With the 8th Wonder of the World, King Kong, smashing his way back into theaters recently in Kong: Skull Island (read our review), I thought it would be a good time to look at some of the lesser known giant apes to grace the silver screen over the years.
The following five films are all just various ripoffs of the original King Kong, this is true, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own charm. Some are charming and genuinely good, while some manage to find charm in their flaws but the bottom line is there is a whole lot of monkey fun to be found out there.
Bring on the apes!
Mighty Joe Young – 1949 – Dir. Ernest B. Schoedsack
Mighty Joe Young was released 13 years after the original King Kong and I guess this would be the one entry that isn’t a ripoff. Not only is the story slightly different, but it was made by the same exact team that was responsible for King Kong, so really it wasn’t possible for it to be a ripoff.
Jill (Terry Moore) lives on her father’s ranch in Africa where she raises Joe, the gorilla. She raises Joe from when he’s a little baby gorilla all the way until he grows up to be the massive creature that he is. One day a nightclub owner (Robert Armstrong) and his assistant (Ben Johnson) come across Joe while looking for exotic animals to be the selling point of their new club in Hollywood. Once they see Joe it’s clear he’s their big ticket. Jill doesn’t like the idea at all at first, but she is in some financially trouble and decides to accept their offer when they promise her big money.
The Hollywood life starts off fine for Joe and he’s a big hit. As his popularity soars Joe becomes unhappy and eventually breaks out of his cage and goes on a bit of a rampage. The courts eventually rule that Joe is too dangerous and must be destroyed and the race is on for Jill to do whatever she can to save him.
Mighty Joe Young is fantastic and is sort of the happier, family version of King Kong. It’s a truly magnificent film that everyone should see at least once.
Konga – 1961 – Dir. John Lemont
Konga is a wild movie. It’s your standard mad scientist flick with the legendary Michael Gough in the role of Dr. Charles Decker, the scientist that goes bad. After spending a year in Africa, and being presumed dead, Decker returns to his native England with a baby chimp. Well a baby chimp and a serum he developed that causes plants and animals to grow and grow and grow and grow until they become giants. The chimp, named Konga, is his new test subject. Decker gives Konga the serum and he turns into a giant ape with a thirst for blood. This is perfect for Decker because he plans to use Konga to destroy his fellow scientists who he believes are trying to outsmart him.
Konga contains a lot of cheese and Gough hams it up, but it’s so much fun. If you like giant apes you need to check this out and if you really love it then you can try and track down the 23 issues of the Konga comic book that this film inspired.
Queen Kong – 1976 – Dir. Frank Agrama
Frank Agrama’s Queen Kong may very well be the strangest movie on this list. This is actually a straight spoof of King Kong but more than that it’s to monster movies what Airplane! is to disaster movies, but it came out four years before Airplane!
Film director Luce Habit (Rula Lenska) sees a young man, Ray Fay (Robin Askwith) in the streets of London trying to steal from local shops. He’s your typically common thief but Luce thinks he could be perfect for her new film. Ray’s not that interested so Luce basically has to kidnap him but before he can say banana Ray is out on a boat heading to Africa to make a film. Once he arrives though he learns he’s actually just bait used to attract a giant female ape known as Queen Kong. Queen is immediately attracted to Ray and eventually chases him all over London.
This movie takes the plot of King Kong, adds a bunch of comedy and gender reverses all the roles. And the results are glorious! The film is hilarious from start to finish as it’s stuffed with sign gags and jokes that subtly and not-so-subtly take shots at no only King Kong but other movies along the way like The Exorcist. There’s even a great bit with Lady Jaws, which is a shark wearing lipstick. It’s all too perfect.
Unfortunately the film never got a proper theatrically release in the US or UK because Dino De Laurentiis, who was produced the not-so-great King Kong remake around this time, was not pleased with this film “stealing” their ideas and he took legal action to keep it from being seen. And his plan worked as the film went virtually unseen for years. Luckily for us it’s readily available all over the place now including on Amazon Prime for your streaming pleasure!
Ape – 1976 – Dir. Paul Leder
Director Paul Leder also took a stab at spoofing King Kong in 1976 with Ape but I guess because it wasn’t nearly as good as Queen Kong Dino didn’t really mind. Ape really isn’t very good. In fact, it’s quite bad. The story is stupid, the effects are stupid, the acting is stupid, the dialogue is stupid, the entire thing is stupid! But despite all that stupidity I have so much freaking fun watching this movie!
This is a South Korean/American co-production about a 36-foot tall ape that is being transported by an ocean freighter when he breaks free. This opening scene is fantastic too as it features the best line reading of “oh shit” in all the universe. After the ape escapes the ship he does battle with a shark and then finally makes his way to land where he begins to destroy stuff.
There are so many remarkable scenes in Ape. Like the one where he fights a “giant reptile,” but its really just the dude in the monkey costume throwing a snake. And in another scene he knocks helicopters out of the air and flips them off. Glorious.
There’s also a movie within the movie being filmed. Leder plays that film’s director and his name is Dino. Oh snap, shots fired at De Laurentiis.
Did I mention that Ape also happens to be in 3D? Because it is.
Ape isn’t good but you have to watch it. You’ll love it. And guess what? It’s on Blu-ray, a really good one from Kino lorber. Get it!
The Mighty Peking Man – 1976 – Dir. Ho Meng-hua
I watched The Mighty Peking Man for the first time a few years back. I picked up a DVD release of three movies that Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder Pictures owned the rights to specifically because I wanted Switchblade Sisters. I had no idea what The Mighty Peking Man was but I gave it a watch and I was blown away! This is my favorite giant ape movie, easy, and that’s including all King Kong movies. I think The Mighty Peking Man is better!
Like both Queen Kong and Ape, The Mighty Peking Man was released in 1976 to capitalize on the King Kong remake. This time around the legendary Shaw Brothers Studio were the ones taking a crack at the giant ape genre and they did wonders with it handing the director duties off to Ho Meng-hua.
A group from Hong Kong heads to the Himalayan mountains to find the legendary Peking Man. Not only do they find the Peking Man, but they also find a missing woman who was lost in a plane crash when she was a small child. Amazingly this woman has been raised by the Peking Man and now that she’s all grown up she and the Peking Man have fallen in love! The group take both the Peking Man and the woman back to Hong Kong to put them on display and well things don’t go as well as they were hoping.
You have to see The Mighty Peking to fully understand how good it is. It should just be a cheap King Kong knockoff, which it is in many ways, but this is the Shaw Brothers we’re talking about so there is a ton of skill and technique in the making of the film. And it’s hilarious, but purposely so. Luckily it’s a pretty easy film to get a hold of so you can see what I’m talking about. Check it out on Amazon Prime or better yet, order a copy on Blu-ray from 88 Films.
Don’t take my word for it though, even Roger Ebert loved this movie saying, “Mighty Peking Man is very funny, although a shade off the high mark of Infra-Man, which was made a year earlier, and is my favorite Hong Kong monster film. Both were produced by the legendary Runme Shaw, who, having tasted greatness, obviously hoped to repeat.”
BONUS – SC Origin of Species – Gorilla
Ok so this last one isn’t a feature length movie, nor is he a giant, but I am huge Phoenix Suns fan and their mascot, the Gorilla, is my favorite ape-like creature in the world. I’m confident that Go would love my list of ape movie choices, so I had to include him. If you’re not a basketball fan, have no fear, Go offers up entertainment for everyone. Look him up on YouTube and enjoy his antics.
A few years back ESPN put together a little short film on the history of the Gorilla and it’s awesome and very much worth your time. I’ve included it here because you should watch it, so watch it. I’m going to stop writing so you can scroll down and watch it. Go.
