WHITE PONGO (1945)

Or as everyone in the film calls it, "White Ponga." The title refers to a legendary albino gorilla, who may or may not be—you guessed it—the missing link between humans and apes. Following a sighting by a white man, a scientific expedition of upper-class Brits combs the jungle for the creature (passing the same tree several times). The character named Baxter sounds like an American trying badly to impersonate an Englishman (which he was). The others talk in accents thick enough to merit sub-titles.WHITE PONGO features boat-rowing, walking through the jungle and stock footage galore, designed to pad out the film as the plot was too anemic to support a feature. There's also a romantic sub-plot, but who cares?As with any low-budget jungle film of this era, the gorilla suits are just plain awful. They remind me of the Don Martin/Mad Magazine story, "National Gorilla Suit Day." The jungle scenery looks like a movie set designed by white people whose closest encounter with Africa was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." And of course, the pacing is glacial.
Other items of note:

- The African character named Mumbo Jumbo.
- The scene in which a native points to footprints in the dirt and exclaims, "Bwana, bwana! Pongo tracks!" Do white gorillas have noticeably different tracks than black ones?