Go Gorilla Go

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Go Gorilla Go
Vai-gorilla-wiki.jpg
Italian theatrical release poster
Italian Vai gorilla
Directed by Tonino Valerii [1]
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Massimo De Rita
  • Dino Maiuri [1]
Produced by Mario Cecchi Gori [1]
Cinematography Mario Vulpiani [1]
Edited by Antonio Siciliano [1]
Music by
Production
company
Capital Film [1]
Distributed by Cineriz
Release date
  • November 14, 1975 (1975-11-14)(Italy)
Running time
100 minutes [1]
CountryItaly [1]
LanguageItalian
Box office ₤1.846 billion

Go Gorilla Go (Italian : Vai gorilla) is a 1975 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Tonino Valerii.

Contents

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 billion and 800 million lire. [3]

Cast

Production

Gori contacted Tonino Valerii who specialised 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]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Curti 2013, p. 132.
  2. ↑ Roberto Curti, Il mio nome è Nessuno. Lo spaghetti western secondo Tonino Valerii, Unmondoaparte, Roma 2008.
  3. ↑ Maurizio Baroni, Platea in piedi 1969-1978. Manifesti e dati statistici del cinema italiano, Bolelli Editore, Bologna 1996.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Curti 2013, p. 133.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Curti 2013, p. 134.

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References

  • Curti, Roberto (2013). Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980. McFarland. ISBN   978-0786469765.
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