Ingagi
| Ingagi | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster to Ingagi | |
| Directed by | William Campbell |
| Produced by |
William D. Alexander Nat Spitzer (executive) |
| Written by | Adam Shirk |
| Starring | Charlie Gemora as Ingagi |
| Music by | Edward Gage |
| Cinematography | L. Gillingham |
| Distributed by | Congo Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 75 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Ingagi is a 1930 Pre-Code exploitation film. It purports to be a documentary of Sir Hubert Winstead of London on an expedition to Africa, and it concerns a tribe of gorilla-worshiping women encountered by the explorer. It was produced and distributed by Nat Spitzer's Congo Pictures, formed expressly to make this film.[1] While marketed under the pretense of an ethnographic film, the premise was fabricated, leading the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association to retract any involvement with the film.[2] The film claimed to show a ritual where African women were given over to gorillas as sex slaves, but instead was mostly filmed in Los Angeles using white actresses in black-face in place of natives.[3]
The film trades heavily on the suggestion of sex between a woman and a gorilla and its nudity. Its success motivated RKO Radio Pictures to invest in the film King Kong (1933). RKO owned several of the theatres Ingagi was shown in, including one of the first, the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, where it opened April 5, 1930.[1][4]
The later Son of Ingagi (1940) is not a sequel but is the first all-black cast horror movie and features a house haunted by a female mad scientist and her missing link monster.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Illegitimate dad of 'Kong'
- ↑ Doherty. pgs. 238–40
- ↑ Doherty. pgs. 236, 241
- ↑ Gerald Perry, "Missing Links: The Jungle Origins of King Kong"
Sources
- Doherty, Thomas Patrick. Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934. New York: Columbia University Press 1999. ISBN 0-231-11094-4
White Heroines and Hearts of Darkness: Race, Gender and Disguise in 1930s Jungle Films Rhona J. Berenstein Film History Vol. 6, No. 3, Exploitation Film (Autumn, 1994), pp. 314–339 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814926
External links
- Ingagi at the Internet Movie Database
- Ingagi at AllMovie
- Connection of the film to King Kong
- Erish, Andrew (2006-01-09). "Illegitimate dad of 'Kong'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2006-01-09. Retrieved 2008-04-03.