a.k.a. KING DONG / SUPER SIMIAN
Hendrieth and Yoman Productions [1985] 33′
country: United States
director: Yancey Hendrieth
cast: Crystal Holland, Chaz St. Peters,
Dee Hendrieth, Felicia Fox, Mikhael
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Young Anna [Holland], after a fight with her divorced mother, heads out on a sailing trip to the South Seas with a few of her friends – a trip that ends in disaster when their boat crashes into a battleship! Anna and friend Alex [St. Peters] survive the incident only to find themselves marooned on an island populated with dinosaurs, Amazons, cannibals, and the Kong-sized giant ape Super Simian and her son [Buddy the gorilla, played by director Hendrieth].
This is a strange little independent production with a history so confusing that even I can’t keep it straight. Writer / director Yancey Hendrieth produced the film mostly out of pocket with a big focus on special effects inspired by the 1933 classic KING KONG. The three-man creative team of L. B. Carvelo, Keith Finkelstein, and David Dane, under the supervisian of Hendrieth, purportedly worked for 18 months in a 600 square foot studio to complete the post production effects.
I’m not entirely sure what happened next, but Hendrieth’s film somehow made its way into the hands of adult video producers. The result was that LOST ON ADVENTURE ISLAND was loaded with hardcore sex and marketed on video under the new title of KING DONG. Hendrieth has stated that he had nothing to do with the pornographic version of his film and, given his enthusiasm for the subject, I’m inclined to believe him.
KING DONG has been all but lost to the sands of time [it still pops up on gray market video lists from time to time], with Hendrieth now making available a family-friendly re-edit of the film under its original title.
Firstly, the good. The special effects, given that LOST ON ADVENTURE ISLAND was produced on such a limited budget, are rather well achieved. With a nod to the de Laurentiis KONG remake of ’76, a full-scale mock up of Hendrieth’s Super Simian’s hand was constructed and animated with an internal rope system [no fancy hydraulics here]. Buddy the gorilla is a typical man-in-suit creation, though better than many I’ve seen and capable of at least some facial expression. The rest of the effects are handled through stop motion animation and rear-screen projection with varying results. A plesiosaur fares best as far as the armatures are concerned, and the mattes used to relate more fantastic parts of the island [the Amazon's hideaway, for instance] are inspired if not terribly believable.
It’s unfortunate, then, that the rest of the film holds up so poorly. The simple fact of the matter is that with a running time of only 33 minutes [with several of those taken up by lengthy opening and closing credits] there’s just isn’t much here. We get lots of Alex and Anna running through the wilds of the Hawaiian shooting locations and a few sparse lines of dialogue [including some nods to THE WIZARD OF OZ] but little else to hold the picture together. Complicating matters further is the post-dubbing of much of the dialogue, which is bad to the point of distraction at times.
The bra-less chest shot above is the full extent of the adult material to be found in Hendrieth’s new edit of LOST ON ADVENTURE ISLAND, which is just fine with me – I doubt it would have been any more successful as pornography. The video quality of the screener I received is pretty bad and its obviously mastered from a VHS source [I suspect that the original elements are long gone by now]. The audio quality is about as good as the video would indicate and a few of the patches of dialogue are difficult to make out. There were no supplements.
I wish I could say more but there’s just not enough here to even warrant talking about. The special effects are neat and it’s obvious Hendrieth adores the films he emulates, but the rest of the film just falls flat and I can’t see anyone but stop-motion animation junkies [myself included] getting much out of it. Not recommended.
Interesting about the background information. I have the hardcore porn version (used a clip of it in the new edit of my film DREAM HOUSE) and always wondered what such good stop motion footage was doing in a cheap porn flick. It’s a pretty silly film either way, though it probably works better as a non-porno as the sex scenes are terrible. The porno scenes do appear to be filmed on the same sets with the same actors, so perhaps Hendreth is just trying to save face.
I first found out about this film as a child before I knew what porn even was when footage of it was used in a documentary called HOLLYWOOD DINOSAURS. This clip had different actor scenes in it, interestingly enough.
I honestly don’t know what the truth of the matter is in regards to how the pornographic version came about, though Hendrieth claims his film was hijacked for that purpose. Then again, Hendrieth has claimed a lot of things in the [many] emails he’s sent me.
Out of morbid curiosity I am interested in seeing the hardcore cut, but there’s no way I’m shelling out the hardcore dollars [$20 + shipping] J4HI is charging for it. Do you have a copy of the Hollywood Dinosaurs docu? I don’t think I ever caught it as a kid.
Will trade you the porn version, Hollywood Dinosaurs (have that on DVD-R) and a complimentary copy of my DVD for three of your DVD offering (e-mail me).
I personally think Hendrieth’s claims suspicious. Crystal Holland has been in other porn films and the sex scenes, as said, feature the same actors, appear to filmed on the same sets and are shot similarly. Perhaps the porn producers called back the actors to film some hardcore inserts, but this is seldom done in porn, an industry so cheap and penny pitching that it makes Shaw Brothers look like Kubrick.
I’ll not ponder Hendrieth’s motivations here, lest I be barraged with communication from him again. One of the weirder aspects of Lost On Adventure Island that I’m assuming applies to both versions is how it was shot to begin with. The effects work is 16mm and the majority of the drama SOV, but there are a few moments of dramatic footage that look to be film as well – I’m thinking the horribly overdubbed scenes on the boat at night and at least some of the footage of tha Amazons riding about on horseback.
It’s certainly a weird film, but not in any way I can really appreciate. Wasted potential, as they say.
Yes, the clip in HOLLYWOOD DINOSAURS is entirely film shot and as said, features totally different actors and actor footage. Maybe Holland and company were added entirely by the porn producers? But if that’s true how does that explain the gorilla footage with Hendrieth and why is the video footage in his definitive cut? How this film came to be truly bends my mind.
For anyone who is interested in the story behind the making of Lost On Adventure Island, I would recommend searching out and acquiring a copy of Issue #10 of HORROR BIZ magazine, which features a full-length, comprehensive, Rondo-Award-nominated article called Tyrannosaurus ReXXX: The Amazing Story of Lost on Adventure Island. Built upon extensive interviews with special effects creators Lenard (L. B.) Carvelo and David Dane (and a correspondence with writer-director Yancey Hendrieth), and spiced with a generous quantity of behind the scenes and production photos courtesy of Carvelo, the article tells the fascinating story of the making of this unlikely and unique production. The emphasis of the article is admittedly weighted toward the technical production of the film — special effects, animation, location shoots, ingenious solutions to budget-related challenges, etc. — it also discusses the pornographic aspect as well. It really is a well-researched, excellent article, which sheds light on many points discussed in the above webpage and comments — including Mr. Hendrieth’s intentions regarding the X-rated content. And, honestly, I’m not saying these nice things about the article just because I’m the author …