The Wild Women of Wongo (1959) User Reviews

Bongo-bongo with the Women of Wongo

[Vomitron_G · 1/10 · 26 January 2007]

I have this theory: This movie was made by... aliens. Aliens who have been observing and studying us since the dawn of mankind. And then, somewhere in the late 50's they made this movie to laugh at us and mock our mating rituals as well as our religious beliefs. This piece of drivel cannot have been made by us, humans. It's simply unthinkable. Several aspects of this movie have fed my suspicion. For one thing, the aliens clearly have their own techniques of developing pellicule. They call it "Pathecolor", as described in the movie's opening-credits. And until 1958 it was unseen by human eyes. You see, "Pathecolor" geniously messes up ALL color-patterns on the final print.

Then I"m also convinced that the aliens abducted some 50's femalien to do the voice-over for this movie (as she sounds totally spaced-out). I suspect they also used her voice to provide ALL the other actors and actresses with dubbed voices (adding some treble & bass tunes in post-production, as well as pitching her voice down a bit for male characters), as ALL cast members speak in this same monotonous type of voice.

Other forms of alien technology I seem to have spotted in this movie (And keep in mind that this movie takes place in the prehistoric age... Well, either that or in an alternate universe):

-- Automated menhirs which rotate sideways to provide hidden passages.

-- Synthetic, seemingly lifeless lizards used as an arm bracelet-like ornament.

-- An on-location set, probably build on some distant planet, featuring a prehistoric settlement on a beach, which strangely resembles a nowadays holiday resort somewhere on the Bahama's.

-- And talking parrots in the Stone-Age? That's gotta be alien technology too!

So what else do we have...? The Wongo tribe, featuring gorgeous-looking, scarcely clothed women and some dominating men. The Goona tribe, with damn ugly-looking women and gentle, respectful men. A Wongo High-Priestess/shape-shifting Goddess kinda babe. A great Godly Dragon that looks suspiciously enough like a blue (there you have it: "Pathecolor"!) crocodile made out of plastic. Suppposedly this movie also was to feature a tribe of vicious, warmongering Ape Men, but due to some strange, probably outer-space logic, we only get to see two of them, who even get ripped to shreds by some very green-looking ("Pathecolor" again) crocodile.

I also learned one or two things while watching this movie:

-- Women are foolish objects. You should treat them as such.

-- All women crave for sex. And sex back then was pretty much the same as now: First you kiss, then you do the bongo-bongo.

-- Pre-historic women wear make-up.

-- Pre-historic Ape-Men also wear make-up.

-- An angry fat woman screaming is the scariest sight to behold on the face of this earth.

The most amazing sequence of this movie is undoubtedly this one: All the women of Wongo reach ecstasy when the High-Priestess performs her pagan Dance of the Dragon-God. Then all the women join this hot and steamy dance-routine. While beholding this on-screen choreographic extravaganza, I was thinking that the director must have slipped a mixture of some LSD and amphetamines in the actresses's coffee... What else could bring them to giving such an amazing performance? And I'll be damned if it doesn't even get better after that. Afterwards all of them get completely naked and go skinny-dipping. Best way to cool off after some ecstatic dancing! But that's not all... Our blond cutie-pie leading lady even gets into some heavy underwater-wrestling with some real alive-looking, although clearly heavily drugged, alligator.

And then the ending... The final shots of the movie are simply UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE! All the couples start winking while looking STRAIGHT into the camera! And some of them aren't even very skilled at it, as they look like if some mentally challenged person (no offense, please) would try to pull it off! Unbelievable... And then there is one more final shot of that annoying talking parrot, and the movie ends... GRRRR... Will somebody please SHOOT THAT DAMNED PARROT! He lasts throughout the whole movie, gets way too much screen time, and at the end he STILL lives!

Aliens, man... I'm telling you: Aliens made this movie...

Oh well, whatever... This truly is an AMAZING piece of film. And the 50's were just WARPED! To some this will be insufferable crap, to others perhaps a hilarious masterpiece. But be cautious when going into this one... some male persons easily susceptible to brain-damage might end up repeating the line "Me man! Me want to bongo-bongo with Wongo women!" for the rest of their days (yes, including the whole drooling-part).

Tell Ya 'Bout Them Wongo Women

[bkoganbing · 1/10 · 1 November 2008]

I think that if Ed Wood were alive today or could make his complaints felt from beyond this mortal coil, he'd be haunting the Medved Brothers who dared not include The Wild Women Of Wongo in their list of the 50 Worst Films. Next to this Plan Nine From Outer Space plays like Citizen Kane.

This story is set on the mythical islands of Wongo and Guna and it seems as though the gene pool has played one dirty trick. The men of Wongo look like the inbreds from Deliverance and the women like playboy bunnies. On the other hand in Guna land, the men are these gorgeous beach boy surfer hunks and the women look like someone left the pound door open one night.

Both islands worship the crocodile god and the croc demands some sacrifices every so often. When one of the Wongo women actually subdues and kills the crocodile god, the theological implications are cataclysmic.

There are some hairy ape men like creatures who invade both the islands and it takes a while for them to come to a common plan of alliance.

That's about the sum and substance of this awful film which was shot in the Everglades on location. This film must have been a great after midnight third feature in the drive-ins when folks could look at the Guna men and Wongo women if they needed a little extra inspiration for the night's fun.

There's a parrot who serves as a kind of Greek chorus to all the silly goings on and when the parrot gives the best acting performance in the film, you KNOW how bad this is going to be.

Do crocodiles eat parrots, by any chance?

[unbrokenmetal · 3/10 · 15 February 2008]

This 1950s bad movie classic takes us to Wongo, a tropical place (shot in Florida) where the women of Wongo have trouble with their men. When a very, very handsome stranger tells them about a place called Goona only a few miles away, where very, very handsome men are looking for beautiful companions, they are quick to consider their options...

I think the scene when the daughter of the king pretends to be engaged in a "life-or-death struggle" with a small rubber crocodile must have been worth the admission fee alone, although the talking parrot made me cringe every time... must be on screen every 5 minutes at least. The "leopard skin" jungle outfits of the 1950s are naturally nowhere near what Tanya Roberts was allowed to almost wear in the 1980s, so I wonder how hot "Women of Wongo" really seemed in the 1950s? As far as the male models (the word "actor" would be out of place) are concerned, one of them actually rose to stardom afterwards: Ed Fury became Ursus in the Italian cinema series.

A uniquely strange film

[divinla · 2 June 2003]

I saw this on a UHF station during the 70's, and was amazed by it even then. It really is a must see for lovers of bad film. I finally found a video recently, and the movie's awfulness has held up very well. Bad movies often don't live up to the hilarious reviews found in the Golden Turkey books written by the The Medved brothers, but Wild Women of Wongo does on most levels. Really, what were these people thinking? The dance of the dragon god is worth the price of admission alone.

Opposites don't Attract

[sol-kay · 4/10 · 28 January 2005]

(Spoilers) Strangely made movie thats so badly acted that it comes across as a movie worthy to be classified with such bad movie epics as "Plan Nine from Outer Space" and "Manos: The Hands of Fate". In fact the film actually has a piece of music thats straight out of the soundtrack of the film "Plan Nine from Outer Space" that was released a year after, in 1959, in it.

Wango, as well as Goona, were islands created by Mother Nature back some 10,000 years ago where the men of Womgo were boorish brutes and the women were gorgeous babes and in the case of the people on the island of Noona the men were Greek Gods and the women were homely wallflowers.This made dating romance and marriage among the young couples of Wongo and Goona an act of duty rather then an act of love.

This all changes when one of the young men of Goona, the son of that islands king,traveled to Wongo by canoe to get the men of both islands to united against an invasion of ape-men from another island. The women of Wongo seeing the handsome Goonaien went ape over him which lead the jealous men of Wongo plan to kill him before he left the island. This was foiled by the Wongo women when they prevented their men from murdering the handsome Noona man which had them kicked out of the island by their man-folks.

Meanwhile, out of camera range, the ape-men attack Wongo and kill and scatter the men there leaving them to wounder through the forests and waterways to Goona. Back in Noona The men are given, through trial and fire, their chance to prove their manhood by their elders by being thrown out of their village and into the jungle without their spears to protect themselves. This leaves them open to be captured by the armed Amazon-like Women of Wongo and taken as slaves back to their island, which seems to have been abandoned by the invading ape-men.

At Goona the men of Wongo, who are lost in the woods, run into the women of Goona and the both boorish and homely men and women hit it on and fall head over heels in love with each other. The story ends with both the Men of Goona and Women of Wongo falling in love with each other as the Women of Goona and Men of Wongo did earlier. They all live happily ever after with Mother Nature as usual correcting herself from the mistake she made when she at first created the incompatible, to each other, men and women of Wongo and Goona. As for the invading ape-men? they must have gotten lost in the woods and were never seen or heard from again.

"Dance!"

[bensonmum2 · 2/10 · 15 September 2007]

When you're writing about a movie as brutally bad as The Wild Women of Wongo, going through an elaborate plot description seems somehow completely unnecessary. So, very briefly, the movie is about the tribe of Wongo where the women are beautiful, but the men aren't. They meet the Goona tribe where the men are beautiful, but he women aren't. It doesn't take a clairvoyant to see where this is headed. Throw in some of the worst acting imaginable, a sub-plot about ape men that goes nowhere, a laughably ridiculous dance sequence, and a parrot so annoying you'll want to strangle the nearest ornithologist and you've got The Wild Women of Wongo. If it all wasn't so laughably bad I would call it one of worst movies I've ever seen.

Fortunately for me, I saw the new DVD from The Film Crew. If you're not familiar with The Film Crew, it's sort of like Mystery Science Theater 3000 - eight years removed. Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett are back at it, riffing really bad movies. The Wild Women of Wongo is their third release as The Film Crew (Hollywood After Dark and Killers from Space being the first two) and easily the most funny. It's often as funny as some of the best stuff the guys did on MST3K. So, while I've only rated The Wild Women of Wongo a 2/10, I'll give The Film Crew commentary a 4/5 on my MST3K rating scale.

Utterly ridiculous: a must-see for "so bad it's good" fans

[MartianOctocretr5 · 3/10 · 11 March 2012]

Outrageous camp factor, and every bit as weird and mindless as you've heard.

"Oh, Priestess, we request permission to find mates!" The narrator explains: "Nature made a mistake." Two independent tribes that mistrust but leave each other alone finally interact, as an alliance to fight some other weird tribe is proposed, then rejected. A parrot is perched somewhere, and periodically shows up to mock the characters, as if we the audience aren't doing that already.

Basically, some prehistoric guys and gals from each tribe run around the forest and occasionally meet each other. There's one girl (from the "pretty woman" tribe) who beats the snot out of a baby crocodile, and the monster people show up briefly. Her tribe has women with 50's hair styles, shaved legs, lipstick, and other make-up. The other tribe has women with buck teeth and attitudes that scare their sheepish men.

Beware of the soundtrack. They actually use some of the same music as the infamous "Plan 9 from Outer Space," and this movie makes that one look good by comparison. The acting is oafery, the director must have been out in the sun too long, and the story line is uhh, was there one? There's only one way to watch this: MST3K style. Get your buddies together and mock the thing, when it isn't bashing itself that is.

See the version by The "Film Crew"

[robertmurray-70637 · 5/10 · 23 October 2018]

This is one of those "bad" movies that is actually fun to watch.

The "Film Crew," which is now "Rifftrax" (Mike Nelson and other MST 3K alums), used this as the basis for riffs and it is hilarious when you hear their sarcastic comments.

I suspect the script was written by an anthropology major who got heavily into drugs in college and never graduated.

As for being "worst film of all time," no way. In my opinion, that honor belongs to "The Beast of Yucca Flats."

"Ocko brings you the kill, it is good, his father will buy you tonight."

[classicsoncall · 3/10 · 11 March 2006]

Connoisseurs of bad movies will have a field day with this one, "Wild Women of Wongo" is a veritable treat for lovers of turkey films. I know that when I first heard of the title I couldn't rest till it was part of my library. Fortunately, a company known as Mill Creek Entertainment packages various genres into collections of fifty movies on DVD, so for about fifty cents per, you can take advantage of some of the worst films ever made. This one is part of the Sci-Fi Collection.

I'm always a bit leery when the opening credits signal the use of Pathecolor, for some reason a particular range of the color spectrum will dominate. In this case, blues and greens take over, but since the action takes place on a tropical island, it generally works OK. Even the scarlet macaw looks good, complementing his role as the would be MSTK3 stand in for the length of the story. As for the King of Wongo, only his hairdresser will know for sure, but his hair sure looked bright blue to me.

The movie's opening utilizes a voice over proclaiming to be that of Mother Nature, describing an "experiment" that didn't work some ten thousand years ago. Beastly men and gorgeous babes were teamed up on one side of an island, while their opposite numbers lived at the other end. The men of Goona had no strength, while the men of Wongo are hampered by poor eyesight. When the women of Wongo save a messenger named Engor from death, their punishment is exile from Wongo until their island god tastes blood. Hey, how great is that, a free pass to Goona if only the women can figure that out.

Fortunately the young studs of Goona must earn their manhood by spending "the space of one moon" in the wilderness without weapons, something like the Boy Scouts and the Order of the Arrow. That's when they fall prey to the Wongo women and their snare traps. Those boys really put up a fight didn't they? The trek from Goona to Wongo, which takes five days, is handled in just about a minute of movie time, so I guess the trip went well.

With all the scantily clad women of Wongo dominating the action, don't tell me you haven't been thinking cat fight. Yes, that obligatory scene is presented when things get a little out of hand with Wana, she's the free thinker who wants to break ranks with leader Ooma. For sheer wackiness though, you have to check out the dragon dance performed by the High Priestess and her court. It's the scene where the girls earn their name.

For those of you who have been to Florida's Coral Castle, you'll easily recognize the coral rock formations that make up the architecture of Wongo. Not to digress, but the massive swinging stone door that's seen a number of times actually weighs a few tons, and is so precisely engineered and balanced that it will open at the push of a fingertip - I've seen it done! It's a fascinating place to visit. Other Florida attractions are credited as well, including Parrot Jungle, and Silver Springs.

Look, if you've got about an hour to kill, there's worse things you can do than "Wild Women of Wongo", and obviously some a lot better as well. But if you do watch it, you'll probably come away thinking what the scarlet macaw did just before the closing credits - "Well, how 'bout that?"

Well, if this movie was a puppy ...

[KennethEagleSpirit · 3/10 · 24 December 2006]

Ever see a puppy that was so ugly it was cute? That describes this dog of a movie. Gilligan's Island meets Ed Wood gone terribly wrong. Plot? It never thickens. Rather it starts out as thin as rice paper and remains just that transparent. Dialog? The dialog coach was sent out for coffee. Acting? It is to laugh. Sets? Well, none really. Special effects? Uh, there was that rubber alligator. Makeup? Think: Blue hair meant to look grey. But hey, it IS in colour. Maybe they should of thought about that before they called for makeup. Reality? This movie is a cinema dog rocket. But if you can get into Ed Wood meets Gilligan ... It IS kinda cute and good for a chuckle or two. But not much else.

Wicked Wongo!

[str91 · 10/10 · 9 October 2006]

OKAY! Let me explain why I rated this movie a 10.

My family and I watched this movie, knowing WELL that it would be crap. So, for what we wanted, it was spectacular. We were able to make fun of the actors/actresses, and the plot (wait, what plot?) was as stupid as we'd hoped.

If I rated this seriously, I'd give it a -1. It's not even deserving of a ZERO--that's how bad it was.

The "Ape Tribe" they spoke of, was comprised of two men with Wolverine hair cuts, who died by the "Dragon God" (who was a crocodile, or alligator, whichever--either way, if Steve Erwin were alive, he ought to shout "CRIKEY!") and that was the end of them. Seriously. No other "ape men" were seen.

My ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE part of the entire movie, was when they were "banished" from Wongo-- I mean, the inhabited half of Wongo, and sent to some strange Priestess, or some jazz like that-- and they were forced to do a crazy "dance." Seriously, there were about four women who were about to break their necks for the dance, and the rest remained completely uninterested, and barely moved. It was like they were imitating an old fart on the dance floor--except, with less enthusiasm.

So, the movie was GREAT if you'd like to laugh, make fun of the people, and basically just make wise cracks about it, but if you were ACTUALLY looking for entertainment through the movie itself, boy, are YOU in for an unpleasant surprise.....

uh. . .its about the sex folks

[ccasey-1 · 7/10 · 4 July 2006]

This is a . . .great movie! Yes, that's right. If you're looking for better acting, check out the Spring Shakespeare production at your local high school.

However, if you want to see some sexy women as they were portrayed in the 1950s, start RIGHT HERE. Not only do you get to see voluptuous shapely figures and attractive faces, but hey, at one point a gang of spear-wielding women drive two would-be rapists to their deaths. Then they tie up men and make them march. 1950s Betty Friedan! Right on! There's even a girl fight in the sand; a precursor to our sexually provocative modern-day mud wrestling and wet T-shirt nights.

I'll take this over that Spielberg crap any day.

To enhance your experience, get a copy of the Tube's Wild Women of Wongo, a great song on their gold seller Outside Inside album. Play this music on your stereo in continuous loop mode simultaneously with the movie soundtrack.

By the way, you can watch the movie for free at http://video.google.com/videoplay? docid=1694106186353825572& q=type%3Asv_classicmovies (remove the spaces in this URL)

Another Coral Castle movie

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 27 January 2021]

One of only two movies that James L. Wolcott would direct - the other is a compilation film called The Best of Laurel and Hardy - this is one odd duck. It also features scenes that were, believe it or not, directed by his friend Tennessee Williams, who was on set and thought it'd be fun to try.

It's shot inside Coral Castle, an oolite limestone structure that was built by one man, Edward Leedskalnin, who either used ley lines or reverse magnetism to move and carve numerous stones - all by himself - with several weighing multiple tons. Other movies shot there include Nude on the Moon and La Furia de Los Karatecas.

Mother Nature herself explains to us an experiment that she created with Father Time. On the island of Wongo, they made two tribes, the ugly and violent men and the gorgeous women. On the island of Goona, they did the exact opposite.

Now, the four tribes have come into contact with one another, as the brutish apes of Wongo have attacked the attractive men of Goona. That tribe sends their king's son to seek help and he discovers the attractive women, who suddenly realize that they no longer have to settle for the grotesque men that their mothers and grandmothers once did.

Going against tradition has its downside, as the crocodile god of the people - played by stock footage - grows angry and demands their deaths. They rebel, defeat their opressors and make their way to Goona, just as the good looking men of the tribe are engaging in the ritual where they must survive weaponless in the jungle. The women easily defeat them and take them for husbands while the less good looking races find one another too.

The women of Wongo are played by Marie Goodhart, Michelle Lamarck, Val Phillips, Jo Elaine Wagner, Adrienne Bourbeau (not Adrienne Barbeau, who would have been 12 when this was filmed), Joyce Nizzari (Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 1958, who was photographed by Bunny Yeager and would serve as one of Hugh Hefner's personal assistants in the 1990's), Jean Hawkshaw, Mary Ane Webb and Candé Gerrard.

The women of Goona were played by Barbara Lee Babbitt, Bernadette, Elaine Krasher, Lillian Melek (Pagan Island), Iris Rautenberg and Roberta Wagner.

If you want to learn more about them - and this slice of strangeness - I recommend the Women of Wongo page.

I'm trying to think of what message that this is all trying to send and how it ties into our week of female-based societies when it really seems that this movie is all about outward appearance. It does have a talking parrot and lots of alligator wrestling, so it has that going for it.

Makes A Good Skin Show

[dougdoepke · 21 March 2021]

So how did my 18-year old hormones miss a title like Wild Women... back in '58. I guess I was watching a load of other drive-in crud back then. Too bad, since there's quite a bit of cleavage and leggy art work among the Wongo gals, as they herd the good looking guys from Goona into a connubial village where nature will take its course. The plot may be loony but it's got a worthwhile subtext. The gals really come to operate in a non-submissive way, sort of like sneaky Neanderthal feminists. But at the same time, they're arranging things so that pretty people can live alongside homely ones all in humane fashion. Okay, maybe I'm reading too much in- see what you think. Anyway, it's an anonymous cast (check IMDB bio's) that still manages despite their only screen appearance. And, oh wow, get a load of Zuni Dyer who's imperiously impressive as the priestess on her rock throne. Too bad it's her only screen credit.

All in all, the silly flick has its moments and never takes itself seriously, as the eye-winking cast and squawking parrot keep telling us. Meanwhile, I'm getting a ticket first thing to meet the leggy attractions of Wongo. So wish me luck, I'll need it.

Enjoyable fluff--a prehistoric entry for the Bad Movie Hall of Fame!

[talisencrw · 4/10 · 20 April 2016]

Yes, this was a bad movie (I watched it in a double bill with the similar-toned prehistoric tongue-in-cheek 'Prehistoric Women'--both from Mill Creek's 50-pack 'Nightmare Worlds'), but it was charming, short and sweet, and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't watch it again, probably, but it was decent fare to see once. I thought the way the credits were animated was cool (a low-budget Saul Bass), and I wouldn't have minded being trapped by the Wongo tribe, if I time-travelled back to that time, myself! At first, I thought they had misspelled Adrienne Barbeau's name, but no one looked like her in the film, and she would have been really young anyway.

It intrigued me that Tennessee Williams actually directed at least parts of the film. Though this film falls into the 'so-bad-it's good-territory, I'm glad it was made. Not everything has to be either a $300-million monster or Hamlet.

Jungle girls! In color! Meh. Don't bother.

[punchinello · 4/10 · 29 July 2006]

Jungle women exploitation, if you can call it that, with a sandy beach full of lovely girls in tailored animal skin dresses (over bikini bottoms, no less) struggling to avoid the dreadful fate of marrying the brutish men of their own tribe. The acting is awful, with primitive dialog and awkward pauses that don't help. They're pretty much all equally stiff, men and women alike, with 1950s hairstyles and a comical mix of accents. The director doesn't do them any favors, cutting in awkward reaction shots and inserts that don't match.

The women--tho pretty--don't get wild for the first half hour, and even then it's only 1958 wild, which is to say tame enough for afternoon TV. Once their own men disappear, the ladies do a little dancing, a little swimming, fight off a couple of ape men, have a quick catfight, and go off to rustle the beefcake of the Goona tribe. Despite the refreshing protofeminism motif, the Scooby Doo plotting is painful. But the film is shot in color--partly on beautiful beaches and partly at the strange Coral Castle--so it looks pretty good, depending on the print you happen to see.

As film-making, it's strictly hack work. As exploitation, it's less titillating than a stroll on the beach--even back in '58.

Just because they used color film doesn't mean it wasn't complete and utter crap!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 17 June 2009]

This film begins with a tribe of angry cave women running around with primitive weapons. However, there really only seems to be about a half dozen ladies--hardly a tribe as they put it. All the women have permed hair and look little like primordial beings, but no matter.

When they meet the men, they mostly beat the crap out of them--sex seems to be the furthest thing from their minds. Eventually, nature takes its course and you can guess the rest of the story! The men, oddly, live in a tribe of only men--which begs you to ask "how did these people get born if the tribes never interacted before this film?"--a very good question indeed.

As far as the story goes, the characters all speak in cave man talk but there is a cheerful narrator. Unfortunately, like all cave men epics, its hard to maintain any sort of pace when the people mostly fight, grunt and fight some more. There's really only about 10 minutes worth of material here and stretching it out to over an hour makes this very low-budget film tedious and sleep-inducing. At no point is the film fun or interesting--just a lot of silly ranting.

It isn't even much fun!

[Hitchcoc · 1/10 · 9 May 2006]

I can't write much because basically nothing happens. People pose for the camera, speak their lines badly, pretend to be tribal people, run away, come back. A couple of people get eaten by crocodiles. Apparently there is some sort of history behind the tribes and their locations. There are some ape men who are around for whatever reason. I guess to give the movie some sort of plot. They seem to have designs on the women. There's also some sort of queen that the women go to who howls and makes statements. When the men were around, what did they think of this? Anyway, unlike most silly movies, I couldn't really see any fun in this one. One thing of interest. I guess there's a sub-genre of prehistoric women movies. Why!?

Read the Plot Summaries

[tutankhamen3300 · 3/10 · 4 January 2005]

Believe me, reading the plot summaries to this film, especially the back of the DVD, make the film so much funnier because the film is nothing like what the film creators want you to think. The tribe of ape men is hilariously pitiful, almost as bad as the acting. This is a movie that completely lacks an ending, especially if you were expecting something from what you've read on the back.

I think one of the best and funny things about The Wild Women of Wongo is the fact that it wasn't intended to be the comedy that it is.

I ended up giving this a rating of three only because of its comical value - if you don't make this an interactive film, by which I mean talk about it and make fun of it as it plays, you will be bored. I must admit, though, that I got it as a present at a Christmas present, and it was a hoot at the party. I don't know if Mystery Science Theatre ever got a hold of this one, but they ought to have.

How Bad Was It?

[josephcosimano · 1/10 · 13 July 2022]

So bad it's bad. Not a cult classic, not a spoof, not any hidden social or moral message, just bad. Stiff acting, stiffer dialog, weak and painfully obvious plot. Rubber animals, Lock-step movements by each group, The purported "Ape Men" only appear in one scene. It's only two guys whose face and hair paint is only marginally different from the men of Wongo. Extended dance scene (with repeated scenes) runs way too long and so does the underwater alligator fight scene. But then you gotta cut costs and stretch the running time right?

The film has been accused of making fun of itself and being a bit tongue-in-cheek but I don't think the creators/producers/director were that smart. The few obviously deliberate attempts at humor were puerile. (side commentary by a parrot? Sly winking? In all, I've seen better productions by high school drama clubs. 72 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Mother Nature Makes a Mistake

[wes-connors · 2/10 · 5 April 2010]

About 10,000 years ago "Mother Nature" and "Father Time" conducted an experiment. They put all of Earth's beautiful women and brutish men together in "Wongo" (a village). Their opposites, the ugly women and handsome men reside in "Goona" (a tribe). This must have led to some arguments with agents during casting calls - "What? You had me audition with the ugly group!" Anyway, the twain meets when some "Ape Men" invade the handsome male-inhabited "Goona" (it's not what you think, and it isn't even shown).

This leads to handsome young Johnny Walsh (as Engor) discovering the tribe of beautiful women. Since Mr. Walsh turns the pretty females on, their ugly mates try to kill him. But, pretty Jean Hawkshaw (as Omoo) and her lovely young friends save his handsomeness. Eventually, the beautiful young women find more handsome young men. The men are tied up to be sacrificed to the "Dragon God" - however, with everyone being so good-looking, plans could change… A parrot pontificates on what is happening.

** The Wild Women of Wongo (1958) James L. Wolcott ~ Jean Hawkshaw, Johnny Walsh, Ed Fury, Mary Ann Webb

THE WILD ONES

[mmthos · 10/10 · 30 September 2021]

One of my absolute favorite guilty pleasures! From the opening credits cartoons to the raven-maned high priestess with the phony snake bracelet to the women's fitted leopard print "skins" to the leading lady's rollaround underwater with a rubber alligator to the lassoing of their elusive muscle-bound prey, whose efforts to resist are remarkably feeble. The women of enemy tribe Goona are as laughably hideous as the men are impossibly gorgeous. No wonder the eponymous wild women go there husband hunting!

Fun.

Camp trash classic

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 25 October 2013]

Well you sure can't say that this camp classic does not have a memorable synopsis. Mother Nature has decided to experiment a little. Two primitive tribes live on opposite sides of an island but with a difference. The Wongo have beautiful women but ugly men, while the Goona have dreamy guys but unattractive gals. An attack by a tribe of savage ape-men from overseas brings both groups together. And the natural order of things falls into place. The message of the movie, cheerfully delivered, is that good looking people and ugly people shouldn't mix, it's better for everyone in the end. It's not a very right-on sentiment nowadays of course but it is a hilarious one for an old movie to base itself around. Consequently, The Wild Women of Wongo is a very memorable bit of nonsense.

It can probably be regarded as an early sexploitation flick. Although admittedly with no nudity. But by late 50's standards I guess those girls in leopard skin bikinis was pretty racy stuff. They even, predictably, have a cat fight too. The main focus is also unsurprisingly on the hot Wonga women. They are banished by their slack-jawed male tribesmen for intervening and saving one of the dishy Goona guys from an execution. They travel through the jungle to visit a priestess and engage in an elaborate 'dance of the dragon god'. The 'dragon god' itself was simply an alligator, which seemed somewhat ridiculous. But why question anything in this madness? We also have another prominent animal character - a wise cracking, talking parrot, who doesn't really seem to serve any overall purpose to be perfectly honest. I think the film-makers just threw in everything they had at their disposal and wrote it vaguely into the plot. Also of note is the fact that the ape-men, who are the catalyst for the entire story, are only seen in one scene and by the end of the film are completely forgotten about; in fact, they seemed to have simply gone away.

This is a good laugh. I liked its sheer trashiness. And wait until you get to that ending scene where the hunks wink back at us all one by onedreamy.

Hilarious

[samhill5215 · 3/10 · 22 December 2009]

This is a movie conceived and produced by juveniles for juveniles but is it ever funny. The kind of funny that kept me wondering whether everything about it, and I mean EVERYTHING, wasn't meant to be that cheesy. There's really no point in commenting on the dialogue (moronic) or acting (what acting?). I guess the scenery was OK if not for the fact we kept seeing the same scenes ad nauseam. I should say something about the characters though. The premise of the film is that there's two tribes, one of pretty women and beastly men and another of handsome men and ugly women. I guess the women were pretty enough and they were quite shapely. As for the men they all hailed from muscle beach. This was a beefcake fest with the beastly men differentiated from the handsome men primarily by the fact they were hairy. The handsome guys were shaved clean and oiled to boot. These fellas were ready for the Mr. Universe contest. So the bottom line is: could you spend an hour and 11 minutes doing something better? Absolutely, positively without a doubt. But if you do chose to see it you'll find yourself chuckling uncontrollably and that's not such a bad thing, is it?