GORILLAS AND GIANT APES ON FILM - A Historical Pictorial (1930's - 1970's)

Gorillas and giant apes were a very popular subject in the movies for a good five decades or so! These days not so much, and I'm afraid the gorilla suit thrill is over, but I think it's time to take another look back! The focus here is on movies with gorillas or giant apes as the main subject matter and/or, films where our large sapien friends were a major part of the story! I'm sure I missed some along the line, but this list is pretty close in my opinion!

1932 - "The Monster Walks"

 

 1932 - "Murders In The Rue Morgue" with Bela Lugosi

1933 - "King Kong"  

Originally, I was only going to do 'gorilla' movies, but after much thought, I decided  I couldn't possibly leave out the big guys, and that's how it goes!

1933 - "Song Of Kong"

It only took them 8 months to release a sequel to "King Kong!"

1935 - "Angkor" aka"The Gorilla Woman"

A sleazeball quasi-documentary!

1939 - "The Gorilla" with The Ritz Brothers!

Bela's in there again, and I think this is the first time that the gorilla wasn't taken seriously anymore!

1940 - "The Ape"

 If it was good enough for Bela, it was good enough for Boris!

1941 - "The Monster And The Girl"

 1943 - "Captive Wild Woman"
with...

Acquanetta as 'The Gorilla Girl!"

1943 - "The Ape Man"

Bela is back!!

1944 - "Crazy Knights" with Shemp, Billy, and Maxie!

 1944 - "Nabonga!"
Tabonga's cousin?

1945 - "The Monster And The Ape"

A Columbia Pictures serial.

 1945 - "The White Gorilla"

1945 - "White Pongo"

For some reason, in 1945, two movies came out that featured albino gorillas!

1949 - "Mighty Joe Young"

Probably the saddest of all the giant ape movies!

1950 - "Mark Of The Gorilla"

Featuring Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim!

1951 - "Bride Of The Gorilla"

1952 - "Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla"

Bela's back again, but this time he's joined by Martin and Lewis wannabes Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo in a full-blown comedy!

1953 - "Robot Monster"

The gorilla suit would never be the same after this!

1954 - "Gorilla At Large"

This one is probably my favourite gorilla flick!

1954 - "The Bowery Boys Meet The Monsters"

Yet another Laugh Fest!

1958 - "The Bride And The Beast!"

1961 - "Konga"

1962 - "Kingu Kongu tai Gojira" 

or

"King Kong Vs. Godzilla"

All bets are off once the Japanese get involved!

1963 - "Las Luchadoras Contra El Médico Asesino" aka...

"Doctor Of Doom!"

1967 - "Kingu Kongu No Gyakushû"

or

"King Kong Escapes"

1967 - "Hillbillys In A Haunted House"

1968 - "Der Gorilla Von Soho" (The Gorilla Gang)

Written by Edgar Wallace, the original author of "King Kong!"

1975 - "The Ghost Busters" TV Series - Just in case you wondered what ever happened to "F Troop!"

I didn't even know this existed until I started writing this!

1976 - "A*P*E"

 1976 - "Queen Kong"

 Let's not forget about the Queen (Even though we'd like to)!

 1977 - "Xing Xing Wang," "Goliathon," or "The Mighty Peking Man"

So there you go, that about covers it. Yeah, I know I left out the "Planet Of The Apes" movies and a slew of Tarzan movies, but this monkey business had to stop somewhere!

SPACE: 1999 / Mission Of The Darians - 1975

Here's another great series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. This episode has the Moon Base moving to within range of a humongous ship that is 20 kilometers long! Because the ship is emitting a distress signal, Koenig orders an Eagle to go investigate and find the inhabitants, the Darians, have a very distinctive class separation.

So, a huge spacecraft is hovering near the Moon Base and the gang have to come up with a plan, it looks like they will investigate...

Here are two close-ups of the giant ship, it has tons of architectural elements! When I worked for the special effects studio Wonder Works in the nineties, they had this thing called the Greeble Room. It had drawers full of thousands of different small random resin pieces that could be mixed or matched for model building. Those pieces are known as "greebles" in the film industry!.. Greebles, baby!

Okay, sucker, where'd you put the damn staples?!

Hey, it looks like Commander Koenig has a very sexy visitor!

Commander Koenig, Joan Collins... Joan Collins, Commander Koenig!

Well, hello der!!

They threw in this FORBIDDEN PLANET looking walk way to the stars.

Joan plays Kara, here she is with Petros, High Priest. They are not very nice people.

Barbara Bain is kidnapped and thrown in with the underclass, where, she is chosen to be sacrificed to the star gods! Or, something.

I volunteered for this job but they ordered me to get the Hell off the set!!

Everything turns out great at the end! Check out Petros there with his head crashed through the display panel... Hurray!! Check in again Wednesday for more cool junk!

25 GOOD REASONS TO WATCH OLDE MOVIES Part 02

 Life without history is meaningless! So where are we at in the wheel of life?  5% or 93%? 

Your guess is as good as mine, but all I know is that there's a Helluva lot of good reasons to look back, because the future looks dim, but the past is still a shining star!

So, here they are, 25 more reasons to appreciate the past, in no particular order!

#26 - Agnès Spaak - "The Secret Of Dr. Orloff"  (1964)

#27 - Barbara Eden - "I Dream Of Jeannie"

 #28 - Barbara Steele - "Black Sabbath" etc, etc, etc!

 #29 - Barboura Morris - "Bucket Of Blood" & "Wasp Woman" So mouth watering, it makes me want to Barbecue something!

 #30 - Carolyn (Morticia Addams) Jones

 #31 - Daliah Lavi - "The Silencers" "Some Girls Do"

 #32 - Dany Carrel - "The Hands Of Orlac"

#33 - Isn't this just the cutest damn picture you've ever seen of Diana Rigg in your life?

It was in mine!

 #34 - Elizabeth Montgomery - "Bewitched"

 #35 - Elke Sommer

When I was digging around looking for photos, sometimes I ended up with more than one. It's not that I necessarily like these ladies more than the others, but why beat myself up trying to pick out one? It's not worth the hassle, when you can get two or more for the price of one!

 #36 - Eva Pflug - "Raumpatrouille Orion"

#37 - Honor Blackman - "The Avengers"

#38 - Irish McCalla - "Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle"

#39 - Jeanne Carmen - "The Monster Of Piedras Blancas" and an amazing golfer!

#40 - Julie Newmar - If I was going to truly fall in love with one of these gals, I think it would be Julie! Can you blame me?

#41 - Kamala Devi - "The Brass Bottle"

#42 - Kumi Mizuno - "Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai No Daiketto" etc.

#43 - Lilli Palmer - All four of these shots are so good, I couldn't just pick one or two!

#44 - Lori Eastside as Nada. Her performance just drives me crazy!

#45 - Maria Perschy - "Horror Of The Zombies" etc.

#46 - Sylva Koscina -"Deadlier Than The Male" etc.

 #47 - Mara Corday - "Tarantula" Etc.

 48 - Shirley Eaton - "Goldfinger" etc.

#49 - Soledad Miranda - "Sound Of Horror" "Vampyros Lesbos" etc.

#50 - Susan Hart - "The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini" "The Slime People" etc.

Seriously, don't you want to see every movie or TV show that each and every one of these gals has appeared in now? 

If not, then you just might want to check yourself into the emergency room ASAP, because you have no pulse!!
And if you just happen to still not see your favourite on this list, don't fret because I'm working on Part 3 right now!