as Marsden John Gough as Sailor Aggie Herring as Cook Production Background The Gorilla based on the play of the play The Gorilla, a Mystery Comedy in Three Acts by Ralph Spence. Spencer was previously done work in Broadway for The Ziegfeld Follies and made a bet with other playwrites over dinner that he could write a play in just three days. Producer Al H. Woods overheard this and took him on his bet, leading to Spence writing the play The Gorilla which debuted on Broadway on April 28, 1925. The Gorilla was a humorous variation on Broadway plays like The Bat and The Cat and the Canary. It stayed on Broadway for 257 performances while other productions were also productions performed in London, Boston and Chicago. On January 3, 1927, Film Daily announced an adaptation of the play as a film titled The Gorilla as a forthcoming feature from the independent production company Asher-Small-Rogers. Asher-Small-Rogers would produce the film for First National Pictures, Inc., as the second of their three-picture deal with the company, that started with the film McFadden’s Flats. Production Initially, Paul Schofield had been hired to write an adaption but he did not remain with the project. The play was adapted by James T. O'Donohoe with a scenario written by Al Cohn and Henry McCarty. The film eliminates the play-within-a-play gimmick and turns the black servant Jefferson into a disdainful British butler portrayed by Syd Crossley. Alfred Santell was announced as the film's director on February 25, 1927 with production scheduled to star in March 1927. Production on the film would then later announced to on May 27, 1927 by Motion Picture News that June 1927 was the star of filming and announced the co-leads being Charles Murray and George Sidney. Alice Day received her role that had originally been announced for Dorothy Revier. Some of First National's publicity reports still note Revier being on set in error. Later, Film Daily again declared that principal photography would be on August 1, 1927, while Variety reported that filming began on August 9, 1927. The ape suit in the film was created by Charles Gemora, it was his first gorilla creation he made which led to a long Hollywood career involving ape suits. Originally, producer Edward Small thought of using a real Gorilla and contracted the person who captured and trained one for the Ringing Brother Circus. Release