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The Gorilla (1939)

Name: The Gorilla
Genre: Horror
Released: 1939
Duration: 1 h 6 min
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Anita Louise, Patsy Kelly, Lionel Atwill, Edward Norris

193966 minHorrorStrong rights evidence

The Gorilla (1939) is a 66-minute horror film that airs free on Starlite TV's Graveyard Shift (CH 4) channel. Our rights research indicates it is in the U.S. public domain (evidence below). Directed by Allan Dwan.

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Featured in: The Best Free Classic Horror Movies to Watch This Halloween

About The Gorilla (1939)

The Gorilla is a 1939 American comedy horror film starring the Ritz Brothers, Anita Louise, Art Miles, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Patsy Kelly. It was based on the 1925 play of the same name by Ralph Spence.

When wealthy businessman Walter Stevens (Lionel Atwill) receives a death threat from a mysterious killer known as "the Gorilla", he hires the bumbling Ritz Brothers, a team of inept private detectives, to protect him. As a violent storm rolls in and power outages darken his mansion, a real escaped gorilla begins to terrorize the household. Amid the chaos, suspicious characters emerge — including the creepy butler Peters (Bela Lugosi) and a nervous maid (Patsy Kelly) — leaving everyone to wonder whether the threat is a human murderer or something far more beastly.

Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article The Gorilla (1939 film) (text available under CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Credits

Directed by: Allan Dwan
Cast includes: Bela Lugosi, Anita Louise, Patsy Kelly, Lionel Atwill, Edward Norris, Joseph Calleia, Paul Harvey, Wally Vernon
Country: United States
Based on: The Gorilla

Credits from Wikidata · Wikipedia article

Airs on

Graveyard Shift - CH 4, Horror TV

Rights & source

Basis: Documented as U.S. public domain (e.g. copyright not renewed / no notice)
Evidence: Listed in Wikipedia 'List of films in the public domain in the United States' (cites Pierce 2007 / Fishman / trade sources). Based on 1925 play (PD).
License on source: creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain
Music: Film soundtrack falls with the film; separately published songs (if any) not individually cleared.
Underlying rights: Based on 1925 play (PD).
Source: Internet Archive

How we check every title: Content & Rights.