''Go Gorilla Go'' () is a 1975 Italian

poliziottesco ''Poliziotteschi'' (; : ''poliziottesco'') constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as ''polizieschi all'italiana'', ''I ...

film directed by

Tonino Valerii Tonino Valerii (20 May 1934 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian film director, most known for his Spaghetti Westerns. Tonino (Antonio) Valerii started his film career as an assistant director on Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'', before mo ...

. 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 Fabio Testi (born 2 August 1941) is an Italian actor. After growing up witnessing film work done around Lake Garda, Testi entered the sets of the film and began work as a stuntman and a double on set, where he worked as a stuntman on ''The Good, ...

and Antonio Marsina. 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.Maurizio Baroni, ''Platea in piedi 1969-1978. Manifesti e dati statistici del cinema italiano'', Bolelli Editore, Bologna 1996.

Cast

as Marco Sartori *

Renzo Palmer Renzo Palmer (20 December 1930 – 4 June 1988) was an Italian film, television and stage actor. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1957 and 1988. Life and career Born in Milan as Lorenzo Bigatti, Palmer was the adopted son of the stag ...

as Gaetani Sampioni *Claudia Marsani as Vera Sampioni *

Al Lettieri Alfredo Lettieri (February 24, 1928 – October 18, 1975) was an American actor. Active during the 1960s and 1970s, he commonly portrayed villainous characters. He achieved recognition for his performance as mobster Virgil Sollozzo in the crime f ...

as Ciro Musante *

Saverio Marconi Saverio Marconi (born 1 April 1948) is an Italian stage director and actor. Life and career Born in Rome, after his debut as a stage actor, Marconi had his breakout role in 1977 playing Gavino Ledda in the Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's drama f ...

as Piero Sartori *Adriano Amidei Migliano as Police Commissioner Vannuzzi *Antonio Marsina as Berto *

Luciano Catenacci Luciano Catenacci (13 April 1933 – 4 October 1990) was an Italian actor and Unit production manager, production manager who worked on mainly Italian produced films during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Life and career Born in Rome, Catenac ...

as Manager of the Shooting Range *

Giuliana Calandra Giuliana Calandra (10 February 1936 – 25 November 2018) was an Italian film, television and stage actress, journalist and television hostess. Life and career Born in Moncalieri, Giuliana Calandra debuted in 1963 Pier Paolo Pasolini's '' La ...

as Sampioni's Wife

Production

Gori contacted

who specialized in

spaghetti westerns The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

. Valerii's latest film '' My Name is Nobody'' (1973) was his most popular to date. Valerii and screenwriter

Massimo De Rita Massimo () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: * Massimo Agostinelli (Max Agos) (born 1987), Swiss-based Italian American artist, entrepreneur and activist * Massimo Agostini (born 1964), Italian football man ...

started developing a few ideas and had three story outlines for the film. 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. The last idea was a story about a bodyguard. Valerii saw a newspaper on Gori's desk about a wealthy Italian industrialist who moved abroad in fear of being kidnapped. 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). Valerii says they convinced Gori on the film when De Rita told him the title "Go Gorilla!". Valerii cast

in the role after he had been in a few films (''Blood River'' and ''Red Coat'') that did poorly in the box office. 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. 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. Marsina arrived with his girlfriend who auditioned for a part but was not cast. Valerii thought that Marsina had an interesting face and got him to do a screen test which got him the role. 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. The film was shot at De Paolis Studios in Rome.

Release

''Go Gorilla Go'' was distributed in Italy by

Cineriz ''Cineriz'' was an Italian Filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company, founded in 1956 by the businessman Angelo Rizzoli. The company produced and/or distributed films by Federico Fellini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Luchino Vi ...

on November 14, 1975. The film received a v.m. 18 rating in Italy, making it not permitted to an audience under the age of 18. When this happened, Cecci Gori insisted that Valerii cut the most violent scenes as requested. Valerii did not accept this and no cuts were made. The film was a great box office success in Italy, where it grossed a total of 1,846,285,530

Italian lire The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually fo ...

. It re-launched

's career as one of Italy's most popular action film actors.

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Go Gorilla Go Films directed by Tonino Valerii Poliziotteschi films Films scored by Fabio Frizzi 1970s Italian films