The Mighty Gorga (1969) User Reviews

Where is the other half of the gorilla?

[reptilicus · 2/10 · 4 July 2006]

Lost world movies are generally fun, the sort of thing Saturday matinées used to be made for. There was an intrepid hero, a pretty girl, a wise scientist, a villain, a comedy relief and a couple of throwaway characters whom you knew would not make it to the end of the picture. Expect monsters, hostile natives and maybe even a volcanic eruption. All of which would be lots of fun. Well most of those elements are present in the movie I am here tonight to talk about. There is just one thing missing. The fun.

Anthony Eisley owns a circus that is about to go bankrupt if he does not come up with a new attraction. Eisley tells his partner that a "great white hunter" in Africa has sent him a telegram saying he knows where to find "an overgrown gorilla" and quicker than you can say "Professor Challenger" Anthony is winging his way to Africa.

The hunter who sent the telegram is nowhere to be found but his daughter April (Megan Timothy) says he vanished into the jungle several weeks ago. Eisley suggests they go search for him and the giant gorilla at the same time. Complicating matters is Morgan (Scott Brady) a rival trapper whom you just know is going to be a lot of trouble before the picture ends. Anthony and Megan make their way through the dense jungle (allegdly Africa USA but it looks like the wooded area behind a shopping mall) and finally arrive at the base of a plateau. Yes, before you can say "Lost Continent" they are climbing, even though neither brought anything in the way of mountain scaling equipment or even food!

Now the fun really starts. Reaching the top of the mountain with relative ease the lower-than-low budget of this movie begins to show. Megan looks off camera and says "Look at those strange trees!" and Eisley responds "Those aren't trees, they're giant mushrooms." Then she looks in the other direction and Anthony says "That species of plant hasn't existed on Earth for millions of years." (Okay so a circus owner is well versed in botany, it could happen!) The script really enters gonzo-land when the pair spot a South American Indian running through the brush. Now what is he doing in the middle of Africa? Sadly we never find out, that potentially interesting plot point is quickly forgotten.

The local natives worship The Mighty Gorga, a gigantic gorilla (you're surprised?) and regularly make sacrifices of the local pretty women to him. As the witch doctor says to the ape at one point "I know your thirst for the blood of the maidens is great!" I guess he does not know gorillas are vegetarians; though it offers the question of what exactly does happen to the woman Gorga carries away? Megan and Anthony find the missing hunter (whose name is either Bwana Jack or Conga Jack, no two people in the picture seem sure of just what to call him) but there is still the problem of how to get off the plateau without getting killed by either the natives or Gorga. Oh and don't forget, bad guy Scott Brady is waiting at the bottom of the mountain.

So who write this picture, Ed Wood? I know it sure feels that way but Eddie had nothing to do with this. It was the brain(?)child of David Hewitt who gave us WIZARD OF MARS, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME and GALLERY OF HORRORS among others. He was the Ed Wood of the late 60's. No really, I meant that as a compliment.

Special effects include a battery run model of a Tyrannosaurus that had previously been used in the softcore film ONE MILLION AC/DC and half a gorilla costume. I'm serious! We only see Gorga from the waist up! What happened Dave, did you lose the bottom half of couldn't you afford to rent a whole costume? Process photography is terrible,with Gorgo clearly in the foreground while Anthony and Megan are in the blurry background. The ubiquitous Bronson Canyon caves show up again, this time playing the interior of a volcano where a fire monster lives. If the stop motion dragon in the cave looks familiar its because thrifty Mr. Hewitt borrowed a few seconds of footage from the muscleman picture GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON.

So does Gorga get captured and carted off to the circus? Hey, see the picture for yourself and find out. Is this movie a so-bad-it's-good classic? No way! This movie makes WIZARD OF MARS look good by comparison. It's on DVD know so you can suffer . . . er . . . I mean experience it for yourself. The laughter you hear will probably be your own.

Crappier Than the Bathroom at Taco Bell

[Doctor_Cheese · 2/10 · 15 October 2004]

Grab a dozen or so of your friends. Make sure one of them has a camcorder. Have another put on a (cheap) rented gorilla suit from a Halloween store. Finally, go traipsing around somewhere outside where there's vegetation. (Your backyard will do.) And if your little brother has a plastic toy dinosaur you can bring along, so much the better.

I guarantee that whatever you end up recording will turn out as good as or better than "The Mighty Gorga." It really is that bad. Which is often a good thing, except in this case there's too much boredom in between the bouts of jaw-droppingly horrendous "special effects." Yeah, they're special, all right. Some of the specialest ever seen.

Therefore, since laughter is the best medicine, the Good Doctor can recommend watching only about 15 minutes of this atrocity. But figuring out which 15 minutes is the trick.

Movies such as this WILL drive you APE!!!

[emm · 2/10 · 1 March 1999]

A cast of familiar B-movie stars is most appealing. But start your gall bladder engines, quick! I cannot express feelings about the designers who created an ape costume with eyes that look to the right. That's only the minor feature this one has to offer. I'm going to dictate something to you that will shock and amaze you with a bloated stomach. No one, and I repeat, NO ONE has ever thought of filming an ape and a miniature plastic "Godzilla" that came from the Ideal toy factory, in a conflicting battle to their graves for supremacy! Pentium III graphics it sure ain't! Imagine yourself living in 1969. You'd agree why 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY blows this miles out of the sea in stunning visuals. Well, that's enough. Don't forget to eat your daily regimen of bananas and go ape wild! How embarrassing!

Take that, King Kong! Eat your heart out, Jurassic Park!

[petekrug17 · 29 April 2003]

Oh, boy, what can I say? The worst giant ape suit ever shown in a movie, and the horribly fake looking, obviously plastic T-rex (and this is coming from a guy who actually found the mechanical sharks in each of the JAWS movies convincing). Think of how much more laughable this would have been if the movie had been about the Tyrannosaurus. It may well have rivaled THE GIANT CLAW for silliest monster movie ever. Forget KING KONG LIVES, _this_ is the worst giant ape flick that has ever been released. A must-see if you're a bad movie fan.

Perhaps the worst giant Ape film ever!

[jmike · 1/10 · 18 June 2000]

There are a lot of bad giant ape films. There are also a lot of bad movies which feature less than authentic "African" safaris which are shot on tacky studio back lots with stock footage of wild animals in place of the real thing. Therefore, to stand out in this field is an accomplishment. The Mighty Gorga does. I've seen, and enjoyed, a large number of bad giant ape films and I can assure you they don't come any worse than this one. The only exception might be the Korean made atrocity A*P*E, but its a close call.

This film is absolutely awful in every way! So I was thrilled to tape this off TV one night. The ape costume is among the cheapest ever with plastic eyes which do not move. The Witch Doctor character (who also has a 2nd speaking role as a cashier in a booth at the circus near the start of the film) rants and raves a lot about evil "white men" coming to the ape's territory in "Africa" while he offers up "young maidens" as sacrifices to the Mighty Gorga giant ape. Of course the witch doctor is as white as Pat Boone and "Africa" is a few bits of stock footage and the worst movie back lot set imaginable.

The special effects are among the worst ever. I especially enjoyed the "fire" scene in the animal trader's complex. Grade Z movie leading man Anthony Eisley and 1 dimensional evil "heavy" Scott Brady team up again after being in the same director's awful Journey to the Center of Time a year or so before.

Its hard to convey in words just how awful this movie is. If you enjoy bad films, check this one out! You will be amazed.

Mighty Goofy

[Flixer1957 · 2/10 · 17 August 2002]

**Possible Spoilers Ahead**

This five-cent fiasco was directed by the same dude who gave us THE WIZARD OF MARS and GALLERY OF HORRORS. Many of the cast were associates of the infamous Al Adamson. It's been called the worst King Kong rip-off ever made and I won't dispute that accusation for a minute. Anthony Eisley, the owner of a nearly bankrupt circus, journeys to the African jungle (Bronson Canyon) to capture The Mighty Gorga. This critter is guy in a giant gorilla suit with painted-on mis-aligned eyes. Normal-sized gorillas seen earlier in a zoo are scarier than Gorga but then, Curious George is scarier than Gorga. Eisley and sour-pussed heroine Megan Timothy are also menaced by the local Indians. (Timothy sagely explains that Indians belong in South America, not Africa, but no explanation for their presence is ever given.) Other fun stuff: bloodless gunshot wounds, bad acting, dumb dialogue, volcano and cave-dragon scenes cribbed from other films, and a toy tyrannosaurus that lays big purple eggs. (The origin of Barney? Or did director Hewitt expect to premiere this masterpiece on Easter?) By the way, what kind of crazy clown would pay to see a cock-eyed gorilla in a circus? Probably a crazy clown like myself who paid to see it on tape.

mighty gorga cheapa movie

[vampi1960 · 1/10 · 28 June 2006]

The mighty gorga sounded like a good movie,the first time i seen it it was hosted by Elvira,mistress of the dark.it starts off OK,but when the mighty gorga shows up,oh boy its a guy in a k-mart bought ape mask. and then he fights a t-Rex,that is another cheap looking costume.the only good special fx is the creature in the cave(stock footage from Goliath and the dragon)this is a lot worse then plan 9 from outer space. too bad mst3k isn't on anymore this would be perfect for that.i feel bad for the actors who did this.especially Anthony eisly.this ones so cheesy and so cheap.i wonder what the directer was thinking when he filmed it. the mighty gorga is the bottom of the barrel.one out of 10.

Waste of celluloid!

[suggal3_72 · 2/10 · 19 July 2017]

This movie puts EVEN the original Kong to shame! T-Rex looked like a child's toy! When Gorga exerts himself with fighting "dinosaurs" or chasing villagers, he sounded like he needed an inhaler! Then, when the circus owner was dealing with the rifle being jammed, Gorga stood there like he was waiting to get shot! And when the circus owner and the female trekker were in the nest, a piercing scream was heard, but her mouth was covered by her hand! Wonder how much money this farce when in the theaters?

The Poor Man's King Kong

[ultramatt2000-1 · 1/10 · 14 March 2017]

This movie is not only the poor man's version of KING KONG, but it is also plagiarizing it! Circus owner and trapper go to a lost world with creatures that time forgot located at a plateau in Africa to find a giant ape who is worshiped by a tribe. Also they find diamonds and the ape becomes their friend. I saw this movie and let me think. GASP! This is not only plagiarizing KING KONG, it is also plagiarizing THE LOST WORLD (the plateau with dinosaurs as explained in the story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), SON OF KONG (there is one scene where the ape's finger gets bandaged) and KING SOLOMAN'S MINES (the diamonds). Just like how JOHNNY TEST is plagiarizing DEXTER'S LABORATORY, FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and SCOOBY-DOO (read my comments on those shows). Also the effects are awful with a capital A! Let's start with the dinosaur that Gorga fights. It looks like a combination between an alien and Barney the Dinosaur. Gorga looks crappy. Either it is a paper-mâché mask, decorated kitchen gloves and jacket covered in wigs or they couldn't afford money to buy a whole gorilla suit which is why he is seen from the waist up. Also footage from GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON is seen. Speaking of stop-motion animation, in the late 1970's David L. Hewitt who not only directed this movie, but played the title simian was planning to remake or re-release this movie under the title THE GREAT GORGA (as reported in a February 1978 issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND) with a higher budget and stop-motion models. A stop-motion T-Rex and Stegosaurus were made by Larry Arpin. He also made the ape. He was going to animate these beasts but during that time other studios from across the globe wanted make their own rip-offs and Dave didn't want to get caught in that mess so he called it off. What a pity. It would be a great movie to help other people to get their minds off what Dino De Laurentiis did to KING KONG in 1976. It is available on DVD by Something Weird and it plays double-bill with the porno film, ONE MILLION AC/DC (they both came out in 1969) which features the same dinosaur from that movie. (Read my review and you will thank me for saving time you will never get back.) Bottom line: If you have a knack for finding bad movies, dinosaurs, apes and stop-motion animation then give it a watch. Rated G alright. Bring out the kids so they can learn what a bad movie is and what plagiarism is too. This has been another "Matthew Rants."

Dreadful drive-in discount version of "King Kong"

[Woodyanders · 2/10 · 12 December 2018]

Down and out circus owner Mark Remington (an extremely cranky Anthony Eisley) and feisty lady trapper April Adams (a lively turn by Megan Timothy) venture into the African jungle to capture a giant ape named Gorga (director David Hewitt in a crummy and unconvincing dimestore gorilla suit) so Remington can exploit the beast in order to salvage his floundering business..

Boy, does this rock bottom cheapie strike out something awful in every possible way: Lifeless (mis)direction by Hewitt (who also co-wrote the talky and uneventful script), shoddy (far from) special effects, a dull and derivative story that unfolds at a painfully plodding pace (it takes seemingly forever for the titular oversized simian to show up), a laughable fight scene between Gorga and a huge plastic dinosaur, flat cinematography by Gary Graver, a native witch doctor played by a white guy in swarthy make-up, and a numbing emphasis on drab chitchat over action. Moreover, it's sad to see such familiar B-flick faces as Kent Taylor, Scott Brady (who at least gives it a game go as the greedy jerk bad guy), Gary Kent, William Bonner, and Greydon Clark slumming in this schlock for a quick paycheck. A real clunker.

One Of The Worst Of The Worst

[nwapro · 1/10 · 8 August 2022]

One of the truly most awful movies I've ever seen. Also, one of the most boring ones as well. An hour and 24 minute runtime for this fiasco is way, way too long.

After seeing the trailer to this on YouTube I thought this might be a "so bad it's good" film, but boy was I wrong!

Where do we start? Dollar Tree special effects, the 2 stars scaling an incredibly steep mountainside with no equipment and no rations, a gorilla only seen from the waist up, on the few occasions we actually get to see him. And last but not least, a "fight" between the title character, The Mighty Gorga and a T. Rex that has to been seen to be believed!! The few seconds of that fight are really the only part of the movie I would recommend anyone see from this, whatever it is.

P.U. It Stinks So Good

[shark-43 · 7/10 · 23 February 2002]

What can you say about this fine film? My pals and I enjoy getting together a few Fridays a month and watching "bad" cinema - anything and everything - Turkish Star Wars rip-offs, Indonesian ghost movies, gory Vampire movies from Brazil, bad American biker movies. Well, after a long line of cheesy gorilla movies - Konga, Mighty Peking Man, etc. we have stumbled upon this....this....thing. The sound recoridng is so bad, which is a shame because you miss LOTS of bad dialogue. Plus the actors flub their lines constantly and keep on going. Obviously the budget for this 1969 epic must have been 100 bucks and some sandwiches, so it all looks like "we got one take and that' sit. Fine. Print. Lets move on." Horrible acting, there are literally NO special effects, just the worst big monkey outfit I have ever seen (the yes of the ape are just glass marbles,no blinking, no nothing). Now, the first twenty minutes of this film are very hard to take, but hang in there - once they get to the "jungle" (its filmed in Simi Valley, California and it looks it) and stumble the nest of a dinosuar, hold on - because it gets good. BAD good. The phoniest T-Rex you ever saw - in fact it lookslike someone holding up a PLASTIC dinosaur toy just in front of the camera lens and shaking it. Anyway - incredibly bad but oh so good. LOTS of laughs.

Pain

[DanTheMan2150AD · 2/10 · 3 May 2023]

The Mighty Gorga is a prime example of how not to shoot a kaiju movie on a budget. Whether or not this is better or worse than A*P*E is up for debate but it's a very close competition. The film problems are numerous and obvious, be it the giant gorilla costume is oh-so-very poor with its fixed bugged-out eyes, poor plotting, painfully slow pacing, non-existent acting with many lines that are obviously flubbed, shoddy mattes, over-reliance on unrelated stock footage, horrendous sound mixing with the stock music completely dominates the dialogue rendering it inaudible at points and a hilarious plastic T-Rex. The only real thing I can give it credit for is the location work which is a pretty good stand-in for a jungle. The Mighty Gorga is just a distressing experience that doesn't even enter the realm of so bad it's good. Whether or not this has any merit is certainly a question, the racism certainly doesn't help, but I can say like A*P*E it's a must-see in terms of Z-grade movie making.

I have mightier dumps

[movieman_kev · 14 August 2004]

A couple chases an ape (in a far more ludicrous costume than was in "A*P*E", if you can believe in) into the wild to get it for the circus. A lame dime-story dinosaur also shows up. Naturally both feeble monsters have to "fight". While it was better then "One Million AC/DC" (what movie isn't??!!?) that was on the double-feature DVD I got, David L. Hewitt proves himself to be a worse director than his friend, Al Adamson (!!!!!). But the funniest thing about this film is that it took 2 writers to pen it!!!

My Grade:F+

Something Weird DVD Extras: Shorts: 'Nightmare', 'Prehistoric Days, and 'Diane the Jungle Girl and her Gorilla of Love'; explotation art Gallery; Trailers for :Valley of the Dragons", "Lost Continent", "Equinox", "the Lock Ness Terror", "The Cyclops", "Island of the Dinosaurs", "The Cyclops", "Tom Thumb", "One Million AC/DC". and "Sound of Horrors"

Easter Egg: Vintage car ad

Muppet Kong

[lovenstein-82224 · 6/10 · 25 April 2021]

First, the plus side: The film is well lit and the print from Something Weird is just finee. I love Circuses and Zoos and would love to know where some of this was shot.... the old LA Zoo perhaps? The actors are poorly directed but do OK wirth what they have to work with. His

Donald Hewitt only made ten films but he is an interesting figure in bargain basement films of his era. Anthony Eisley did these junk films while working steadily on TV. I guess he just liked to work. The Ape and other monsters are so bad as to be endearing. If you have any taste for this sort of grade Z movies, I think you will enjoy this movie.

King Kong with a red bandaid

[oulamies · 6/10 · 21 January 2022]

Unintentionally The Mighty Gorga is the greatest Giant Ape parody of all time. Not even Jerry Zucker could write some of the gags in this film. Take for example the obviously caucasian witch doctor cursing the arrival of greedy whites in a California accent, while Gorga gazes through the bushes with a look of severe confusion. Or when the ape hurts his finger fighting a toy dinosaur and expresses this by doing what looks like a muted stand up routine for half a minute. Or when he storms the village twice during the film and we see the same exact native reaction shots both times. Or when our protagonist tells his companion to 'keep her eyes open' and we immediately cut to a shot of Gorga with his ever-open, ever-puzzled peepers. You owe yourself the joy of witnessing this turkey. Praise David L. Hewitt!

Mighty Bad

[Jamie-58 · 8 August 1999]

On a hunch I picked this one up at the local video retailer, where it was reduced down to ten bucks, thinking it might afford a few laughs. And I was not disappointed. This one is thigh slappingly funny, from the giant ape, whose anatomy consists of a bad mask and two furry gloves (we never see him in full shot), a rubber dolly dinosaur which seems to be doing impressions of Geoffrey Rush in "Shine" and a heroine who....pauses.....more.....than.....William......Shatner. This woman even screams in a monotone. Compulsory viewing.

dregs of the "giant ape" genre *SPOILER*

[junagadh75 · 12 August 2002]

"The Mighty Gorga" is probably the worst King Kong rip-off there is. The plot concerns an impecunious circus owner going to a Congo that looks strangely like southern California in search of a giant species of ape that will make his circus some money. Along the way he picks up a woman who is searching for her father (who also wanted to exploit the giant ape), and they encounter a tribe of Indians (played by Caucasian actors) who sustain Gorga on the flesh of maidens so that he doesn't trash their village. The characters wonder what Indians are doing in Africa, but no explanation is ever given (and, incidentally, the only Black person observed during their visit to the Congo speaks English without a foreign accent). In the final scene, the protagonists still haven't captured Gorga, but state their intention to do so although they have no idea how they will transport him back to the States. The special effects are simply unbelievable - the giant ape costume is worse than anything seen in a high school drama production, the one composite shot of the ape and the humans together is pathetic, and the "Indian" scenes (especially the colloquies between the witch doctor and the ape) are like "Gilligan's Island" scenarios; but worst of all is the dinosaur sequence in which the human characters fend off a plastic Tyrannosaur puppet (no exaggeration - it's really that bad) by pelting it with its own eggs, and then observe it being fought to the death by Gorga - this scene is an absolute insult. Even as a devotee of schlock cinema, I was shocked at the ineptitude of this film - it fell far below my already low expectations. If there is a worse giant ape film around, I haven't seen it, and I'd have to see it to believe it.