Paramount Pictures producer Hal B. Wallis, who then had Martin and Lewis under contract and also knew Broder through the Friars Club, threatened to sue Broder for releasing a film that featured a duo that closely resembled Martin and Lewis. Wallis and Broder later had a meeting after filming had completed and, according to Herman Cohen, Broder offered to sell Hal Wallis the negative to the film for a substantial amount of money. Wallis agreed to buy it so he could destroy it before anyone could see it but Broder and Wallis could not agree on price. Broder released the film and Wallis never spoke to Broder again. Bela Lugosi was cast because Realart Pictures Inc., the company that produced the film, had reissued many of Lugosi's Universal horror films from the 1930s. By 1952, Lugosi's career had sharply declined and he hadn't worked in years. The film's associate producer Herman Cohen later recalled that Lugosi was quite ill at the time due to his addiction to morphine, but acted professionally and was nice. The film was originally to be titled White Woman of the Lost Jungle. The Gorilla title was thought up by Jack Broder's ten-year-old son. Associate producer Herman Cohen decided it would be foolish not to exploit Bela Lugosi's appearance in the film and decide to retitle the film using Lugosi's name. Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla was filmed over a six-day period at the General Service Studios in Los Angeles. The film's budget was $12,000. In his long-running Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin jokingly called it "one of the all-time greats." Decades later, the film was referenced by Martin Landau, who watched it three times in preparation for his role as Lugosi in the biopic Ed Wood, saying that it was "so bad that it made Ed Wood's films look like Gone with the Wind." See also List of films in the public domain in the United States References External links Sammy Petrillo Speaks Out; illustrated by Ward Sutton Interview with producer of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla Joe Dante on Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla at Trailers From Hell 1952 films 1950s comedy horror films 1952 horror films 1950s science fiction comedy films American adventure comedy films American comedy horror films American science fiction horror films American black-and-white films American science fiction comedy films 1950s English-language films Films directed by William Beaudine Films