Queen of Kong Island
Since recent talk of Peter Jackson's King Kong remake quickly turned to chatter about that neglected 'classic' Queen Kong, I decided to do a bit of digging…
First of all, I'm amazed that blog member 'devo' hasn't yet seen this (apparently) bonkers, sub-cult, piece of kitsch. He is, after all, a notorious devotee of shite cinema and once dragged me to a film fair in Camden just so he could purchase a DVD copy of Leprechaun in the Hood (I'm not joking). Not only that, but a couple of years later he presented me with a bootleg copy of the craptastic Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical, starring 'cheese-meister general' David Hasselhoff. How kind…
Anyway, I had actually come across Queen Kong before on a random internet trawl through the history of Kong-inspired movies. After learning that Robin 'Son of Sid James' Askwith was in it, though, I decided to cut my investigation short…for fear of irreversible psychological damage. I did, however, browse long enough to learn that the film contains an extended (feminist-spoofing) musical number with the following, immortal, lines: "Burn your bra, burn your panties! Call your ma, call your aunties!"1 Gawd help us all…
Further research has unearthed a (tongue-in-cheek) fan site, where we're helpfully informed that:
Queen Kong is one of the most infamous fantasy films of all time – a roles-reversed comedy version of the King Kong story in which a giant female gorilla is captivated by an effeminate hippy named Ray Fay.2
The idea of Robin Askwith playing an (undoubtedly 'mincing') "effeminate hippy" would usually be more than enough to boggle the mind, but throw in a scene in which the giant ape (upon meeting HM the Queen) is forced to wear a "chain mail bikini", and we're definitely 'through the looking glass' people.
There's nothing inherently wrong, of course, about reversing the gender of prominent pop culture icons…after all, most enthusiasts would consider Ms. Pac Man to be one of the finest video games of the early 1980s (it's hard not to love a yellow ball with a birthmark, bow, and lipstick). Queen Kong, however, appears very much in the mould of other jaded and juvenile British 'sex comedies' of the 60s/70s – where homophobia, sexism, and reactionary tendencies of all hues, were exploited in the name of extreme comic lameness.
Having said all that, any movie capable of inspiring the (apparently genuine) Japanese posters below, can't be all bad!
December 12, 2005
One response to Queen of Kong Island
Yes, i am ashamed to admit I haven’t yet seen ‘Queen Kong’. Though i might add not through want of trying. It’s a bastard to get hold of. And that trip to camden was worth it as i later met warwick davis and was able to ask him why he keeps making such unmitigated piles of shite. He mumbled something about ‘large paychecks’ and then went off to make ‘leprechaun 6: back 2 da hood’ Honestly, look it up. Sadly any viewings of the new ‘king kong’ will be marred by thinking of what Peter Jackson could have done if he he remade ‘queen kong’ instead.