KONG
ISLAND (1968)Director: Robert Morris (Roberto Mauri)
Retromedia Entertainment
KONG
ISLAND (1968)Produced
by the Italian exploitation super team of Ralph Zucker and Walter Brandi (BLOODY
PIT OF HORROR), this laughable funfest has nothing to do with "Kong"
and doesn't even take place on an island. Actually an Italian/Spanish co-production,
the foreign title translates to "Eve, the Wild Woman." The film was
never released theatrically here and was sold directly to TV a decade after
it was made (that explains the 1978 date it's often cited with) and became a
late night staple for many a sleepless viewer, watchin
g
along in a daze.
Two American actors star -- Brad Harris and Marc Lawrence. Harris is a muscleman (playing Hercules at least once in his career) who became a big name in the German and Italian exploitation scene. Lawrence is a character actor whose career goes back to the 30s (at 90+, he's still active today!), often playing gangsters and tough guys. In this film, the dubbing replaces his familiar New York accent with a more elegant-sounding inflection.
Harris
plays Bert, the hero. Well, he's a mercenary who was double-crossed and left
for dead by Albert (Lawrence) after a big heist in Africa. Some time
later, Bert is still hanging out in Africa, looking to get revenge, but he spends
most of his time smoking, drinking, and fighting off promiscuous women. When
the daughter of a friend is kidnapped during a safari, Harris goes deep into
the jungles hoping he will not only find the girl but also his elusive adversary.
It turns
out that Albert has become a sort of "mad scientist," surgically inserting
brain-control apparatuses in the brains of gorillas. The gorillas 
are
actors in shabby costumes, who walk perfectly upright and carry off a few pretty
girls. We never get a really good look at their faces, but in certain shots
you can see the white skin of the guys behind the masks. The film concludes
with a serial-type showdown in a gadget-filled cave, but in between we are introduced
to a half-naked native woman known as the "Sacred Monkey," but the
white man dubs her Eve.
As mentioned
above, this numbing but interesting hunk of monkey mayhem was released directly
to TV in the U.S., so naturally the editor made careful use of his scissors.
Not only does Retromedia include a nice-looking full frame transfer of the American
print, but they also include a longer European version (under the fuller but
further deceiving title, "King of Kong Island") as an extra. The longer
version is naturally infe
rior
in quality to the American one, having been culled from a somewhat dark Greek
tape source (with subtitles), but it includes all the footage that was previously
missing. This is mostly any shot of jungle woman Esmeralda Barros' breasts (concealed
the other half of the time by her long black locks) who is also shown running
fully nude in slow mo (the scene was so memorable that it's tacked on at the
end as well!). Other cut bits present in the Euro version are some shots of
ladies in colored underwear, an expanded domestic dispute, and a climatic catfight.
The Euro
version is slightly letterboxed, but this doesn't really add any significant
picture information. My suggestion is to watch the pleasing transfer of the
American cut, then check out the alternative version to see what they trimmed.
Not surprisingly, no trailer for the film is included, but Fred Olen Ray and
Miss Kim again introduce the film, parked at an imaginary drive-in. (George
R. Reis)