11. Second-Banana Kongs
You can understand why Mighty Joe Young (1947) got a pass. He may have been just a simian nightclub act who got into a little mischief, but he was animated by Willis O'Brien and his young protege Ray Harryhausen, and remade in 1998 by Disney. Some of the other KONG knockoffs were outrageous: Konga (1961) was a chimp boosted to giant size (actually a man in a gorilla suit) by a mad doctor, but it's a wonder the title didn't get the British film sued; even he was a class act compared to The Mighty Gorga (1970) and his cheesy circus suit. South Korea's A*P*E (1976) was considered too close to the Kong concept and had an injunction placed on it by the producer of the 1976 Hollywood remake, as did cheesy British comedy-parody Queen Kong (1976). But Hong Kong's Goliathon (or The Mighty Peking Man, 1977) managed to pick up a small cult following - one of whom, Quentin Tarantino, rereleased it via Rolling Thunder in 1999.