The Wild Women of Wongo ** (1958, Jean Hawkshaw, Mary Ann Webb, Candé Gerrard) – Classic Movie Review 2490

‘Savage! Primitive! Untamed!’ Director James L Wolcott’s infamous low-budget 1958 American adventure film The Wild Women of Wongo is a rare so-bad-it’s-good treat. With its stereotypical portrayals of fictional tropical islanders, it is absolutely appallingly bad but equally hysterically funny – and continuously so throughout.

On the unfortunately fictional island of Wongo, Mother Nature creates a tribe where the men are brutish and ugly and the women are beautiful. She then creates a tribe on a nearby island called Goona where the women are repulsive and the men are strong and handsome.

On Wongo, the beautiful women discover the tribe of handsome men and find that the tribe of evil ape men is planning a raid on their tribe to capture mates.

Jean Hawkshaw as Omoo, Mary Ann Webb as Mona and Candé Gerrard as Ahtee star. The actress who plays Wana is Adrienne Bourbeau, not Adrienne Barbeau as rumoured.

Former Wales rugby union international Rex Richards appears as the King of Wongo, who says: ‘In Wongo, you do not touch a maiden who is not yours.’ He played rugby for Wales against France in 1956.

It is alleged that playwright Tennessee Williams, a friend of the director, directed most of the film, but this is very hard to believe.

After its happy revival on TV with Michael Medved’s worst ever movies show, the movie was released on video then on DVD in 2004.

The Wild Women of Wongo was shot at the Coral Castle built by Edward Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida. Some of the stock music in the film was also used in the equally infamous low-budget Plan 9 from Outer Space.

It is written by Cedric Rutherford.

It’s a particular hoot in the scene as a cloth-stuffed dummy is used when one of the ape men is eaten by the ‘alligator’.

James L Wolcott (1907–1995) is a bit of a mystery man. His other credit is The Best of Laurel and Hardy, a collection of colorized shorts.

Arthur Anderson, who voices the parrot, was also an author. His autobiography An Actor’s Odyssey: Orson Welles to Lucky the Leprechaun describes the journey of a boy who fell in love with the theatre. He died on 9 April 2016 in Manhattan, aged 93.

Marie Goodhart, Michelle Lamarck, Joyce Nizzari, Val Phillips and Jo Elaine Wagner play the Women of Wongo.

Pat Crowley, Ray Rotello, Billy Day, Burt Parker, Robert Serrecchia and Whitey Hart play the Men of Wongo.

Barbara Lee Babbitt, Bernadette, Elaine Krasher, Lillian Melek, Iris Rautenberg and Roberta Wagner play the Women of Goona.

Roy Murray, Steve Klisanin, Walter Knoch, Ronald Mankowski, Gerry Roslund, Varden Spencer and Kenneth Vitulli play the Men of of Goona.

Also in the cast are Johnny Walsh as Engor, Ed Fury as Gahbo, Burt Williams as King of Goona, Zuni Dyer as Priestess and Olga Suarez as Spirit of the Priestess.

And, finally, great news! The Wild Women of Wongo is available for free download at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/TheWildWomenOfWongoVideoQualityUpgrade

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2490

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