Leofwine_draca WHITE PONGO is another of those movies with an interesting-sounding premise and a very dull execution. It's a jungle safari film in which a bunch of the dullest characters imaginable head into the jungle in search of a mythical white gorilla. The trouble is, this plotting plays out very slowly indeed, with a maximum of padding that makes it a tough watch. None of the characters stand out and the only people making an effort are the sound effects guys with their constant jungle ambience noises. As for White Pongo himself, he's just the usual guy in a gorilla suit you've seen a million times; he just happens to be a different colour.

bkoganbing A half crazed survivor of an expedition comes out of the Congo jungle telling a tall tale of a fabulous albino gorilla that the natives call Pongo which gets another expedition going. Could this albino ape possibly be the fabled missing link on the evolutionary chain between sapien and simian?This PRC cheapie used some stock jungle footage and no doubt a trip to the Botanical Gardens served as the rest of the jungle. Not all that different from major studios either, but in this case the film was shot from an old Bell&Howell home movie camera with terrible sound.There's also a murderous guide with German accent and in 1945 people with those accents were inevitably villains. Add to that a love triangle with a couple of the men panting hot and heavy after Maris Wrixon the only woman on the trip. Even the fabulous White Pongo gets his old libido running for her.This one is awful, the cast should be commended for keeping straight faces throughout.

MartinHafer I wish I had a dollar for every film made about the African jungle or that featured some knucklehead dressed up in a gorilla costume during the 1930s and 40s--I'd be a millionaire. Sure, in this case it's a WHITE gorilla, but it's still at heart a movie like so many others.The film begins with a man escaping and making his way through the jungle back to civilization. During this torturous trek, he sees a white gorilla and once rescued he babbled on and on about it. How his rescuers took this to mean that this albino gorilla was some sort of "missing link", I have no idea and they soon set off to look for the beast.There must be something about the jungle, as some sort of aphrodisiac must grown in the wild. First, two men in the party fall for the lone lady in the group. Then later, Pongo (the white gorilla) himself and a black gorilla ALSO fall for this hottie! I could say more about the film, but frankly who cares?! Yet another man in gorilla suit film AND the gorilla becomes infatuated with the lady--haven't we seen this before....many times? Overall, a dull and not particularly inspiring film. I wish I could get as excited about the film like some of the other reviewers, but I just got bored with the film almost as soon as it started.

classicsoncall I went into "White Pongo" cold, preferring not to read the DVD sleeve to get a hint of the story. Lo and behold, it's another in a long line of gorilla films that found popularity in the 1940's, that perhaps thought it could enrich itself with a name no one had ever heard of before or since. Pongo rhymes with Congo, and that's where the action takes place, as an expedition heads into gorilla territory to seek out what may be the missing link between monkeys and men. Not only that, but the animal in question is a rare white gorilla, thought to be highly secretive and very hard to find, but is never more than a few feet away in any scene involving the intrepid explorers.Maris Wrixon provides the film's female lead and romantic interest, Pamela Bragdon. She's the daughter of Sir Harry (Gordon Richards), and insists on being part of the adventure, citing her experience of having been born on a safari. She has eyes for her personal guard Bishop (Richard Fraser), who's mission on the trip is of a dual nature; he's really an agent attempting to get the goods on safari guide Hans Kroegert (Al Eben), who may have murdered anthropologist Dierdorf. It's Dierdorf's diary that offers a clue to the white pongo creature's existence.Critics of the filmed versions of "King Kong" who find racism behind every banana tree would really have a field day with this one. The Number #1 Porter Boy is called Mumbo Jumbo (really, I'm not making this up!), and it's a "white" gorilla considered the missing link, not a black one. I try not to get involved in political correctness with Poverty Row films dealing in monkeys, so those arguments are best left for another time. This movie is best viewed with a healthy dose of good humor and good friends.I will say there's a nifty fight scene between a "normal" gorilla and the pongo; they batter each other with uprooted trees in a creative slug fest. Before it's all over, the white gorilla rescues Miss Pamela from the evil German guide (Nazi overtones anyone?) and carries her off to his cave; Pongo is no Kong however and has to hoist her over his shoulder.What's probably most disappointing about the movie is the way it ends. The expedition members capture the creature and crate him up for shipment to London. The film closes on that note, leaving the viewer to consider that maybe the movie makers dropped the ball, having never heard of sequel. This critic at least would have preferred to see the animal go free to create havoc another day in "The Return of White Pongo". Oh well, maybe someone will remake "King Kong". Oh, wait...