"Der Gorilla von Soho" is very similar to the earlier "Die toten Augen von London" by the same producer and director, yet not half as good. A killer in a gorilla costume sneaks through the streets of London, because nobody notices a 6 ft gorilla in a big city, therefore it seems the perfect disguise... ANYWAY, very rich people are drowned after they made the mistake of writing a testament that donates all their money to the so-called welfare organization of Mr.Parker. The police assumes this is not a coincidence and starts investigating against Mr.Parker, but proof is hard to find. "Der Gorilla von Soho" has a lot of action scenes and at least isn't boring, but involuntarily funny. It has not much suspense and tries some cheap jokes and sleazy nudity instead. In the cast, Albert Lieven is an excellent villain, young Uwe Friedrichsen is overacting a bit as the enthusiastic, but inexperienced police sergeant, while Herbert Fux in his only appearance in the Wallace series plays a gangster perfectly well.

A disfigured fellow in a gorilla suit commits murders in London while Scotland Yard investigates a charitable organization as well as a girl's home for young ladies. This widescreen, color adaptation of Edgar Wallace's "Dark Eyes of London" differs from most, primarily owing to its nudity. There is an underground club where people amuse themselves by photographing naked women and muscular men and indulge in other fantasies off the premises. When the dead bodies of murdered millionaires start turning up in the river Thames, Scotland Yard Inspector David Perkins (Horst Tapper of "The Monster of Blackwood Castle") and Sergeant Jim Pepper (Uwe Friedrichsen of "Faust") are on the case. What is singular about these corpses is the small dolls that turn up with the bodies with strange writing on them. Perkins hires Susan (Uschi Glas of "The Sinister Monk"),to masquerade as a social worker and poke around St. Mary's. It seems that a deaf & dumb African woman is scrawling messages on dolls that serve as clues to the mystery. As it happens, Susan can translate these obtuse messages.

Veteran writer & director Alfred Vohrer and "Angels of Terror" co-scenarist Horst Wendlandt concentrate more on humor and nudity than murder most foul. Perkins and the hilariously named Sergeant Pepper answer to their immediate Scotland Yard superior, the pompous Sir Arthur (Hubert von Meyerinck of "The Zombie Walks"),an older gentleman whose sexual appetite for sexy, mini-skirt clad twentysomething babes stereotypes him as a satyr. Sir Arthur prefers to attribute these murders as suicides. Inspector Perkins crosses paths with the lecherous Sir Arthur at the underground club. Apparently, some millionaires who have signed away their fortunes to the Love and Peace Foundation, a philanthropist organization which sponsors the dubiously nun-run St. Mary's home for wayward girls, are mysteriously being killed. Furthermore, within this organization is another murderous villain, Henry Parker (Albert Lieven of "The Guns of Navarone") who is also killing people.

The sinister plot thickens when one of the millionaires decides to alter his will after a long-forgotten daughter emerges. If you have issues with improper dubbing as in lack of synchronization and inappropriate voices for characters, you may shrug off this West German crime thriller as a horrible hoot and a holler. Scene stealing Hubert von Meyerinck is hilarious as Sir Arthur, a role that he reprised from an earlier Edgar Wallace opus "The Zombie Walks"),and his helium voiced girlfriend who appears at the most inappropriate times to embarrass him in front of his colleagues aids and abets him. Earlier, Alfred Vohrer helmed the first version of this Wallace yarn with "Dead Eyes of London" (1961) as well as other Wallace inspired thrillers.

"The Gorilla Gang" is the second krimi film I have seen, after "The Dead One in the Thames River". About the best I can say for it is that it's not as bad as that one was.

It is similarly boring and confusing, though. The bad guy (or guys?) have a comparable modus operandi: they send messages to meet their victims and then off them. The death scenes are even less realistically handled in this movie: In "Dead One", the victims were taken out with the least convincing headshot-by-sniper-rifle ever captured on film. In "Gorilla Gang", the bad guy (or guys?) dresses up as a gorilla and strangles the person to death.

Apparently the costume grants its wearer a gorilla's strength as well, since the victims can't seem to fight back at all.

The whole "bad guy dresses up as a gorilla" thing, coupled with the movie being called "gorilla GANG" when we only ever see one gorilla on screen at a time, would seem to be an indication that we are in for a classic so-bad-it's-good movie. This is not the case. Unfortunately, after watching these two krimis I'm getting the impression that such absurdity was just a reaction to an oppressively formulaic plot outline the filmmakers were working with. They couldn't amuse you, so they may as well amuse themselves at your expense.