The White Gorilla
About The White Gorilla
At a jungle trading post, Steve Collins, played by Ray Corrigan, tells of an expedition and of a white gorilla. Most of what follows is footage from Harry L. Fraser's 1927 silent serial Perils of the Jungle, with Frank Merrill, cut in beside new shots that do not match its speed or picture. Corrigan also plays the white gorilla. The gorilla fights another, and one of them dies. Lorraine Miller is in the new footage.
Cast & crew
More about The White Gorilla
Harry L. Fraser wrote and directed, and produced without credit. Louis Weiss was executive producer. George M. Merrick also produced. Weiss wanted a feature for a San Francisco date already set, six weeks out. Fraser later called the story hokum. Lee Zahler wrote the music. Adrian Weiss edited. Camera credits include Robert E. Cline, Bert Longenecker, and William C. Thompson. 62 minutes. Released in 1945. The silent serial footage stars Frank Merrill. The new scenes ignore the difference in stock and speed. George J. Lewis, Francis Ford, Budd Buster, and Charles King are on cast lists. Kent Taylor is also named among producers on the Wikidata record.
Themes
Making
Fraser built a new frame story so Weiss could ship a feature on time, and filled the action with reels he had already directed in 1927.
Look
New scenes by Cline, Longenecker, and Thompson sit against the 1927 serial photography. The speeds do not match.
Music
Lee Zahler composed the music for the 1945 cut.
Preservation
The film is in the public domain. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Corrigan narrates and plays both Collins and the white gorilla.
- The 1927 serial is Perils of the Jungle, not a documentary.
- The film is in the public domain.
Scenes
- Collins, at the trading post, starts the story of the white gorilla.
- The picture cuts to Merrill's 1927 serial for the expedition scenes.
- The white gorilla fights another gorilla.
Influenced by
- Perils of the Jungle (1927)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheWhiteGorilla1945)
- Wikimedia Commons (TheWhiteGorilla1945.webm)
