mstomaso Sam Newfield, director of White Pongo, had a long and productive career, spanning from the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s. Averaging 3-4 films per year (a total of 7 in 1951), he apparently did not have a great deal of time to waste with art, script refinement, and cinematography. His most well-known films achieve a relatively high rating here on IMDb (4), and are all within the horror genre (e.g. Dead Men Walk), but he did occasionally branch out into Sci-Fi (Lost Continent) and made a decent number of respectable war and western films in the last ten years of his career. Although I have not seen many of Newfield's films, and remember even fewer, I am willing to wager that White Pongo is fairly representative of the lot.There are essentially two weakly developed plots. First - an expedition of upper crust white guys and a beautiful young woman are out in the jungle searching for a missing link (an albino gorilla whose only truly distinguishing characteristic is bad costuming). Since this plot had been done several times previously in equally bad films and the excellent King Kong, the screenwriter included a rather over-dramatic romantic quadrangle between the young lady, a privileged jerk to whom she is apparently betrothed, a decent young laborer, and - of course - the albino gorilla. Raymond Schrock, who had been writing for film since the teens gets the only credit I can give anybody in the production team for giving the actors something reasonable to work with. Schrock is an interesting character. Most of the films he was involved with are very obscure and difficult to find, but those which remain in the light seem to rate pretty highly here on IMDb. Sadly, White Pongo was made within the last five years of his career. and, in terms of plot, it's a very predictable, unoriginal, mess.The cinematography is fairly standard for the jungle adventure genre as it stood in the middle of the 20th century. In other words, it is quite limited by available technology and set problems. The directing exemplifies the term "pedestrian", and the acting, though uninspired, is not nearly as bad as might be expected from the largely unknown cast. Those interested in the history of African American participation in film may be interested to see activist actor Joel Fluellen playing an unfortunate stereotype "Mumbo Jumbo" in this film, and will appreciate the irony that the only two 'ethnic' actors in this film (Fluellen and Al Eban) outlasted the rest of the cast. Fluellen appeared in some fairly good roles in Oscar and Grammy nominated films late in his career. Best viewed with the aid of intoxicants and friends with good senses of humor. Otherwise - to be avoided.

lastliberal This film appears to be a typical jungle safari film with lots of time spent floating down the river and traipsing through the jungle. There are some funny parts that keep it interesting.They are after a white gorilla, a supposed "missing link," that can think like a man. The gorilla is following them along as he is interested in the white woman (Maris Wrixon) with the group. Her father's secretary is also interested in her, but she has eyes for one of the riflemen on the safari.There is skulduggery afoot as some of the group appear to be more interested in finding treasure than the white gorilla and an eventual mutiny ensues, leaving five men behind and a search for treasure led by the native guide, Mumbo Jumbo (Joel Fluellen). I kid you not, that is his name.As expected, the white gorilla waits for a chance to grab the girl and take her back to his pad. But, instead of getting down to action, he waits and she escapes. When he catches her again, a black gorilla sees her and desires her too. They fight. She escapes again, and they capture the white gorilla to go back to London.Not so smart after all, was he?

Chris Gaskin I've just watched White Pongo for the first time and found it great fun. It's one of those movies that is unintentionally funny.A group of scientists from London head to the jungles of Africa to search for a missing link white gorilla creature that lives there. They intend to capture it. They find it and, as often happens in these sort of movies the creature takes a fancy to the only woman in the party and kidnaps her and takes her to its home, a cave. She manages to escape and the gorilla (Ray Corrigan in a white gorilla suit) has a fight with another gorilla (a man in a monkey suit) and is then captured.This movie is several unintentionally funny moments, including that fight at the end. We also get to see several other men in monkey suits romping about. White Pongo himself looks more like a Yeti to me.As mentioned above, White Pongo is played by Ray Corrigan who has often played gorillas in movies and his others include Nabonga and The White Gorilla. He also was in the sleuth suit in Unknown Island and played the monster in It! The Terror From Beyond Space.White Pongo is certainly worth viewing. Great fun.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

skallisjr One of many Poverty Row jungle films, this has to be one of the truly "so bad it's good" films of its era. A Chief Native Bearer named "Mumbo Jumbo" -- addressed by the other actors with a straight face! Pongo is a white gorilla, and one of the natives points to the ground and cries, "B'wana! B'wana! Pongo tracks!" Normal gorillas leave recognizably different tracks? Pressing through the jungle on their trek, they pass the same tree multiple times.I have a copy of the film on videotape. One of my favorite scenes was edited out of the print it was made from. The hero and heroine are drifting down the river on a boat. They're sitting in the moonlight, and Pongo is following the boat in the jungle, making quite a racket as he snaps small trees, hurls aside boulders, and rustles through the underbrush, to keep up with the boat. He's framed by the profiles of the hero and heroine, in the background. The hero looks deeply into the heroine's eyes and says, dreamily, "Quiet out here in the river, isn't it?" I hope the DVD has that one left in.This is not a great film, and all of its humorous scenes are intended to be serious. But because of that, it's a fun film.