Movie Review: White Pongo (1945)
Synopsis: After a dying man emerges from the jungles of Africa with a missing anthropologist's diary, Sir Harry Bragdon leads a group of explorers, which includes his own daughter, Pamela, in search of a white gorilla believed to be the missing link. What Sir Harry doesn't know is members of his group are searching for gold instead, putting their lives in danger and resulting in Pamela being taken by the gorilla they're hunting.
Who's in it? The movie stars Maris Wrixon, Richard Fraser, Michael Dyne, Lionel Royce, Gordon Richards and Al Eben.
Review: I have had White Pongo in my movie library for some time now and was undecided about whether I wanted to watch it or not. I ended up doing so this morning, mostly because it was readily available and I hadn't picked out another movie yet. As it turned out, it was better than expected, but still not good.
Here's the thing about this movie. It is named after a white gorilla (though the characters refer to it as "White Ponga" and not "Pongo") but has surprisingly very little to do with the creature they are chasing. Sure, it shows up at the end and does the obligatory kidnapping of the female lead, Pamela (Wrixon). However, other than those few minutes and the final battle between it and another gorilla, it honestly felt much more like a MacGuffin.
The irony with that is, had they cut out the white gorilla plot completely, this could have been a much better film. The love triangle between Pamela, her would-be lover, Clive (Dyne) and the rifleman, Geoffrey (Fraser) she becomes instantly attracted to was much more interesting than I would have expected. The part about her father's hired crew's real motivations and the deadly steps they were willing to take could have been suspenseful and entertaining on its own. While Pongo (Ray Corrigan), frankly, wasn't needed.
In addition to the very short amount of film dedicated to the gorilla, there honestly wasn't anything special about it from a plot standpoint, other than the color of its fur, and connecting that to the whole "missing link" narrative was pushing it. The few minutes the gorilla does something were pretty much the same few minutes we've seen in King Kong and other ape/gorilla-related movies.
In other words, the filmmakers took what could have been a decent thriller involving humans and tried to unnecessarily turn it into a monster movie. It could have admittedly been worse but that's not saying much.
Final Opinion: The film is a good reminder the real "monsters" are usually human and there's no need to force feed the audience another one.
My Grade: D
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1945:
Movie Review: Fog Island (1945)
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