Pongo, O Gorila Branco

As low budget jungle movies go this one isn't that bad. The production values are reasonable and the acting is perfectly ok. The script and storyline just aren't up to much and the whole film drags badly in the middle section. Not that there's much of a climax either - they just don't seem to know how to use the white gorilla effectively. Of course he steals the girl - they always do. As far as the gorilla costumes etc are concerned believe me they are nowhere near the worst you will ever see in films of this vintage. Enjoyable fun and a decent print on the alpha DVD I saw.

White Pongo isn't an A movie. It isn't even a B movie. It falls more into the range of a D-level movie, made on a shoe string by a minor film company. It fails in just about every way a film can. It's not just that it's cheap and openly racist; it's just plain boring!

The film follows an expedition to capture a rare white gorilla believed to be the missing link. (Why would the missing link have to be white?) In the process, the adventurers run into hostile natives, criminals, and the worst gorilla suit known to man. (I know this was made before the time of Jane Goodall, but couldn't they have come up with something vaguely realistic?)

The film's racism is very obvious, to the point that it verges on satire. The lead black character is named Mumbo-Jumbo for crying out loud. The Africans are shown as savages who are automatically hostile to white people for no reason-never mind the fact that during the colonial era, they would have had every reason to distrust Europeans.

However, what's most damning is the boredom factor. Even though the movie is roughly seventy minutes long, it is filled with scenes of people just cruising down the river with canoes, with no accompanying action or dialogue. It's filler of the worst kind.

I'd swear that half of these B jungle movies has the people getting from one place to another. If they aren't paddling down a river, they are walking up a hill or across a field. Native tribesmen follow, single file, saying nothing, carrying supplies on their heads. This one is about an effort to find a white gorilla, a clue to the missing link. In the safari are a couple of factions as we find out. There's a rifle man, who is quiet and mysterious (we find out later what he really is), a young woman who is being pursued by a man who loves her, but who has no character. There is upper class snobbery. There is a group of cutthroat mutineers who wish to take power. Then there are scenes of out and out racism. The gorillas are, as usual, men in bad monkey suits. Even back in those days, couldn't they have put together something a little more convincing. One of my childhood memories is watching this movie on our old Admiral TV and seeing this long haired white ape. I may be wrong, but I think the ape suit shows up in other places, including an episode of the old George Reeves "Superman" TV show. This was another jungle movie that was part of a science fiction collection. I suppose the missing link is borderline science fiction. Overall, pretty lame.

This is another story of a jungle expedition that runs across a legendary white ape that may or may not be the missing link. There has got to be five or six of these films floating around in the film vaults and everyone of them is a turkey or a close cousin.

The problem here, as in almost every jungle movie, is that the gorillas look like what they are, men in suits. Worse if the fact that the suits are absolutely terrible and so unconvincing that anyone watching it is going to laugh rather than scream.

This movie isn't too terrible, and is actually okay if you have a love of bad movies, especially ones that you can talk back to and make fun of. As these things go its not a movie that I' search out, but it is one that I'd put on if I was in need of some unintentional laughs.

This is the kind of film that kids will enjoy and does not contain a lot of violence. The setting looked good with a lot of jungle greenery and men in gorilla suits. There is actually a plot to this thing. I would have rather had the plot revolve around looking for and trying to capture a rare white gorilla than looking for a white ape that they suppose to be the 'missing link',,,but I guess the 'link' bit adds something(??). Check out the filmography of Wrixen and Fraser, the native safari guide named, believe it or not..Mumbo Jumbo, they were accomplished actors and played in many notable films. White Pongo is not bad but not good either. There is decent character development and a slight surprise near the end. Ape gets girl, ape looses girl, guy gets girl. Happy ending. Good clean fun.