The Mighty Gorga (1969)
Nomination Year: 2014
SYNOPSIS: Mark Remington's circus is slowly going bankrupt. He's visited by an
agent from Consolidated Circus with a buy-out offer, but Mark won't sell
to them. Consolidated has been locking up all the high-drawing circus
acts into long-term contracts, and relentlessly driving small circuses out
of business. Unfortunately for Mark, Consolidated has purchased his bank
note, so he can't even go bankrupt without them winning.
His wild animal trapper in Africa (Tonga Jack Adams) told him about an "overgrown gorilla" once, and Mark is desperate enough to take what cash he has remaining, and mount an expedition (a very moderate expedition) to Africa -- to capture the beast, and return it to civilization!
When Mark gets to Africa, Tonga Jack has disappeared, but his daughter (April Adams) knows that her father disappeared while hunting ... a giant gorilla!
Tonga Jack's old business partner (Dan Morgan) tries to muscle April out of her father's business ... but she's not selling! He holds her bank note, though, and threatens to make things difficult for her ... until Mark buys him out. The $6,000 won't make a difference to him, but he needs her in order to possibly find this "overgrown gorilla."
To make a long trek-through-the-jungle short, they climb to a high plateau, and discover large purple eggs. Large warm purple eggs. Dinosaur eggs! In an appalling greenscreen sequence, they're menaced by the mother. She then is beaten down by The Mighty Gorga.
The Mighty Gorga is, indeed, overgrown. He's also slightly cross-eyed, and one iris is ringed with white, while the other is not, giving him a slightly-concussed look throughout the movie.
Our heroes are captured by native people, rescued by Tonga Jack (who has been kept hostage as the tribe's medicine man ever since he cured the chief's son of malaria with some quinine tablets), and barely escape the plateau when the volcano underneath erupts.
Sadly, the whole plateau is destroyed. Fortunately, they find some treasure on their way off the plateau. They keep referring to it as The Treasure of King Solomon for no reason that I was ever able to discern. Unfortunately, Dan Adams is waiting for them before they can re-enter civilization. He's intent to waylay them, kill them all, and take the treasure for his own.
If only The Mighty Gorga had somehow survived the volcanic explosion, and just happened to show up in time to wipe a smudge off the greenscreen (where Dan happened to be standing).
Ah, if only.
His wild animal trapper in Africa (Tonga Jack Adams) told him about an "overgrown gorilla" once, and Mark is desperate enough to take what cash he has remaining, and mount an expedition (a very moderate expedition) to Africa -- to capture the beast, and return it to civilization!
When Mark gets to Africa, Tonga Jack has disappeared, but his daughter (April Adams) knows that her father disappeared while hunting ... a giant gorilla!
Tonga Jack's old business partner (Dan Morgan) tries to muscle April out of her father's business ... but she's not selling! He holds her bank note, though, and threatens to make things difficult for her ... until Mark buys him out. The $6,000 won't make a difference to him, but he needs her in order to possibly find this "overgrown gorilla."
To make a long trek-through-the-jungle short, they climb to a high plateau, and discover large purple eggs. Large warm purple eggs. Dinosaur eggs! In an appalling greenscreen sequence, they're menaced by the mother. She then is beaten down by The Mighty Gorga.
The Mighty Gorga is, indeed, overgrown. He's also slightly cross-eyed, and one iris is ringed with white, while the other is not, giving him a slightly-concussed look throughout the movie.
Our heroes are captured by native people, rescued by Tonga Jack (who has been kept hostage as the tribe's medicine man ever since he cured the chief's son of malaria with some quinine tablets), and barely escape the plateau when the volcano underneath erupts.
Sadly, the whole plateau is destroyed. Fortunately, they find some treasure on their way off the plateau. They keep referring to it as The Treasure of King Solomon for no reason that I was ever able to discern. Unfortunately, Dan Adams is waiting for them before they can re-enter civilization. He's intent to waylay them, kill them all, and take the treasure for his own.
If only The Mighty Gorga had somehow survived the volcanic explosion, and just happened to show up in time to wipe a smudge off the greenscreen (where Dan happened to be standing).
Ah, if only.
Kevin Hogan