Gorilla at Large

A murder at a carnival known as the Garden of Evil sets the story in motion. A man is found dead with a broken neck, and suspicion falls on Goliath, the enormous gorilla billed as the fair's chief attraction. Because a gorilla suit is also part of the show, investigators must consider whether the killer was the animal or a person wearing the costume. Detective Sergeant Garrison probes the relationships among the carnival people, including an apparent romantic entanglement, while the gorilla itself does not remain passive as the case develops.

Harmon Jones directed this 1954 American production, working from a screenplay by Leonard Praskins and Barney Slater; Robert L. Jacks produced it. The cast is led by Cameron Mitchell as Joey Matthews, Anne Bancroft as the trapeze artist Laverne Miller, Lee J. Cobb as Garrison, and Raymond Burr as Cy Miller, with Charlotte Austin and Peter Whitney also appearing. Running 83 minutes, the film mixes horror, mystery and thriller elements around its fairground setting.

Audience response has been modest. On IMDb it holds a 5.4 rating from around 800 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 5.6 from a much smaller number of votes. Those figures point to a minor genre title from the mid-1950s that retains some attention from viewers interested in its era and cast.