Sunday, June 23, 2013

The White Gorilla (1945)

Director: Harry L. Fraser

Starring: Ray Corrigan, Lorraine Miller, Harry Belmour, Budd Buster, Francis Ford

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Unconscious FORM Of A Girl Puzzled Him!

Plot: A white gorilla is snubbed by black gorillas because he is the wrong color. Cut off from his tribe he becomes lonely and angry. After troubling hunters and natives, the white gorilla fights the king of the black gorillas while we are told by a narrator that the fate of Africa hangs in the balance.


My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again? NO.

You know it's a classy picture when you see this...



...without seeing any of the names of the "All-Star Cast" before the movie begins. Wanna know why?  Because this picture uses extensive footage taken from a 1927 10-chapter silent serial called, PERILS OF THE JUNGLE.  THE WHITE GORILLA just made me want to see the serial instead.  Steve Collins (Corrigan) shows up at at the jungle quarters of some big game explorer types and tells them the story of what he witnessed.  For the next 15 minutes (that's 25% of the film, folks) he narrates his tale as we see some fun jungle adventure clips of the serial intercut with Steve peering through bushes and trees to observe from afar.  But wait, there's more.  After 4 minutes of Steve, back at the shack, explaining even more, we're back to footage from the serial and Steve looking through the bushes.


And then it's back to recycled footage and little bits here and there with the lame shit filmed for this picture. At least 75% of this picture is from PERILS which looks like an infinitely more exciting picture than what I just sat through.  This is one lousy excuse for a movie. Don't let some of these screenshots fool you.  If you like what you see you can bet it's from the recycled film.


The Lion - The King of the Rock & Roll Jungle!  



This part was badass as hell.

Fortunately it's only an hour long.  PERILS is aparantly at UCLA.  It'd be nice if this got a video release someday.  I'd really like to see it and it's really the best part of this picture except for Steve's narration through it all.  See it for yourself, if you dare...









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