by him, by undertaking to capture him in his lair, a haunted house on top of a cliff, one anticipates some scalp-moving thrills and gets them. Situation is built upon situation, until everyone is implicated in this blood-tingling melodrama, even the “Gorilla” himself. The ultimate denouement comes as a complete surprise, w’hile the photography is eerie and very weird, but amazingly clever. Alice Day, the girl who is captured by the fearful ape-man, and carried in his arms about the house, fainting and terrified, has a difficult part to portray, but succeeds admirably. The fine supporting cast includes Tully Marshall, Claude Gillingwater, Gaston Glass, and others who add to the thrills and laughter of a unique production.

“MAN CRAZY” HILARIOUS STORY Featuring Dorothy Mackaill and Jack Mul hall, one. of the most popular comedy teams in motion pictures, “Man Crazy’’ a First National picture, as the hilariously amusing story of a truck driver who woos the aristocratic daughter of a wealthy family, and contains all the elements of entertainment, love stories, action, thrills and mystery. Dorothy Mackaill as the unconventional aristocrat, who opens a “hot dog” stand, is ideally suited to the role she portrays in this rollicking film. A happy little story, of young love triumphing over difficulties, interspersed with motor chases and races, bootleggers’ plots and other exciting happenings, all contributing to a picture full of surprises and thrills. The star wears some beautiful gowns and looks as ornamental as ever. A strong supporting cast adds a further Interest to this clever story, furnished, incidentally, with a most unexpected climax.

No more thrilling historical incident could have been chosen as a background for Tim McCoy than the Boxer Uprising in China, which is told in a picturesque and vivid manner in “Foreign Devils,” a new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. McCoy is seen in the role of a military attache, and Claire Windsor plays the part of Lady Patricia Rutledge, a visitor to the British Embassy in Pekin at the time of the historical rebellion. W. S. Van Dyke directed “Foreign Devils” from an original story by Peter B. Kyne.