The script of the film continued some scenes from the debut film of Valerii, Per il gusto di uccidere, including the final duel between Fabio Testi and Antonio Marsina.[2] The censorship commission banned the film to people under 18 years old and Valerii refused the cuts requested by the production to lower the ban; the film eventually had a significant commercial success, grossing over 1.8 billion lire.[3]
Gori contacted Tonino Valerii who specialized in spaghetti westerns. Valerii's latest film My Name is Nobody (1973) was his most popular to date.[1] Valerii and screenwriter Massimo De Rita started developing a few ideas and had three story outlines for the film.[1][4] These ideas were an omnibus film about a police patrol on a night shift, the second was a revenge film that Valerii described as "in the vein of Death Wish" about a lawyer who uses his knowledge of crime to seek revenge on gangs.[4] The last idea was a story about a bodyguard.[4] Valerii saw a newspaper on Gori's desk about a wealthy Italian industrialist who moved abroad in fear of being kidnapped.[4] Feeling that the story captured the era that Italy was in, they decided on the story of the bodyguard (or gorillas as they were nicknamed).[4] Valerii says they convinced Gori on the film when De Rita told him the title "Go Gorilla!".[4]
Valerii cast Fabio Testi in the role after he had been in a few films (Blood River and Red Coat) that did poorly in the box office.[4] Al Lettieri had a small role as Testi's best friend in the film. It would be one of Lettieri's final roles as he died of a heart attack on October 18, 1975.[4] For the villain, Valerii cast Antonio Marsina who had recently given up acting after a few roles in 1960s Westerns and had become a photographer.[4] Marsina arrived with his girlfriend who auditioned for a part but was not cast.[4] Valerii thought that Marsina had an interesting face and got him to do a screen test which got him the role.[4]
Valerii stated that the film's script was written quickly with a lot of dialogue being re-written in the editing room to "rescue" a few scenes.[5] The film was shot at De Paolis Studios in Rome.[1]
Release
Go Gorilla Go was distributed in Italy by Cineriz on November 14, 1975.[1] The film received a v.m. 18 rating in Italy, making it not permitted to an audience under the age of 18.[5] When this happened, Cecci Gori insisted that Valerii cut the most violent scenes as requested.[5] Valerii did not accept this and no cuts were made.[5]
The film was a great box office success in Italy, where it grossed a total of 1,846,285,530 Italian lire.[1][5] It re-launched Fabio Testi's career as one of Italy's most popular action film actors.[5]
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