Thursday, October 27, 2011

Satan meets the Scream Queen !

Satan the Gorilla (AKA you old pal Bongo ) of "Return of Nyoka " captures "scream queen" Linnea Quigley at the Real Terror Film Festival .
Living up to her title, Linnea shrieked so loud, I nearly lost control of several bodily functions. Footage of the event can be seen on the "bonus materials " menu of
the Sequel "Nyoka Rides Again " available now at cultretro.com.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Could it be......Satan !

A deadly catfight erupts in the jungle !

The dreaded " Catfightus Interuptus" attacks !
Hey !, Watch it with that fighting staff lady !
All right !, I warned you ! Up you go !

Are you enjoying the view up there ?

Awwww crap ! That's not fair !

Guess what gorilla gang..... your old buddy Bongo is back as Satan the gorilla in the next TWO exciting chapters of "Nyoka the Jungle Girl" !






The last Chapter"Return of Nyoka the jungle Girl" left off with Nyoka about to be sacrificed beneath descending blade of a giant pendulum ! With time running out, Nyoka struggles furiously against the chains that bind her courtesy of the villainous Crimson Skull. She has managed to free her legs , and hands, but is bound tight by a metal collar around her neck. The deadly blade begins its final descent, Nyoka lets loose a bloodcurdling scream, and THEN?? To be continued next chapter ! Drat and double drat ! Darned cliffhangers !

Old Bongo has a tendancy to wax nostalgic about things like this, so I'll let the good folks at cultretro about this next thrilling chapter !

[ Statuesque beauty Nicola Rae returns as daring jungle heroine Nyoka Gordon as she once again battles the maniacal Crimson Skull for possession of the mystical Amulet of Vultura! When our heroine disrupts the villain's scheme to control the gorilla Satan, the Crimson Skull conspires to use the Amulet to resurrect Queen Vultura herself (the classic villainess from the original 1940's serial). The Skull requires a new host body for Vultura's evil spirit and he sets out to capture and use Nyoka Gordon for this nefarious purpose, but our intrepid adventuress isn't going to make it easy for him. An epic jungle chase ensues as heroine and villain exchange ambushes, punches, kicks and gunfire... all building to our big finale featuring Nyoka versus the Crimson Skull on horseback racing through the jungle!
This chapter (as with ALL serials) begins with opening title cards that explain everything you need to know to jump right into the story and enjoy this film even if you have not yet seen the others.
Serial fans are gonna LOVE IT! And if you're new to the cliffhanger genre... you'll love it too!!! Nyoka the Jungle Girl Rides Again is fast, exciting, sexy and fun... it's everything you love about comic book and serial adventures brought to life by micro-budget film mavericks Bill Black and JohnJG! Special Notes: We didn't want to make a sequel to our 2009 release The Return of Nyoka the Jungle Girl unless we thought we had a chance of making the next installment even bigger and better than the first. When the opportunity to film our serial heroine ON A HORSE fell into place, we knew this was exactly what we needed to kick things up to an all new level of excitement and adventure. Star Nicola Rae puts her stage combat training to good use and really takes her lumps in this one with an impressive display of physical acting that would make Davey Sharpe proud. We had her jumping out of trees in high-heeled boots, riding horseback, rolling head-over-heels on the ground and throwing kicks and punches like a world-class serial queen. Pierce Knightley also "rides again" and delivers the over-the-top goods as Nyoka's nemesis The Crimson Skull. You can't have a Nyoka serial without Satan the Gorilla and he is once again brought to life by professional gorilla man Chris Casteel. Erik Matthews joins the cast as the under-appreciated henchman Hunt Reardon. And introducing Autumn Sage as Rulah, a mysterious and enigmatic new adventuress with swashbuckling charm and ferocious fighting skills. Directors Bill Black and JohnJG channel the serials of old to create an all new thrill-a-minute adventure for one of cinemas most enduring action heroines. Don't miss it!]

Wow, what can I add to that ? This was a really fun project for everyone involved. We filmed on one of the coldest days of the year ( for Florida) so poor Nicola was literaly freezing her butt off, in her skimpy outfit.

Meanwhile,I was quite comfortable in 45 lbs of latex, fur, and padding ! This was quite a contrast to the first film, when it was over 100 degrees and I was dying in the suit !

I was happy about the lower temps because I was able to focus more on having fun with the character, and the subtle nuances involved rather than just trying to survive.

I think the fun we had shows through on film , as everyone really had a blast making it.


Available now at ;



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kogar makes a call !



We'll take a moment to break up the recent posts chronicling the exploits of outer space gorilla men for a moment of monkey mirth from the master !

Saturday, October 8, 2011

ROBOT MONSTER





George Barrows as the Supreme Guidance !

This is how RO-MAN's helmet appears in "Phanom from Space "

Help ! You gotta be pretty horned up, not to notice that standing behind you ! Bob Burns and friend, from Robot Monster, the Special Edition ! Modern gorilla man Tom Woodruff, getting "bubbled" by Joe Dante, from"Looney Toons, Back In Action "!

Wow, what can you say about this "classic" that hasn't been said already. For a long time this flick has been fodder for the Golden Turkey Awards, Mystery Science Theatre, and countless blogs and websites who are perfectly content on ripping it to shreds.







The budget constraints are legendary as this production was so tight on it's budget that the couldn't afford to build, ( or even rent) a suitable robot costume. Enter George Barrows, who with his gorilla suit provided the "Monster" part of the title. Now came the hard part, the "Robot" part of the equation.

The helmet, which is now part of our old friend Bob Burns' collection, has an interesting side note, the same helmet was also used in the film "Phantom from Space". Both films were released in 1953, and the primary difference in appearance is the fact that they used it facing opposite directions ! "Phantom" had the little air tanks in front, While "Robot Monster" had them in back.

The face plate ( hole) for robot monster was enlarged to be a rather large circle, where in "Phantom it had only a narrow side-ways oval shape . Add a set of 50's television antennae and voila' , Robot Monster !

George Barrows turns in one of his greatest performances as RO-MAN, evil invader. Rather than surrounding himself in a cloud of awesome evil, he instead surrounds himself with a cloud of happy bubbles! ( brought to you courtesy of N.A.Fischer Chemical Products, "Billion Bubble Machine ! ) And yes, the bubble thingee actually got screen credit !

The story is a rather dismal post apocalyptic , invasion story. The entire population of the Earth (except for 5 people) have been wiped out by RO-MAN, and his mysterious ray device. The 5 survivors are hiding is a basement to a house that had been blasted apart. With no roof over them, they still manage to hide from RO-MAN, even though the are like less than a mile from each other. RO-MAN's boss, THE SUPREME GUIDANCE, orders RO-MAN to finish off those pesky HU-MANS once and for all.

After launching brutal attacks with fearsome giant reptiles (stock footage from old dinosaur movies) to no avail ,RO-MAN then decides to take matters into his own hands and proceeds to throttle the life out of any one of our heroes he is lucky enough to find alone. Even the little boy ! What a dirty S.O.B.!

As fate would have it, the plan runs into a snag when RO-MAN is ordered to dispatch the one thing that is like Kryptonite to all gorillas, and gorilla robot invaders. The hot chick !

See : RO-MAN fall in love! - See RO-MAN tie her up and tear her blouse off ! - See RO_MAN get his ass handed to him by the SUPREME GUIDANCE !

WOW! What a movie !

The Character of RO-MAN has been performed not only by George Barrows, but also by Bob Burns in "Robot Monster the special edition ", and most recently by modern gorilla man Tom Woodruff in Joe Dante's "Looney Tunes Back in Action".

Where will fate take RO-MAN next ? No one knows for sure !

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Madhouse of Mystery

A popular venue for the ol' Gorilla and Girl act were the spook shows that roamed America beginning in the 1930's. Dr. Neff's Madhouse of Mystery appears to be one of the more enduring acts that thrilled audiences with magic and a variety of ghoulish gags. Neff was based out of Indiana and performed there well into the 1950's. The outlandish gorilla and girl photo was recently listed on Ebay and I offer my thanks to George Chastain for the heads up on the pic.

Bill Neff's Madhouse of Mystery - gorilla and girl

Bill Neff's Madhouse of Mystery 1952

Bill Neff's Madhouse of Mystery 1950 Indiana

Bill Neff's Madhouse of Mystery Indiana 48

Neff's spook show 1947

Bill Neff's Madhouse of Mystery 1948 girl

Dr. Neff's Midnite Spook Show

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

More Monster Matrimony

To accompany the Mighty Bongo's last post on Gemora and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE here's a nice complement of ephemera from the film.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) still 2

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) still 1

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) Window Card

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) 6 Sheet

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) Lobby Card set

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) 1 sheet Belgian