Post by phantomparticle on Feb 27, 2023 3:02:57 GMT
Goliath is the star attraction of a seedy amusement park, whose main function is to watch from the ground as aerialist Laverne (Anne Bancroft) swings inches over his head.
The crowd loves it, but Laverne’s husband (Raymond Burr), owner of the business, has a better idea in mind. Hire an actor to switch places with Goliath when the lights temporarily go out, at which point she will fall into the gorilla’s grasp, sending the frenzied animal charging at the audience. It’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser.
Laverne thinks it’s a great idea, particularly because he has hired handsome barker Joey (Cameron Mitchell) to slip into the gorilla suit, an indication their marriage is not a ball of cotton candy.
This is the second time Raymond Burr was in a movie with Gorilla in the title. In 1951 he starred in Bride of the Gorilla. (IMDB trivia)
It isn’t long before Laverne is sinking into Joey’s arms, gorilla costume or not. Joey, however, has other ideas. He is in love with Audrey, and both are planning to leave the show as soon as they have enough money to marry.
In the meantime, Laverne has another concern, her former husband and co-partner, the only person able to control Goliath, lives with the animal that is kept in a cage beneath the arena.
That’s when the first body is discovered, dead of a broken neck, and the suspects begin to line up. Is there a killer among the employees of the sideshow or is it the work of a gorilla at large?
A lot of complications are coming together, so it is up to Detective Lee J. Cobb and policeman Lee Marvin to step in and straighten everything out.
Cobb, born Lee Jacoby in New York City in 1911, was one of the finest character actors on the American stage. The young Leo was a child prodigy in music, whose career as a violin virtuoso ended when he broke his wrist. The teenager ran away from home, failed to gain a foothold in Hollywood and returned to NYC to study accounting at night at NY University. In California again, he made his professional acting debut at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1931 and worked steadily on stage over the next two decades until his legendary Broadway triumph as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (with Cameron Mitchell as his son, Biff). Cobb’s best remembered film roles include On the Waterfront (Oscar nomination) and 12 Angry Men. His last major film was The Exorcist, as movie fan Detective Kinderman. The actor died of a heart attack in Hollywood in 1976. He was 64 years old.
Lee Marvin was born in NYC in 1924. After being thrown out of a succession of schools, the young man enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was wounded in the battle of Saipan where his sciatic nerve was severed, and he was given a medical discharge. While working as a plumber’s apprentice at a community theatre in Woodstock, NY, he was asked to replace an ill actor in a rehearsal and fell in love with the theatre. Over the next decade, he played a succession of dim-witted violent thugs. Marvin’s leading role period would begin with the tv series M Squad in 1957. It wasn’t until the actor won a surprise Oscar as best actor in Cat Ballou in 1965 that Hollywood discovered he really could act, and he remained a popular leading man in action-oriented films for the rest of his career. Marvin died from a sudden heart attack in Tucson, Arizona in 1987.
The movie was poorly directed by Harmon Jones. The atmosphere of an amusement park coupled with a murder mystery is tailor made for motion pictures. Harmon displays no ambition or imagination for the possibilities inherent in the script. Audrey’s encounter with Goliath in a House of Mirrors had all the potential for a frightening cat and mouse game, particularly in the 3D process. In Harmon’s hands the sequence is brief and flatly presented. Previously an A-list director for 20th Century Fox where he helmed Gentlemen’s Agreement and Sitting Pretty, perhaps he considered the project beneath his talents and simply rushed it through on the low budget he was given.
Later in life, Anne Bancroft would cite this film in interviews as an example of how bad her early roles for Twentieth Century Fox were. (IMDB trivia)
Goliath swings on a rope and into the laps of the audience. Despite being shot in 3D, there are few scenes that benefit from the process.
One of the more absurd scenes in the film. Goliath meanders through the park with the police in pursuit and manages to accidently bump into everything that will turn on the rides.
Broadcast on network television in the early 1980s with a special promotion from 7/11 convenience stores offering cardboard 3D glasses -- the glasses themselves featured a Scratch-And-Sniff patch that smelled like bananas. Right before the movie started, a host would instruct people at home to adjust the color and contrast settings on their TVs to enhance the 3D effect. The broadcast itself was generally considered a failure because the 3D effect didn't work very well depending on the quality of picture from individual TV manufacturers. (IMDB trivia)
