Dino-Men

 

 

 (imdb)

UNKNOWN ISLAND-1948-A guy Ted (Phillip Reed) and his fiancé' Carole (Virginia Grey), hired a boat from a tough hardnosed but fairly intelligent captain (Barton McLane; TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE the same year)) and his first mate (Dick Wessell; DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL (1946)). They want to go to an uncharted island where the guy says dinosaurs still exist. They take along Baxter (Richard Denning), a guy who drinks a lot because he was once on the island. They shove off despite Baxter's warnings and the native crew unsuccessfully tries to mutiny. 

Landing on the island they encounter many prehistoric beasts including Brontosaurs, a T-Rex and a red-haired ape-like creature (uncredited Crash Corrigan). It becomes obvious that Ted cares more about photographing the prehistoric wildlife than anyone's life, including Carole's. Then just when everyone is ready to leave the captain announces he plans to capture the T-Rex alive. The group find a "dinosaur graveyard" and are attacked and the first mate is killed. Later the native crew steal the rowboat, but they all drown. The captain comes down with jungle fever and accidentally burns their supplies. He later kidnaps Carole but Baxter saves her and the captain is killed by the ape who then battles a T-Rex. The survivors make it to the boat and Baxter's heroics win Carole's heart.

 (imdb)

 Terribly cheap color production directed by Jack Bernhard with men in dino costumes, rear projection action and studio jungle sets. Star Virginia Grey had quite a career. She worked with Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Abbott & Costello, Rondo Hatton, Johnny Weissmuller and started her career playing Eva in the 1927 version of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. She and co-star Richard Denning were later in the seldom seen SF film TARGET EARTH in 1954. Co-star Phillip Reed's last role was HARUM SCARUM (1965) with Elvis Presley.

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The 3 Mesquiteers

RIDERS OF WHISTLING SKULL-1937-In this strange western 3 cow pokes Stoney Brook (Robert Livingston), Tucson Smith (Ray “Crash” Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune) known collectively as "The Three Mesquiteers" help Betty Marsh (Mary Russell) locate her missing archaeologist father (John Van Pelt) who's disappeared while investigating a secret cave and a lost Indian tribe. After several battles with hostile Indians the group finds professor Marsh being held prisoner in the cave because he won't spill the beans about a hidden treasure to a half breed named Rutledge (Roger Williams). In the cave they seem to encounter a living mummy. Before Smith is "sacrificed" he's saved by his buddies who also cause an avalanche that destroys the bad guys. Lullaby also has dummy named Elmer. With all the talk about hieroglyphics, maps, lost tribes, it seems more like a forerunner of the much later Jungle Jim series than a western! 

This weird western was directed by Mack Wright who'd made THE SINGING COWBOY with Gene Autry and the bizarre serial ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND. He did more work as assistant or second unit director and was also an actor.

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Pongo!

WHITE PONGO-1945-In the unexplored swamps of East Africa, a white guy is tied up while natives dance around a fire. A white gorilla (Crash Corrigan) watches the festivities and gets angry when he sees the chief's wife with a  (real) pet chimp on a lease. The captive guy escapes (with the help of an older white guy who also seems to be a prisoner) but sticks around long enough to see the gorilla trample the chief and rescue the chimp.  The captive guy is rescued but dying of jungle fever. British explorer Sir Henry (Gordon Richards) and his daughter Pamela (Maris Wrixton from THE APE) arrive just in time to hear the last of his rantings. They deduce that the gorilla is White Pongo, the legendary missing link! They set out on an expedition. Although one of the white hunters is Clive (Michael Dyne), a "suitor" of Pamela's, she prefers their hired hunter/guide, the mysterious hard nosed Bishop (Richard Fraser). Also along is Baxter (George Lloyd from I ACCUSE MY PARENTS also by PONGO's director) talking in an exaggerated English accent. The group sets a trap for Pongo then stands around talking, waiting for something to happen. Bishop gets into hot water when he's caught kissing Pamela. It turns out that their German guide Kroegert (Al Eben who had a small role in CITIZEN KANE) is actually after gold and he and Clive team up to betray the rest but Bishop is actually working for the US secret service and is on to the German's shenanigans. After Kroegert kills Clive and threatens Pamela he's killed by Pongo who takes a shine to Pam and takes her back to his lair. He scares a lion away and fights a regular (man in a suit) gorilla in defense of his fur-less love. At the end the group captures Pongo, puts him in a bamboo cage and takes him back to the US!

WHITE PONGO resembles another PRC production from the same year THE WHITE GORILLA (also with Corrigan in the simian lead) which is even more cheaply assembled. Most of it is silent movie footage!

Speedy Sam Newfield made 12 other features in 1945. I wonder if he stopped for lunch?

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The White Gorilla

THE WHITE GORILLA-1945-They don’t make them like this anymore! Thank God!!! This movie was so cheaply thrown together that much of it uses portions of a 1927 silent movie (PERILS OF THE JUNGLE) as a flashback!

Stuntman and sometimes actor Crash Corrigan stars as Steve Collins, a jungle guide who returns alone from an expedition and relates “the chilling tale” of his encounter with a mysterious and legendary White Gorilla (also played by Crash), a simian outcast intent on killing anyone in his path.The silent movie flashback is incorporated when Collins tells of his expedition’s fate and his run-in with The Hairy White One. Collins watches mostly from a tree or behind bushes as two white guys in the jungle battle Tiger Men, lions and marauding elephants. There’s also a young white kid who rides on the trunk of an elephant and his mother who pretends she’s crazy to fool the locals into leaving her alone.



This footage in it’s original form may have been entertaining but here it’s pretty laughable especially with Crash’s inane narration.He is relating all this to a jungle trader name Morgan and two other guys. Half way through his tale Morgan’s daughter Ruth (Lorraine Miller) shows up and we get the skinny on The White Gorilla who also battles a regular black gorilla (though both are the usual phony man in an ape suit types). Eventually Collins kills his hairy nemesis when it kidnaps Ruth and we are told the cast of the other film is all dead.



I once saw an episode of the TV show VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA that re-used a black and white scene from the first season in a later color episode but using a silent movie from 1927 in a film 18 years later is something Jerry Warren wouldn’t even have the audacity to do!

It’s a pretty funny concept but I wonder if any of the audience in 1945 knew or cared? The other hysterical thing is the credits. After the title Corrigan & Miller’s names are show and the words “ and an all star cast”! That’s what it says in the opening credits!

Stuntman Ray “Crash” Corrigan began his film career in 1934 as Johnny Weismuller’s double in TARZAN AND HIS MATE. In 1936 he starred in the serial UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Lon Chaney Jr. is one of the bad guys) and a series of “Tucson Smith” westerns but mostly he played apes and other creatures. He was in the similarly themed WHITE PONGO the same year as TWG. His last appearance was as the space monster in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. He died in 1976.

Lorraine Miller was later in William Castle’s rarely screened IT’S A SMALL WORLD. Director Harry L. Fraser wrote I ACCUSE MY PARENTS and the Batman and Captain America serials among other stuff! He was also second unit director on some films including Bert I. Gordon’s THE CYCLOPS and THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST (which involves gorillas, reincarnation, was written by Ed Wood Jr. and interestingly enough was directed by Adrian Weiss who edited TWG). His directing career, which started in 1925, was mostly undistinguished but his last was CHAINED FOR LIFE (starring real life Siamese twins The Hilton Sisters). Calling him THE WHITE GORILLA’s director is being kind. He should be the “put to together-er”.


One last note: TWG’s musical score is credited to Lee Zahler who is also credited with the music to PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

One last final note: An actor in the silent footage named Frank Merrill also played Tarzan in late ‘20’s pre-sound era.THE WHITE GORILLA is crazy stuff.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one"-Albert Einstein

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