User reviews

Kong Island, or Eva the Wild Woman is a little difficult to rate. From the point of view of campy b-movie fun, it's goofy and good, but basically, the film isn't really good. It does make more of an effort than a lot of similar films, and is, at times, actually interesting.

Burt (Brad Harris) is double-crossed by Albert (Marc Lawrence, who gives a career-low performance) after a payroll heist in Africa (not an island). After an undisclosed time, Burt returns to Africa to reap revenge. But, as it turns out, Albert is waiting for him, with a small army of remote controlled gorillas. Add a few subplots and season with a generally attractive cast then half-bake for a few hours.

Let's start with the worst aspects:

With the exception of Esmeralda Barros and Mark Farran, the acting is abominable. Of course, the script didn't give any of the actors much to work with, and Ms. Barros (Eva AKA the Sacred Monkey) has a non-speaking role). Brad Harris is ripped, that's about all. I am sure he could have carried the production equipment, but he didn't carry the film. Marc Lawrence has done some interesting work, but his performance here is remarkably bad.

The gorilla costumes are hilarious, and the actors in them are not particularly good at aping apes. The stock footage of African animals is not very well integrated into the action (especially the animals that are obviously living in captivity).

And now, the OK:

The story line is a bit better thought out than most b-grade mad scientist movies, and some of the characters actually seem to have personalities (though not necessarily consistent ones).

The directing is OK. There are some pacing problems - with a few lengthy and unnecessary scenes of people walking through the jungle and safari trucks driving about. The camera work and editing are both pretty good, but there are a couple of rather glaring errors.

And the good:

I liked Esmeralda Barros' character, and felt that she should have been introduced into the film earlier than she was.

Generally, the film keeps moving, and, with the exception of the ridiculous Brad Harris swimming scene (which happens just after one of his companions is murdered - always take a dip immediately after watching somebody get eviscerated, that's what I say), stays focused on the main story.

Ursula Davis has very nice eyes.

Campy B movie buffs WILL LIKE THIS. Can't recommend it for anybody else.

The Italian title for this film was EVE, THE WILD WOMAN which makes a lot better sense than the one attached to it for foreign distribution, KING OF KONG ISLAND. There is no king, no kong, and no island! This is the sort of plot that Republic might have made a 12 chapter serial about. A mad scientist is performing brain operations on gorillas deep in the jungle (NOT on an island) to create an army of simian slaves. Why is he doing this? Because he is a MAD scientist and that is what mad scientists do! Enter the hero (Brad Harris from several muscleman movies) and the heroine (Esmeralda Barros as the Eve, the title character) to defeat the madman and restore the natural balance to the jungle.

Eve the jungle girl is topless for the whole picture but her long flowing hair is strategically arranged except at certain dramatic moments. Those gorillas with the stitches in their heads don't look like gorillas at all to me, they look like stuntmen in costumes! It takes forever for the plot to get going; in fact it starts like an action adventure with Harris' character as a mercenary looking for revenge against the guy who double crossed him. The science fiction element and the jungle girl subplot are introduced to wake the audience up later on.

Perhaps if they had thrown in a dinosaur or two and a nice big explosion at the end. Oh well. I am off to watch the old 1944 serial THE MONSTER AND THE APE . . at least that one delivered what the title promised!

One of the things I've discovered as I make my way through a bunch of B (or C), movies, is that they seem to plod along forever. We enter this film with a group of crooks turning on each other over some stolen money. As things unwind, we are introduced to a mercenary who was wounded by a man he trusted during the opening scene. He obsesses over revenge. We have a couple of women. One a kind of Rita Hayworth type without the good looks (no offense), and a sixties kind of go go dancing looking type, who can handle a rifle. Her father, who is the Ernest Hemingway type, and her brother live with these people. Anyway, there is a subplot of a mad scientist (why are they always mad?) who has done things to affect the brains of gorillas. They can then be controlled by the scientist (the odd thing is that it also transforms them into upright creatures that look like skinny men in cheap monkey suits). Through a series of convoluted plot developments and some deaths, some tribal unrest, a few organized gorilla attacks, the young go go dancer girl ends up in the clutches of the mad scientist. Somehow she ends up with less clothes on than she used to. The scientist ogles her and has future plans which we can only imagine. There's also a native woman who is a kind of queen of the gorillas. They love and respect her, and she always was able to talk to them and get them to do what she wants. Unfortunately, the brain thing messes this up. Need I go on, There is some ridiculous finale with people exchanging the upper hand. The only thing missing is the word "Aha!" My poorly written explanation actually makes the movie sound better than it is. Sorry!

We now go to East Africa, where life is cheap but clearly ape suits are expensive. And by Africa we mean a studio back-lot somewhere in Italy that doubles for the "island" in King Of Kong Island.

I must have denghi fever and it's my insane imaginings that jungle B-films were the property of the 1930s and 40s: what could be described as "Apesploitation", or the "Monkeys Going Bananas" genre. And yet in the 1960s, with Planet Of The Apes one of the most popular films of the year ("You dirty rotten stinking apes!") we have Night Of The Bloody Apes (1968) from Mexico, soon followed by the Italian sexploitation film Queen Kong (1976), and Hong Kong's Goliathon/Mighty Peking Man (1977). It may be man's endless fascination with our lesser-evolved simian twins, or we just can't help but get a cheap laugh out of a guy in a monkey suit.

King Of Kong Island opens with a dastardly scientist Dr Muller using stolen goods to fund his surgical experiments on gorillas. Now, seriously, "gorilla"? Even I own a better monkey suit than this. Cut to a hunting expedition led by Burt (Brad Harris, the American actor who played everyone from Samson to Goliath and Hercules) who is ambushed by not one but TWO "gorillas", complete with surgical scars, who kidnap Diana, the most attractive of the group. Despite his previous mission's complete and abject failure, Burt is charged with bringing Diana back, past miles of stock footage - although to be truthful the producers did find a parrot and a cockatoo and a few pink flamingos for a shirtless Burt, who at times resembles a shaved ape himself, to chase around a studio lagoon.

In an amalgam of every thirty-year old jungle cliché, Burt comes across some spooked natives in awe of the Sacred Monkey God, a helpful chimp and a jungle girl called Eva, who can't utter a word of English but speaks fluent monk-ese, which leads Burt to look her square in the eye and ask, "Are you the Sacred Monkey?" Unbelievable. The hunt ends at Dr Muller's underground dungeon-cum-laboratory in the middle of the jungle where the insane megalomaniac - and the King of the title - has turned the apes into radio-controlled zombies, manipulated by an enormous Electronic Brain.

The film was picked up by American producer Dick Randall, an old-fashioned expert in hullabaloo who was as colorful as the characters in his own Z-grade pickups. Born in the US but based mainly in Rome, Randall was the guy who filmed Jayne Mansfield's grieving family a week after her death and immediately edited the footage into his 1968 mondo film The Wild World Of Jayne Mansfield. He also sold the Filipino midget James Bond spoof For Your Height Only (1981) to the world and turned the two foot nine star Weng Weng into an unlikely international superstar. He could sell a chainsaw massacre to Texas with the 1982 Spanish slasher film Pieces, and could sell a turkey-baster to Foghorn Leghorn in the same breath as he sold this turkey.

Did I say "turkey"? I meant "gorilla", and as honorary Great White Hunters we should approach this film with the right spirit, whose concepts are as absurd as the very idea of white colonialism itself.

While there's something for everyone (almost) in this action sci-fi, it's unlikely to be your most memorable movie experience. Amiable he-man Brad Harris stars as a mercenary soldier who's double crossed by his medic companion (Lawrence) in a bungled heist, but survives to seek revenge upon the mad doctor now experimenting on gorillas with mind control programming.

Aside from the shirtless Harris, flexing his body-built physique as he cavorts in a jungle pool, Tarzan style, there's also the scantily clad trio Esmerelda Barros (as a fabled native girl accompanied by the ubiquitous cheeky chimp), Adriana Alben (as Harris' sultry, former flame) and Ursula Davis as the short-shorts wearing pawn in Lawrence's diabolical plan to lure Harris to his lair for the purposes of programming him for mind control.

There's a great dancing scene to showcase Harris' moves, a couple of violent ape attacks, some safari wildlife-spotting, and the promise of much more that never really eventuates. Like an early James Bond film meets "King Kong" or "Planet of the Apes", it has camp moments, but is mostly just clichéd and boring with an anti climax that's disappointing and uninspired.

Nice and complex for a cheap 1968 movie. We have overlapping plots. What you may notice right off is there are no island and no Kong. However, there is an Eva, the savage girl (Esmeralda Barros) who exposes her uh talent. We have to put up with an Italian knockoff of a disco and even listen to cheap sci-fi sounds while a mad scientist Albert (Marc Lawrence) monkeys with remote brain control, not to mention the bongo background.

We start with the East Africa Trading Company's parole being pilfered and the head pilferer bumps into the others. Oops, co-pilferer Burt (Brad Harris) survives and intends to track Albert down. The plot thickens when we meat a bar owner, his wayward mistress, his blond "lights on, nobody home" daughter Diana (Ursula Davis), his puppy dog son, and a few mysterious characters.

The daughter wants to shoot the sacred monkey.

Mad scientist covets the monkey brain.

And Burt monkeys around.

Now quit looking for Kong! I told you there is no Kong!

Everyone double-crosses everyone else.

So, does the scientist get away?

Will we ever see the sacred monkey?

Who gets the blond?

Who gets the chimp?

Who gets to watch a ridicules movie?

I first saw this on TV in the 1970s as I was a big fan of Brad Harris. OK story about a mad scientist controlling gorillas to do his bidding but no real umpf to the story. Then I saw the Spanish version with all the nude scenes that were cut out of the TV version. Esmeralda Barros running naked through the jungle was stunning. (She unfortunately died after a long illness at only 75). Also, when Ursula takes her bath in the movie, we see a bit of her naked back, but I have magazine photos of her standing naked facing forward. So that was cut out and never seen in any version. Brad Harris plays a tough guy out for revenge against his crew who betrayed him. Good adventure fun. There are versions on Y/T and at least 5 others on DVD.

Seriously, I have a soft spot for KONG ISLAND, and the only people who might be so violently opposed to it would have to be stupid enough to take it seriously. This was a cheap, trippy, low budget Italian exploitation film made before Italian exploitation films were all the rage. Sure, it dared to evoke the mighty name of Kong, and it is all mighty silly once you get down to brass tacks, but so what? This is a Jungal Trash movie about white Anglos going to darkest Africa to have all sorts of fascinating adventures while the natives carry the luggage. Anyone expecting anything else is seriously wasting their time.

Muscleman turned 60s matinée idol Brad Harris manages to keep a straight face as he plays a former mercenary double crossed by creepy Mark Lawrence (yes, Mark Lawrence) who intends to take all the loot from a diamond mine payroll heist to -- and I am not making this up -- create a master race of superhuman gorillas radio controlled by brain implants to do his evil bidding. Which involves kidnapping various scantily clad supporting actresses for purposes that the English language version never bothers to explain.

And right here we have to stop and do a little Italian genre film 101 for the newcomers: If you've seen the cut, bleached out, nappy looking fullscreen English version circulating on various bargain bin DVD sets, you haven't even seen half of this film. That's a TV print that's been shorn of any content that 1970s era television wouldn't tolerate, such as nudity. Italians usually made two versions of their films, a somewhat tamer version for export that would be translated to English, and then an Italian language print with no holds barred.

The highlight of the film in it's uncensored form are extended sequences of Euro horror boob babe Esmeralda Barros (THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT) prancing around the jungle wearing nigh but a leather kerchief around her waist, which manages to get lost in time for the big finale where she goes stark naked. A nudity-friendly export print with Greek subtitles is available on the Retromedia DVD which runs a full seven minutes longer than the standard English travesty, and then there's an insanely rare Italian language print that even clocks the Greek version by a couple minutes with some extra safari scenes thrown in to establish plot.

It's a quirky, goofy, lunkheaded film for sure. But to the initiated it's a pleasure to see, with a dreamy psychedelic music score by Roberto Pregadio, a veteran Italian genre film supporting cast led by curvy Adriana Alben, pretty Ursula Davis, sneering Paolo Magalotti, and Mark Farran. The film was written by Euro horror favorites Walter Brandi (BLOODY PIT OF HORROR), his frequent collaborator Ralph Zucker (BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT) and directed by spaghetti western regular Roberto Mauri. His frequent star Brad Harris executive produced, and all of it is "presented by" schlock cinema maestro Dick Randall.

If you take it seriously you're missing the point, and if you get all bent out of shape watching movies about radio controlled gorillas kidnapping Italian B movie actresses in their underwear you have nobody but yourself to blame for wasting your time on it. But please, make sure you at least track down one of the prints with the nudity. For now that means the Retromedia DVD which isn't hard to find.

7/10, for being so lovably goofy.

King Of Kong Island is a confusing piece of B-grade garbage that is saved from being completely unwatchable by the hilarious gorilla effects and a couple of unintentionally hilarious plot twists. The strangest thing about this movie is its absolute incoherence; subplots arise from nowhere and characters behave with all the logic of intoxicated Lemmings. King Of Kong Island is definitely an acquired taste.

Roberto Mauri's film could possess one of the most ridiculous plots in movie history. This crap makes "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" seem entirely plausible by comparison. Basically, our hero Burt is shot and returns to Africa to find the man responsible. In addition to finding the time for some dubious psychedelic dancing, Burt also manages to fall in love with Diana. Unfortunately, Diana is kidnapped by a group deranged mountain gorillas and Burt is called on to rescue her. If the concept of brainwashed gorillas is not far fetched enough, Mauri throws in a completely random subplot about a wild woman called Eva, who lives in the jungle and converses with animals. Eva is a brazen attempt to throw in some eye candy and inject some much needed sleaze into the fairly tame proceedings. Eva leads Burt to Diana, who is being held captive in a secret lair by a mad scientist.

King Of Kong Island is really not a film that is overly concerned with the smaller details. The gorilla effects literally consist of people wearing poorly made gorilla suits. Diana's kidnapping is hilarious due to the painfully obvious gorilla masks and gloves. Mauri's inattention to detail is further noticeable in the fact that for a "wild" woman, Eva has rather lovely hair and make-up. I pretty much expect (and hope for) poor special effects and ridiculous plot developments in a Roberto Mauri crap epic. However, King Of Kong Island is sloppy to an extent that makes it basically impossible to follow. The film has also dated in the worst possible way. The treatment of the local population as "slaves" is distasteful and Burt's pseudo-comedic groping of Eva is jarring. Thankfully, there are enough stupid gorillas and crazy pieces of 1960s "technology" in the scientist's lair to overlook the general incompetence.

The film does have some impressive qualities. The jungle disco score is excellent, the film provides B-grade icon Brad Harris with a rare starring vehicle and Esmeralda Barros makes an alluring wild woman. King Of Kong Island is a complete mess, but it is a mess worth wading through for fans of this genre. If nothing else, see it for the spectacularly unconvincing gorillas.

This is bad.

Horror? No.

Funny? No.

Drama? No.

Garbage? Well, I'll take it out, dear.

So bad its good? No. Its worse.

Ever had guests that never leave? You invited to a party, 26 hours ago, and some snort-heads are still on their way up, you wanna sleep, but you know that you'll wake up with a bottle of Absolute or something stuck up your ass if you fall asleep.... and you just cant take anymore.

WELL! This stinker is your solution: -Hey guys, I've got a really fat movie here, just let me turn down that music, and... find my VCR.

They don't just leave, they'll run. And they'll never come back.

Its impossible to watch this... thing. Its so bad its fascinating, I think the best liner is: We'll make camp here. But don't make any fire. And thats not a killer line...

Don't watch it, but if you can, buy it. It can be useful, as a part of an anti-thief system, even the police will give up and run...

1 is the bottom line, OK. If I could give it a -10.... No. Just leave it there. Its a ... cant find the words. I guess Satan took them with him when he fell down there. And some nut-heads still thinks plan 9 is the worst movie ever? This is worse than Jacksons King Kong! And Woooah, thats ugly...

From legendary exploitation producer Dick Randall, jungle adventure King of Kong Island starts off in suitably trashy fashion, but quickly loses momentum when it becomes evident that there isn't nearly enough plot to support a full length feature.

The film begins as a group of armed robbers ambush a payroll. Instead of splitting the $300K haul, Albert Muller (Marc Lawrence) betrays his comrades, shooting them all and making off with the loot. However, one of the men, Burt (played by peplum muscleman Brad Harris), is still alive, and, after recuperating, goes looking for revenge. Meanwhile, Albert is conducting experiments on gorillas, inserting AA batteries into their skulls in order to make them obedient slaves.

When I tell you that the highlight of the whole movie is an early scene in a nightclub, where Brad Harris shows off his hilarious dance moves (he nods his head a lot and occasionally claps his hands), that might give some idea of just how tedious everything else is. There's loads of aimless wandering around the jungle (with the usual stock footage of animals to pad out proceedings), Brad gets shirtless to appease fans of his ripped bod, a nearly naked jungle woman preserves her modesty with her strategically placed hair, and we get a few men in really manky gorilla costumes; all of this is executed with zero flair, looks incredibly cheap, and moves at a sluggish pace.

I have a pretty high tolerance for low budget schlock, but found this one quite a chore to watch.

"A diabolical team of scientists land on 'Kong Island' determined to implant devices into the brains of the gorilla population that will transform them into an unstoppable army. Their plan for world domination runs off the tracks when a descendant of 'King Kong' arrives and the mayhem begins," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. The promised "descendant" of King Kong never arrived, at least not in my copy of this film.

Alternately dubbed "Kong Island" or "King of Kong Island" for English language listeners, this cheap Italian production includes gunfire, two gorillas, plus three sexy women: topless "savage girl" Esmerelda Barros (as Eva), bikini clad Adriana Alben (as Ursula), and leggy Ursula Davis (as Diana). Star Brad Harris (as Burt) shows off his chest, too. Tune in to see how all this, with kidnapping and simian surgery, is made dull.

** Eva, la Venere selvaggia (9/29/68) Roberto Mauri ~ Brad Harris, Marc Lawrence, Esmerelda Barros, Ursula Davis

Experiences of a Jungle Venus with Esmeralda Barros and Brad Harris

Here the well-known Roberto Mauri has shaken a real trash pearl out of the shell, which is also known under the title KING KONG AND THE BROWN GODDESS.

During an expedition with her brother Robert (Marc Fiorini) and the hunky Burt Dawson (Brad Harris), the beautiful Diana (Ursula Davis) is kidnapped by gorillas. It turns out that a mad scientist (Marc Lawrence) has been implanting the monkeys with human brains to create some kind of gorilla super army. While searching for Diana, Burt meets the mysterious jungle Amazon Eva (Esmeralda Barros), who from then on helps in the arduous search...

Wanted a lot and achieved nothing! Trash as trash can! Only ironic distance can help here, but then it's really fun. Clumsy monkey costumes, confusing plot threads and bad acting! With the extra-wide chest of Brad Harris (1933-2017) and the breasts of Esmeralda Barros (1944-2019) surrounded by flowing hair, there are at least considerable show values on offer. Warning, irony! The Brazilian actress became the star of several PORNOCHANCHADA films in her homeland in the 1970s. Don't panic, these are rather harmless sex comedies in the style of Italian COMMEDIA SEXY. Films of this kind were released in cinemas all over the world.

Suitable for fans of sophisticated trash culture, but not for everyone else!

I have seen the movie. Don't ask me why, how or when. "Plan 9 from outer space", watch out, cus' here comes the worst movie of all time. Hilariously bad music, bad acting and basically a very bad idea. For making me and my friends laugh, I'll give it a 10! (Watch out for that catchy title tune!)

Incredibly boring jungle film at least comes up with a good excuse for having its drooling gorillas played by men in suits (despite the English title, these beasts are of the normal-sized variety), but when the gorillas are off the screen, which is like 90% of the time, all that's left is padding with endless walking scenes and stock footage of wild animals. Amusingly, the traditional female shower scene is replaced here by musclebound Brad Harris taking a shirtless river bath! 0.5 out of 4 stars.