Friday, May 22, 2015

Sons of Kong?: White Pongo (1945)

After the awkwardly-bad White Gorilla, can you blame me for waiting a bit?  Regardless, I am determined to finish this Set.  Today's Film is White Pongo, the other White Gorilla-type movie in the Set...that is also from 1945.  After this, there was a sad lack of Films like this- at least until The White Shadow.  The Film is about, well, a White Gorilla.  I don't know why it is called Pongo, so don't ask.  After so many of these things, I don't necessarily have alot to say.  These 'Jungle Peril' Film are just...so similar at this point.  If nothing else, this can't be worse than the last one, so...enjoy, I guess...
Somewhere in the Jungle, there lies a rare, white Gorilla.  No, not the one from the last movie!

Some guy saw it while he escaped from *sigh* some Natives.
These people find him and want to be led to where he saw it.  They want to catch this Gorilla!
So...off they go.  Huzzah and what not.
In a B-Plot, the leading lady starts to take a shine to a guy in the crew and not her fiance-to-be.
They get on the Gorilla's trail and try to catch it!
Oh no!  One of the people in the group is actually a bad guy?!?  Gasp.
Pongo gets his hands on the leading lady.  What a shocking(ly obvious) development!
In the Climax, Pongo and a regular-colored Ape (aka the same damn suit in ALL OF THESE) fight!
The bad guy dies and they catch Pongo.  Hurray for captivity!  The End.
Nothing special.  Nothing terrible.  This is...just another Jungle Peril Film.  If you've only seen one or two of them, it will seem better.  If you're slogging through a Film Set full of them, not so much.  Never mind the whole Genre being taken 'to 11' by stuff like Cannibal Ferox or Jungle Holocaust.  Never mind stuff like Cannibal Holocaust flipping the whole thing on its head either.  Some Films are Classics and age pretty gracefully.  Some of these kinds of Films even do alright.  Other Films are mainly showcases for how this kind of stuff used to be made.  This is one of these Films.  There is just nothing unique here.  Animal Stock Footage, Gorillas and Natives- the usual.  The only big positive I can say- it could have been worse.
Next up, I'll try to get to some Screeners sent my way.  The first one has Maynard's approval, so I should be worried, right?  Stay tuned...

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