8mm Forum: THE MIGHTY GORGA

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Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 04, 2013, 02:18 PM:

Time to own up, tell the truth and shame the Devil, no fibs, no need for the paper bag mask.
Has anyone on here actually bought a copy of this film, which
from the clips I've seen, make Sooty & Sweep look epic.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on July 04, 2013, 03:49 PM:

If it's the film I'm thinking of, I once bought a copy of the Derann 4 x 400' for a good price and then sold it after one viewing. I can't recall any 'so bad it's good' laughs - I only remember boring scenes of people wandering around the jungle and someone appearing in an ape suit at the end! The ape wasn't even particularly big!

It would be a good candidate for a worst film of all time list, but people always unfairly pick on films like 'Plan 9' because they are great entertainment, unlike 'Gorga'.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 04, 2013, 04:07 PM:

Truth be told, I nearly bought it years ago, when Powell announced they would be the distributors of this classic, along with " Deadwood 76", which isn't a bad film but compared to
"Journey To The Centre of Time", it's Shakespeare, and I admit it,
yes, I am that man, I purchased this film, thinking it would be in the same vein as "The Time Travellers", which it isn't, the only thing it has in common with time is ,when's it going to end.
However "Gorga" must rank as the "who the hell thought this up,who cares, lets inflict it on 'em" special award winners, was it
shown in public?

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on July 04, 2013, 04:21 PM:

After Kong and Joe Young, how could they have a man in a suit for an ape? I believe the 1933 'King Kong' was a low-budget production. So not sure if features like 'Gorga' and 'Ape' can use budget as an excuse.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 04, 2013, 04:43 PM:

Akshay, believe me, "Kong" wasn't a low budget affair, it was a gamble for RKO that paid off. Maybe I'm going back too far, but
back in the day, the 8mm Distributors, who had to make a living,
flogged us stuff,that they should be serving time for!
The 8mm collector then , had to be content with whatever was
offered, a lot of it being independently made horrors or dramas,
so when a distributor came across with full colour extravaganzas
like the affore mentioned, then the "three" of us fell over ourselves to partake, except that Powell lost the franchise, and
many years later picked up the dreaded "centre of time" job
secondhand.At the time "Jason & The Argonauts" on 8MM was
considered a recent film.How times changed, for a short while
at least.As for men in ape suits, "King Kong" '76, which wasn't
all that bad, except for Rick Baker walking like a man!

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on July 04, 2013, 04:55 PM:

Hugh, this is what Roger Ebert says about the budget of 'King Kong'.

"Although it has the scope and feel of an expensive epic, 'Kong' had a relatively moderate budget of $600,000"

Wikipedia adjusts for inflation to get $12,000,000. I guess it is not exactly low-budget, so "moderate budget".

Posted by Paul Spinks (Member # 573) on July 04, 2013, 09:34 PM:

I have to own up and admit to having "The Mighty Gorga" in my collection. I have only watched it once and that was 72 minutes of my life well and truly wasted. Mind you, I do seem to have a few turkeys in the old film vault.

Paul.

Posted by Larry Arpin (Member # 744) on July 04, 2013, 11:18 PM:

OMG! Why even bother with this film. It is just bad. I worked for the director when he had his optical printing business and tried to revive this thing with stop motion creatures instead of the dreaded man-in-suit gorilla, which I believe is actually Hewitt in the costume if I remember right. You didn't mention the dinosaur that rocked back and forth which I believe came from another movie and was comped into the Gorga live-action. I got a call from Ernie Farino about this and there was some kind of confusion as to where the creature came from as it was stop motion. Not from me. Another attempt was for theme parks in 3D. There was some new footage shot but there was plenty of Gorga footage. And at 30 or 40 minutes it wasn't too bad. It was screened for Knott's Berry Farm but they didn't want it because of the guns at the end with Scott Brady. There is a scene at the very beginning where another low budget director, Greydon Clark, walks past the animals and they growl at him as he walks by. They didn't react that way with anyone else. Interesting isn't.

Posted by David M. Ballew (Member # 1818) on July 05, 2013, 05:09 PM:

Isn't this the one where the gorilla is shown only from the waist up, owing to the fact the suit was missing the lower half?

I swear I've heard that about some movie or another, and I think it may have been The Mighty Gorga.

Star Anthony Eisley was in another flick in which he was supposed to transform into a monster. Eisley would have been unrecognizable in the monster mask/makeup, so he suggested to the director that the monster be played by a stuntman.

"Nothin' doin'," the director said. "People will know from the body language that it's you. It'll be more convincing that way. You'll play the monster."

According to Eisley, he bribed a stuntman to put on the monster suit/makeup and play those scenes. The director was never any the wiser.

[ July 05, 2013, 07:51 PM: Message edited by: David M. Ballew ]

Posted by Trevor Adams (Member # 42) on July 06, 2013, 05:11 PM:

I had it for a loooonnng time-couldn't sell it [Wink]

After the first viewing I rushed to the IMDB to list it as "worst movie ever".Trev

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 16, 2013, 10:38 AM:

The old version of "Kong" was two years in preparation, took
fifty five weeks to complete the animation, and cost $513,242,02
to make. It took $89,931.00 in four days at Radio City in 1933,
It wasn't only Graumans Chinese Theatre that put on the floor shows, but also the entire singing and dancing ensemble of
Music Hall and New Roxy, plus the Orchestra, a total of 500 people. There were TEN performances daily, and each performance played to standing crowds, and this was during the Great Depression. This was the film that literally saved RKO
from Bankrupcy.Long Live the King.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 16, 2013, 04:44 PM:

On the "Mighty Gorga" what more can be saiid, Anthont Eisley,
had a car coat covered in hair, had a model gorilla head emptied
of of it's foam innards, then two unmoving glass eyes inserted
various shots of zoo animals and airport scenes to make up the running time of 59+ minutes,a really thought out film.Where is
Vlad the Impaler?

[ July 16, 2013, 05:56 PM: Message edited by: Hugh Thompson Scott ]

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