22. Great Apes Were Sleazy Old Beasts In The 1930s
As Creation went onto the back burner, there was a short-lived, downmarket sensation at the box office. Ingagi (1930) was supposedly a Merian C. Cooper-style travelogue from 'the dark continent', but was actually a precursor of the 1960s 'mondo movie' craze (shock-documentaries that were sometimes faked). Before getting closed down by the Hays Office, which in 1934 would impose a national 'decency' code at US cinemas, the last 10 minutes of the movie were passed off as an authentic sacrifice by African women of one of their number to a gorilla god. The big pull was the tribeswomen's nudity and the suggestion of an ape's lust for a human female; the production company called themselves Congo Pictures Ltd.
Paul Woods
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Writer/editor/ghost-writer transfixed by crime, cinema and the serrated edges of popular culture. Those similarly afflicted are invited to make contact.
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