Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
1952 film by William Beaudine
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (later reissued as The Boys from Brooklyn) is a 1952 American comedy horror film directed by William Beaudine. The film stars veteran horror personality Bela Lugosi and introduces the young comedy team of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. The film was released in the United Kingdom under the title of The Monster Meets the Gorilla.
Plot
Natives on a jungle island find two long-haired, bearded men dressed in frayed tuxedos asleep in the jungle and carry them to their chief and his daughter, who insists on protecting them. She mimes instructions that the men are to be dressed, shaven and given haircuts, all while they are still asleep. Upon waking, the men introduce themselves to the chief's daughter Nona and explain that they had fallen from a plane en route to Guam, deployed their parachutes and have been living on wild berries and raw fish. Nona explains that her father is Chief Rakos, tribal leader.
At a luau, Duke establishes a closer relationship with Nona while Sammy is introduced to Nona's overly friendly and plump sister Saloma, causing him to join the luau dancers and perform a comedy routine, followed by Duke's rendition of "'Deed I Do". Nona tells Duke that she was educated in an American college to prepare her for ruling the island as its queen.
When Duke inquires about leaving the island, Nona suggests that Dr.
“Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” enters the record as 1952 film by William Beaudine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bela, Lugosi and Meets can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bela, Lugosi and Meets provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4881779. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla primary sources, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla archive and Bela research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.