SPOILERS INCLUDED
Queen Kong is a film I'd long given up hope of ever seeing,now that I've seen it I've just given up hope. Jokingly aside viewing this long lost Italian financed,British shot monster spoof complete with Come Play with Me-like musical numbers the term jaw-dropping' seems to spring to mind. Dreamed up-no doubt after one too many Martinis-as a feminist' take on the original King Kong with all the male and female roles reversed,Queen Kong fell foul of producer Dino De Laurentiis who felt the film would bring shame on his $24 million dollar remake of King Kong. Why Queen Kong should be singled out for the lawsuit treatment is open to speculation-the film hardy stands alone what with the likes of A*P*E,The Mighty Peking Man and surely worse offender of them all Yeti-Giant of the 20th century all riding on the Kong bandwagon. What seems to have separated Queen Kong from the rest is that while all of the above have their fair share of unintentional hilarity,Queen Kong is meant to be a comedy right from the start and comes across as a merciless leg pull at the expense of the original King Kong and by association Laurentiis's remake. Ultimately Laurentiis and his lawyers were (mostly) successful in having the film suppressed-all that emerged in Britain was a tie-in novel meant to promote a film that was anything but coming soon'.
So the world was denied the exploits of feminist filmmaker Luce Habit (Rula Lenska)and wimpy hippy Ray Fay (Robin Askwith) who gets roped into becoming her new lead. The pair set sail for darkest Africa onboard Luce's boat (The Liberated Lady') which comes complete with an all singing,all dancing female crew. Arriving in Lazanga, where they do the konga' the liberated lady's crew come across a gorilla worshipping tribe lead by Valerie Leon (in what's essentially a reprise of her role in Carry on up the Jungle). Deciding that Ray would make a more fitting birthday present to their idol than the toothless wonder they had lined up,the tribe stuff Ray into a birthday cake and he's soon being whisked away by 64 foot gorilla Queen Kong who resembles a giant teddy bear with tits. In-between falling in love with Ray,Queen Kong has to fight off passing dinosaurs (it's a terrywotsit' cries Ray) in sequences that make it clear that wherever the purported $632,000 budget went, it certainly wasn't on the special effects. Sneaky Luce and her liberated ladies manage to snatch Ray back and the gorilla ends up chasing the cast through the jungle only to wind up captured and shipped off to London.
Silly,silly and did I mention silly. Under the direction of Egyptian Frank Agrama (best remembered for his 1981 gore opus Dawn of the Mummy'),Queen Kong seems to have been attempting to mine the same vein of Anglo-centric' humour popularised by Monty Python and The Goodies. Seen today through this feels more like a precursor to the anything goes Airplane' school of comedy,with too many visual gags to digest in one viewing and contemporary film parodies (Jaws,The Exorcist) thrown into this mixing bowl of the good, the mistimed and the cringe-worthy for good measure. Inevitably there's also an Airport parody where in what can hardly to described as a career highlight Linda Hayden plays a tuneless singing nun. The bad news is that as a comedy Queen Kong generally misses the mark,less genuinely funny the film has to settle for being entertaining in a what were they thinking' manner. The best way (and possibly the only way) to approach Queen Kong is like a big budget pantomime on film,in which a naggingly familiar cast of British comedy regulars gamely make fools of themselves solely for your amusement. At a preview screening a less-than-impressed Rula Lenska reportedly told Askwith that their careers would be a complete shambles if this were ever shown to the general public. And both probably breathed a sigh of quiet relief when Dino inadvertently stepped in to spare their embarrassment.
Or at least he did until bootlegs of the film started doing the collectors circuit rounds a few years back,and now the film has finally received an authorised DVD release from Retromedia. Thankfully-given the overall quality of some of Retromedia's previous acquisitions-the DVD is nothing to be ashamed of. Extras include the Italian trailer and an audio commentary from Agrama and American B-movie mogul Fred Olen Ray. Agrama has some interesting tales to tell about the film's financing as well as Laurentiis lawsuits that hit the film and ironically prevented Queen Kong from playing anywhere but Laurentiis' native Italy. Unfortunately Agrama's memory gets somewhat clouded when it comes to remembering dates and actors. Which leaves aficionados of 1970's British exploitation films the legwork of identifying Queen Kong's support cast of secondary starlets including Virgin Witch star Vicky Michelle,Anna Bergman (Ingmar's daughter-nicknamed in one of her films that Viking bird') and Bergman's Come Play with Me co-star Marta Gillot among others. Also worth a tiny mention here in an early scene where Askwith tries to buy,but in the end just opts to steal,an original King Kong poster. This was shot at a movie nostalgia shop in Brewer Street that after more than 25 years looks pretty much the same. If you're ever in London the shop is well worth a visit (especially the dingy basement)although like Ray Fay before you,you might find their prices a little high. Wonder how much they'd sell a Queen Kong poster for?
Without a doubt,Britain's snobby film critics of the day would have made mince-meat out of Queen Kong had it ever seen the light of day back in the 1970's. Will today's audience react more favourably?-only time will tell. Certainly worse films have had a cult following built around them,but if all else fails the film provides its own fitting epitaph when at the height of all this long suppressed monkey business Askwith remarks we came to make a movie, but we've created a farce'.
Queen Kong is a film I'd long given up hope of ever seeing,now that I've seen it I've just given up hope. Jokingly aside viewing this long lost Italian financed,British shot monster spoof complete with Come Play with Me-like musical numbers the term jaw-dropping' seems to spring to mind. Dreamed up-no doubt after one too many Martinis-as a feminist' take on the original King Kong with all the male and female roles reversed,Queen Kong fell foul of producer Dino De Laurentiis who felt the film would bring shame on his $24 million dollar remake of King Kong. Why Queen Kong should be singled out for the lawsuit treatment is open to speculation-the film hardy stands alone what with the likes of A*P*E,The Mighty Peking Man and surely worse offender of them all Yeti-Giant of the 20th century all riding on the Kong bandwagon. What seems to have separated Queen Kong from the rest is that while all of the above have their fair share of unintentional hilarity,Queen Kong is meant to be a comedy right from the start and comes across as a merciless leg pull at the expense of the original King Kong and by association Laurentiis's remake. Ultimately Laurentiis and his lawyers were (mostly) successful in having the film suppressed-all that emerged in Britain was a tie-in novel meant to promote a film that was anything but coming soon'.
So the world was denied the exploits of feminist filmmaker Luce Habit (Rula Lenska)and wimpy hippy Ray Fay (Robin Askwith) who gets roped into becoming her new lead. The pair set sail for darkest Africa onboard Luce's boat (The Liberated Lady') which comes complete with an all singing,all dancing female crew. Arriving in Lazanga, where they do the konga' the liberated lady's crew come across a gorilla worshipping tribe lead by Valerie Leon (in what's essentially a reprise of her role in Carry on up the Jungle). Deciding that Ray would make a more fitting birthday present to their idol than the toothless wonder they had lined up,the tribe stuff Ray into a birthday cake and he's soon being whisked away by 64 foot gorilla Queen Kong who resembles a giant teddy bear with tits. In-between falling in love with Ray,Queen Kong has to fight off passing dinosaurs (it's a terrywotsit' cries Ray) in sequences that make it clear that wherever the purported $632,000 budget went, it certainly wasn't on the special effects. Sneaky Luce and her liberated ladies manage to snatch Ray back and the gorilla ends up chasing the cast through the jungle only to wind up captured and shipped off to London.
Silly,silly and did I mention silly. Under the direction of Egyptian Frank Agrama (best remembered for his 1981 gore opus Dawn of the Mummy'),Queen Kong seems to have been attempting to mine the same vein of Anglo-centric' humour popularised by Monty Python and The Goodies. Seen today through this feels more like a precursor to the anything goes Airplane' school of comedy,with too many visual gags to digest in one viewing and contemporary film parodies (Jaws,The Exorcist) thrown into this mixing bowl of the good, the mistimed and the cringe-worthy for good measure. Inevitably there's also an Airport parody where in what can hardly to described as a career highlight Linda Hayden plays a tuneless singing nun. The bad news is that as a comedy Queen Kong generally misses the mark,less genuinely funny the film has to settle for being entertaining in a what were they thinking' manner. The best way (and possibly the only way) to approach Queen Kong is like a big budget pantomime on film,in which a naggingly familiar cast of British comedy regulars gamely make fools of themselves solely for your amusement. At a preview screening a less-than-impressed Rula Lenska reportedly told Askwith that their careers would be a complete shambles if this were ever shown to the general public. And both probably breathed a sigh of quiet relief when Dino inadvertently stepped in to spare their embarrassment.
Or at least he did until bootlegs of the film started doing the collectors circuit rounds a few years back,and now the film has finally received an authorised DVD release from Retromedia. Thankfully-given the overall quality of some of Retromedia's previous acquisitions-the DVD is nothing to be ashamed of. Extras include the Italian trailer and an audio commentary from Agrama and American B-movie mogul Fred Olen Ray. Agrama has some interesting tales to tell about the film's financing as well as Laurentiis lawsuits that hit the film and ironically prevented Queen Kong from playing anywhere but Laurentiis' native Italy. Unfortunately Agrama's memory gets somewhat clouded when it comes to remembering dates and actors. Which leaves aficionados of 1970's British exploitation films the legwork of identifying Queen Kong's support cast of secondary starlets including Virgin Witch star Vicky Michelle,Anna Bergman (Ingmar's daughter-nicknamed in one of her films that Viking bird') and Bergman's Come Play with Me co-star Marta Gillot among others. Also worth a tiny mention here in an early scene where Askwith tries to buy,but in the end just opts to steal,an original King Kong poster. This was shot at a movie nostalgia shop in Brewer Street that after more than 25 years looks pretty much the same. If you're ever in London the shop is well worth a visit (especially the dingy basement)although like Ray Fay before you,you might find their prices a little high. Wonder how much they'd sell a Queen Kong poster for?
Without a doubt,Britain's snobby film critics of the day would have made mince-meat out of Queen Kong had it ever seen the light of day back in the 1970's. Will today's audience react more favourably?-only time will tell. Certainly worse films have had a cult following built around them,but if all else fails the film provides its own fitting epitaph when at the height of all this long suppressed monkey business Askwith remarks we came to make a movie, but we've created a farce'.