Son of Ingagi

SON OF INGAGI (1940) is a rare horror film. One of the films by Zack Williams, a black film artist who made films with an all black cast, for the black audiences. (This was in the days before Denzel washington, Sidney Portier, James Earl Jones, the days you never saw a black man in the heroic lead in a film.) The real treat of the movie is the nasty old witch that lives in a little house. All she has to do is bang a low-toned gong and the big giant, who sleeps on hay, wakes up and beats the old woman's enemies to a frazzle. A rare piece of film history, and a lot of fun.

Son of Ingagi (1940)

** (out of 4)

A female doctor lives in a large castle where she brought a few things back from Africa. One is a large sum of gold and the other is a half-man, half-ape creature. One day the doctor is killed by the creature and her home is left to a newlywed couple. It doesn't take long for the couple to run into the creature.

SON OF INGAGI is best remembered today for featuring an all black cast, which certainly wasn't the norm for 1940 and especially in the horror genre. I've seen a lot of the race pictures from this era and all of them suffer from having very small budgets and often time not having that much talent in front or behind the camera. This film here is actually pretty entertaining for what it is even with the limitations.

What I enjoyed most about this picture was the monster itself. If you're familiar with the horror films from this period then you know gorillas and killer apes were quite popular and they'd continue to be throughout the decade. If you've seen Bela Lugosi's THE APE MAN then you'll see a few similarities to this picture but I'd argue that the ape creature here is even better since the actor's entire face is covered here (unlike Lugosi who the studio obviously still wanted you to see).

Of course, there are several flaws in the movie, which is to be expected including some pretty fair to bad performances. I would argue that none of the performances are all that good but they had to work with what was available at the time. It should also go without saying that there wasn't too much suspense in the film and as a horror movie it's really not all that horrifying. Still, SON OF INGAGI makes for a decent way to kill a hour.

In reviewing movies involving people of color in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1940 when Spencer Williams-future star of TV's version of "Amos 'n' Andy"-wrote and took a part in this horror/comedy feature. I'll just say right now that this isn't very good. In fact, the pace is just lethargic enough that I rarely laughed and was not scared at all. The fact is that the only time a score plays is when they show newspaper montages to advance the story. So that's a demerit right there. The leads of Alfred Grant and Daisy Bufford are as bland as you'd expect. Laura Bowman has some nice moments playing a mysterious character but she's not on screen enough. And vocal group The Four Toppers have some entertaining musical interludes when singing "So Long, Pal" and "You Drove the Groom Away". And even Williams has some amusing moments involving two disappearing sandwiches. But it's all for naught as the whole thing just falls apart past the 30-minute mark especially when a noticeable splice occurs there. So I'd only recommend Son of Ingagi if you're curious enough. P.S. Among the people involved from my now-home state of Louisiana: director Richard C. Kahn from New Orleans, Ms. Bufford from Franklin, Spencer Williams from Vidalia, and Zack Williams (the monster of the movie). Among supporting players from other black-cast movies I've seen: Ms. Bowman was also in God's Step Children, Arthur Ray was also in The Duke is Tops, Earle Morris was also in director Kahn's The Bronze Buckaroo, and Maggie Hathaway was in Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather.

Before the mid-1950s, movies geared towards African-American audiences, which for the most part were shown in segregated theaters, avoided horror-themed flicks. That was until Sack Amusement Enterprises produced the first, and some film historians say the only black horror film of that era in February 1940's "Son of Ingagi." The low-budget film, written and starring Spencer Williams, who went on to play Andy on television's 'The Amos 'n Andy Show,' has no relation to the classic 1931 exploitation film "Ingagi." The 1940 movie does contain a 'missing link' monster transported from Africa who is kept in the basement of a doctor's home.

Although "Son of Ingagi's" production values were a far cry from the slick films the major Hollywood studios created during the Golden era, the picture does reflect the comfort level of African-Americans' integration within the fabric of American society, unlike most roles blacks found themselves in the A-listed movies. Film critic Mark Welsh notes, "it's really nice to see black people on the screen at this time in history as normal, ordinary men and women, rather than as mugging, idiotic stereotypes used for comic effect." In "Son of Ingagi", newlyweds Eleanor (Daisy Bufford ) and Robert Lindsay (Alfred Grant) are approached by Dr. Jackson (Laura Bowman), who says she knew Eleanor's father intimately and plans to leave her personal inheritance with the couple when she dies. Dr. Jackson has transported a 'missing link' animal similar to a gorilla caged in her house to study. Unfortunately, the monster gets loose, murdering the doctor. The Lindsays inherit her house as promised and move in, not realizing the monster is still lurking around the premises.

"Son of Ingagi" was one of many "race films," a genre popular between 1915 and the early 1950s. These movies, produced outside the Hollywood system, consisted primarily of African-American actors and shown mostly in theaters for black audiences. More than 500 movies were produced during that span, yet only 100 have survived. Alfred Sack, producer for "Son of Ingagi," was a white owner of a small studio that was part of 150 minor film production studios focused on all-black cast pictures for African-American audiences. In the segregated South these films were shown in exclusive black filmgoers' theaters. In the more integrated North, the 'race films' rarely attracted white audiences, and were shown either at matinee times during the day or late at night in regular movie theaters.

Film historian Todd Stadtman points out, "As the products of a segregated America, the Race Films ironically present us with a vision of America that can't be seen anywhere in the commercial cinema of the time. This is an America where blacks are doctors. Lawyers, police detectives, scientists. There is not a white face in sight, and so the black actors are free from having to react to the oh-so-important doings of Caucasians and can instead relate to each other as equals."

Wow! When they set out to make a bad movie in the golden days, they sure knew how to do it! This film is bad, no qualms, questions about it. The story essentially tells a story about a young couple just getting married who are visited by a wealthy doctor known to everyone else for her miserly ways, yet in secret a very giving woman. We learn that this woman is attached somehow to the wife, and then we discover that she has been in Africa and loved her father. The film is intriguing with its all black cast(save the doctor and her brother), but ultimately fails as the moment the monster(an ape-like man living in the doctor's office) is revealed destroys any credibility the movie might have had. This monster looks so silly with its black wire hairs(mop-like)hanging over its face which has sunken eyes. It moves around in a pitiful way, and in no way is scary. The film also does not know exactly what it is trying to be. Is it a horror film or a comedy? The ape kills on two occasions with no comedy implied, and then later we see it eat two sandwiches from a scared policeman desperately trying to imitate Mantan Moreland. I also forgot to mention the lovely music sung as the wedded couple spend their honeymoon in their house and are visited by all their "singing" friends and family. The film sports few great moments. It has poor, inferior direction, sets, script, and acting. The best part for me was the woman who played the doctor. She was quite atmospheric in her black dress and her portly figure. That, however, is not enough to recommend this exercise in will...making you sit through it.