#Panther Girl of the Kongo

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This costume dress is worn on Frances Gifford as Nyoka Meredith in Jungle Girl (1941) and later worn on Phyllis Coates as Jean Evans in Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955)

[jbird5by5]

Saddened to learn of the passing of Actress Phyllis Coates (1927-2023)

Phyllis Coates, the first Lois Lane television ever saw, has died.

She was 96.

The actress died on Oct. 11 of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills

The actress first appeared in the first full-length feature film to star the DC hero, 1951's dark Sci-fi movie Superman and the Mole Men, the success of which soon led to a syndicated television series, Adventures of Superman. Coates portrayed the journalist for 26 episodes before departing the series at the conclusion of the first season.

She was replaced by Noel Neill, who had played the character in previous Superman Columbia serials, and the show lasted another five seasons.

Born January 15,1927 in Wichita Falls, Texas, Phyllis Coates moved to Hollywood as a teenager with intentions of enrolling at UCLA. A chance encounter with Ken Murray in a Hollywood & Vine restaurant landed her in the comedian's vaudeville show. She started out as a chorus girl and worked her way up to doing skits before moving on to work for veteran showman Earl Carroll and later touring with the USO. Coates got some of her first motion picture experience in comedy short subjects at Warner Brothers and then graduated to roles in early '50s films. After a one-season stint with the Man of Steel (George Reeves on Adventures of Superman (1952)), she began to divide her time among TV, B-movie assignments and serials at Republic.

Throughout her career, she'd be seen in series like The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, and Leave It to Beaver, and in 1994 appeared as Lois Lane’s mother in an episode of ABC’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. She also appeared in several classic films, like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Girls in Prison, The Incredible Petrified World and Panther Girl of the Kongo. She also appeared in the film Invasion U.S.A. (1952) with future Lois Lane Actress Noel Neill.

My Condolences to Family and Friends.

#R.I.P. 😔🙏🥀

[scifipinups]

[yesterdanereviews]

Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955)

Film review #467

Director: Franklin Adreon

SYNOPSIS: Jean Evans, a member of a wildlife foundation, is in Africa taking photos of local wildlife when she encounters a giant crayfish that nearly kills her. She teams up with Larry Sanders, a big game hunter, to stop the creature and discover it's origins.

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Panther Girl of the Kongo is a 1955 serial produced by Republic Pictures and comprised of twelve chapters. The serial centres around Jean Evans, who works for a wildlife foundation taking photographs of wildlife. She is known as "Panther girl" because...I don't know, she rides an elephant sometimes and dives off cliffs; the only panther I recall seeing is at the end screen. Anyway, she encounters a giant crayfish that attacks her, but is saved by Larry Sanders, a big game hunter in the area. The two team up to try to stop the monster and unravel the mystery of it's origins, while trying to stop two outlaws in the area. This is the cornerstone of the plot, alongside Dr. Morgan, a scientist also in the area, has created the giant monster to scare off people from a mine full of diamonds while he harvests them all. Obviously, this type of plot has been done to death, and is perhaps more famously associated with a vast chunk of episodes of Scooby-Doo, meaning it's hardly an interesting watch nowadays when it's been done and done again. There's also not much of a plot besides this, and the heroes trying to stop the giant crayfish monster thing. Trouble is, it doesn't show up for a good chunk of the serial, and so Jean and Larry are left to do the typical back-and-forth with Morgan's henchman, as they make plans, set traps, and start fistfights with each other. As it is, the plot rarely has any direction, and the stakes are also pretty low, since again it's not all for world domination or anything, just a man wanting to mine some diamonds in the middle of nowhere.

Quite rarely for a serial, the main character is a woman. Jean Evans is the "panther girl" due to her prowess in the jungle (even though there's no panthers that we see), and she actually does something other than being kidnapped. The only other serial that does this to this degree is perhaps Jungle Girl (more on that later). However, when the script requires it, she does revert to the typical screaming damsel in distress, and the male lead swoops in to save her. He also does most of the shooting and punching, but still Jean's character is central to the plot. Larry is just a typical male lead with no real character. The villains also are just typical henchman and a "mad" scientist who isn't all that mad, just wants to get rich. The setting of non descript "Africa" and its stereotypical depiction of "tribes" is problematic and presenting the entire continent in this way is a depiction that prevailed for decades thanks to films such as these.

The serial is quite similar to the Jungle Girl serial released in 1941, particularly with regards to a jungle-savvy female lead. This is also not coincidental, as this serial uses a lot of the footage from the serial, particularly the on-location stuff and animals. In 1955, the serial format was really on it's last legs, and it's no surprise that the studios wanted to do as little new stuff as possible (although cost-cutting and re-using footage has been a staple of the serial format for years at this point). Since Jungle Girl was released fourteen years before, and theatre-goers probably wouldn't have seen it or forgotten about it due to the lack of home media releases, and the only way to see older serials would be to watch re-releases at theatres, which I believe were somewhat rare, and even then they really don't benefit from repeated viewings. The re-used footage is pretty heavy in the finale, when the action sequences are almost entirely made up from this footage, and the transition between the different footage is very awkward and disjointed. For example, you can clearly see "Jean's" outfit change from scenes as she instantly switches from a miniskirt to swinging from the trees in leggings. The "giant" crayfish is obviously not a giant one, just a regular one filmed amongst miniatures. It's not particularly convincing, especially when the "giant claw" attacks people with the rest of its body just offscreen. Overall, Panther Girl of the Kongo is a fairly weak serial, in which it's most interesting aspects are just bits of re-used footage. The plot is non-directional and has fairly low stakes, alongside often feeling it's just padding for the more interesting re-used footage. The emphasis on the female lead is a more unique aspect, but she is reverted to the typical "damsel in distress" when the plot wants to do a more typical set-up of the female being the victim. The serial is very low on imagination and spectacle, and is emblematic of the serial format in it's twilight years as the format became unviable with the introduction of televisions in homes.

[mst3kproject]

Panther Girl of the Kongo

Panther Girl of the Kongo comes to us from Republic Serials, whose logo was mocked over and over every time it appeared in front of Radar Men from the Moon.  It stars Phyllis Coates from Invasion USA and Myron Healey from The Unearthly and The Incredible Melting Man.  It's also got giant lobsters for its monsters, and oh, yes, this is every bit as unbelievably silly as it was in Teenagers from Outer Space.

Our heroine is Jean Evans, wildlife photographer and vine-swinging Panther Girl!  She and her crew are looking for a lion, but instead they find a giant crawdad that wrecks their camera!  Understandably concerned (giant arthropods in the 50's were normally a sign of radiation), Jean calls up her friend Larry Sanders, a safari guide. Together they discover a truly diabolical plot: mad Scientist Dr. Morgan has discovered how to mutate arthropods into giants!  What's he doing with them?  Well, it just so happens that he's also found a hitherto unknown diamond mine, and is determined to scare the natives away[crustacean needed] so he can claim the land and have the gems all to himself.

There are thirteen episodes of this and almost all of them contain a furniture-smashing fistfight scene.  I'm amazed they didn't run out of Jungle Hut props.

Let's get the technicalities out of the way first.  Like Radar Men from the Moon, Panther Girl of the Kongo is designed around a series of cliffhangers – every episode must end with the hero and/or heroine in mortal peril so that the audience will come back next week to find out how they escaped.  The answers are usually not exciting: at the end of Episode One (The Claw Monster!) Larry is knocked out by members of the evil Returi tribe while Jean is menaced by a crawdad.  At the beginning of Episode Two (Jungle Ambush!) it turns out Larry was only momentarily stunned, fights off his attackers, and saves Jean in the nick of time.  At the end of Episode Six (High Peril!), he appears to be about to fall onto spikes, but in Episode Seven (Double Trap!) we see that he actually lands well away from them.  And so on.

The monster effects are... well, they're awful, but they're entertainingly awful.  The crawdad attacking the miniature camera is pretty great, as is the one that's shown 'growing' by putting successively larger crawdads in a miniature cage!  The giant puppet claws that reach out from behind rocks and trees to menace people are utterly hilarious – and of course we never see any blood on the 'injuries' these cause.  And man, if you think the crawdads are stupid, wait until you see the movie's truly abominable gorilla suit.  We saw better-looking shit in Season 11 Bigfoot movies!

There is a lot of stock footage here.  Critic William Cline described the plot as functioning ‘to move the heroine from one piece of stock footage to another’.  There's a sequence in which Jean promises some guests film of the strange creatures she's discovered, but adds that it's on the same reel as some of her other footage, which they'll have to wind through first.  This is an excuse so that we can look at a bunch of documentary animal footage showing creatures like giraffes and cranes that definitely do not live in the jungle.  There's a totally unnecessary recap episode.  Jean's elephant friend Beela exists almost entirely in stock footage, and the same stock footage every time she appears (to be fair, this would have been way less noticeable in a weekly serial than it is watching the whole thing in a day).  All the vine-swinging is from the earlier serial Jungle Girl, and is clearly a man in a dress and a wig!  At least they matched the costume.

But we all know by now that what I love talking about in these pieces of antique media is their politics, so let's take a look at the political situation presented to us by Panther Girl of the Kongo.

We are shown two tribes, the Utanga who are Jean and Larry's hosts, and the Returi who work for Dr. Morgan.  Do I need to specify that both are totally invented?  No?  Good.  The prop and costume department gave these two peoples distinctly different looks, but these are designed less to suggest different cultures than to establish who are the 'good' and 'bad' Africans.  The 'good' Utanga are a little Westernized.  They wear textile clothing without much embellishment beyond Chief Danka's beads and feathered headdress, and live in houses with domestic animals such as chickens.  The Returi, on the other hand, wear 'leopard skins' with body and face paint and jewelry made of bones and teeth, carry weapons everywhere, and seem to be a more nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe.  The treatment is intended to dehumanize them, making them the obvious 'bad' guys.

The two tribes seem to coexist peacefully.  As in Voodoo Woman it's the white people who have brought trouble with them as they seek resources.  Voodoo Woman hinged on Dr. Gerard's quest for power and Marylin's for gold, while Panther Girl of the Kongo concerns Dr. Morgan's interest in diamonds.  The gems are quite useless to the local people who own the land, but very valuable to Morgan.  He can't ask permission to mine the area because he doesn't want to have to pay taxes or fees on his finds, so instead he sets out to steal the land.  In order for him to get the resources he needs, the natives must be either driven away or enslaved.

The monsters are intended to frighten off the Utanga.  With the Returi, Dr. Morgan employs a different approach – he keeps them compliant by providing them with a 'tonic'.  Exactly what this is, we're never told, but it's addictive and mind-altering, making those who take it more obedient and less concerned with their personal safety.  I expected this to be a plot point somehow, but it's never returned to.  It is reminiscent of a number of situations in real-life history: the fur traders would give the Native Americans alcohol in exchange for beaver pelts, and the British would sell the Chinese opium for tea.  Now that they're under his thumb, Dr. Morgan can have the Returi do a great deal of his dirty work, while blaming the violence on the 'primitive tribe' who don't know any better. When one of the Returi men is shot and hurt, he is simply abandoned despite his friend insisting that he needs help.  In Dr. Morgan's mind the natives are either tools or inconveniences.

There's a thread of the White Saviour trope in the story, too. While Dr. Morgan considers himself the master of the Returi, Jean and Larry seem to think of themselves as the protectors of the Utanga. Jean says that with the monsters running loose in the jungle, the men of the village would rather stay home to protect their families than go out and hunt the creatures down, so the latter job is left to the white people.  Indeed, Morgan's men are counting on this – they believe the Utanga will depart at once if Jean and Larry are killed and therefore no longer able to protect them.  Later the Utanga actually do flee en masse, and the white people have to promise protection to make them come back.  The government and police force who will solve the problem if Jean can only find proof against Dr. Morgan are also white – history would suggest that they're Belgians, but they speak with British accents.  I guess the writers didn't research anything else, why would they bother to get that right?

In this case, I really don't think any of this is social commentary.  It's much more superficial than it was in Voodoo Woman, and I get the idea that it was written this way because somebody just figured that was how things worked in Africa.

Another thing I find kind of interesting about the series is how, despite the jungle and savannah setting, Panther Girl of the Kongo often feels like a western.  This may be mainly on account of the 'mining' plot – trade diamonds for gold or silver, give the two tribes faux-Native-American names instead of faux-African ones, and shift us from the jungle to the desert, and the whole 'chase the locals away from the undiscovered mining site' plot would work equally well.  When we see a larger settlement than the Utanga village, many of the sets have a very 'wild west' feel to them, possibly even being hastily-redressed leftovers from a western movie. There are certainly plenty of shootouts and barfights that would be right at home in a cowboy movie, and probably contribute to the 'western' atmosphere.  Such a story could even keep up Jean's friend-to-animals persona, having her hang out with bears and feral horses instead of lions and elephants.  'Coyote Girl of Nevada'?  Why not?

The ease with which this could be done speaks to something else: the formulaic nature of the story.  It's made of tropes, pieced together into a plot that would use (as Cline noted) as much of their stock footage as they could.  The only reason it's a jungle story rather than a cowboy story was because they happened to have the jungle footage on hand.  If they'd had stuff left over from Radar Men from the Moon instead of Jungle Girl, it might well have been a space story instead ('Rocket Girl from Venus'?).  Panther Girl of the Kongo was the sixty-fifth serial Republic had produced, and like Disney with its princesses, they pretty much had their formula down.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing.  If you just sit and watch it, Panther Girl of the Kongo keeps the animal footage and jungle peril coming steadily enough to keep you from getting bored, and the story is reasonably engaging.  The monsters and gorilla suits aren't believable for a minute, but they're amusing, and the bite-sized serial format means you can watch a couple, get tired of it, and come back to it later, when the title cards will kindly remind you which heart-stopping cliffhanger you left off on.  Each episode has a mini-plot that contributes to the overall narrative while also feeling acceptably self-contained, and Jean is a fairly capable heroine, saving Larry's life almost as often as he saves hers.

It’s not art.  Indeed, it’s clearly a sort of assembly-line product, but I can see how this stuff made money.

[gatutor]

Phyllis Coates “Panther girl of the Kongo” 1955, de Franklin Adreon.

[ronaldcmerchant]

Phyllis Coates- PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO (1955)

[andersonvision]

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO REVIEWED “Panther Girl of the Kongo” is a Republic serial who fights a mad scientist. Over 12 episodes and 168 minutes, the show doesn’t lose its focus. I love that Olive keeps releasing these Republic serials, it’s just that I’m starting to see why the serials folded in the 1950s. While a lot of it had to do with the Cinemascope revolution, the serials were losing a ton…

[oldshowbiz]

the Republic serial Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955) was turned into a condensed hour-long feature and titled The Claw Monsters (1966). Republic did this with several of the serials at the time.

[gwynnew]

Behind 'Black Panther': The hidden meanings of those stunning Wakanda costumes

Danai Gurira, Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, and Florence Kasumba (Photo: Marvel Studios)

Oscar-nominated designer Ruth Carter takes us on a guided tour of her exquisite fashions and explains their authentic African origins.

Even before Black Panther premiered in theaters, costume designer Ruth Carter saw her Instagram feed blowing up with fans emulating the film’s style. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Director Ryan Coogler’s record-breaking film is easily the best-looking Marvel movie to date, in large part because of Carter’s dazzling vision of fashion in Wakanda. Carter’s prestigious résumé includes Oscar-nominated designs for Malcolm X and Amistad, along with costumes for beloved films like Selma, Serenity, and Love & Basketball. But Black Panther presented a unique challenge: creating the look of an African society that was both untouched by Western influences and more technologically advanced than any nation in the world. As Carter told Yahoo Entertainment, she turned to ancient African tribal designs for her inspiration, then remixed those elements to create a futuristic, cutting-edge fashion aesthetic that, not incidentally, makes everyone in the movie look fabulous. It’s no wonder the film is already showing its influence on the fashion world. Carter spoke to Yahoo about creating the film’s many distinct tribal looks, her source for the royal family’s stunning jewelry, the inspiration behind Michael B. Jordan’s sexy Killmonger street look, and the secret superhero element she worked into Letitia Wright’s Shuri wardrobe.

Yahoo Entertainment: The concept of Wakanda as an African nation that was never colonized by the Dutch or British is so powerful. How did that inform your design choices? Ruth Carter: I discovered so many things about Africa that I didn’t know — like, the cloth that we normally see in many African-inspired things, the wax cloth, was brought in from the Dutch. There are influences of the British; when you see a Nigerian wedding, you’ll see a Nigerian traditional drape and a guy with a top hat on. [laughs] So you have to dig deeper and go to the indigenous tribes of Africa. You’re not a real historian, you’re just kind of the temporary historian for the picture, so you’re looking at beadwork and you’re looking at carvings and you’re looking at masks. And you’re being inspired by patterns. There are a couple of patterns that I saw repeated throughout the continent: one is like a checkerboard, another one is a triangle.

And I looked at books on African ceremonies, since ceremonies reminded me of pre-colonization. So for example, the Dogon tribe were the first astronomers. They do a ceremony once a year where they adorn themselves in these brilliant raffia skirts and wood-carving masks that shoot up to the stars — they’re really tall. And they do these moves that sweep the earth. I was fascinated by that. So Ryan wanted the Jabari to wear grass skirts during battle, and the Dogon was the perfect place to start with the inspiration. We used the wood carving design for the armor for the Jabari. So when we see Winston Duke (as M’Baku), he really is representing the Dogon tribe of ancient Africa.

Winston Duke as M’Baku (Photo: Marvel Studios)

And then the Dora Milaje were inspired by many indigenous tribes of Africa. The color was the brilliant red of the Maasai. When you see these pictures of them with their beadwork, you see this red that is just so prominent and so strong, and really beautiful with these bald heads, and they stack beads, and it’s just phenomenal. So I upped the color of the design to be a much more brilliant red so they could have this part of Africa that was undeniable in its brilliance and in its color. Also their neck rings were inspired by the Ndbele tribe of South Africa. Ryan really wanted to use them, and it was his idea to have these neck rings and these arm bands to represent this form of adornment that we see throughout Africa. Using them as armor just felt very natural. But Ryan also said he wanted them to feel like jewelry, especially Danai [Gurira]’s. When you see Danai in the opening scene in Nigeria and she impales the guy behind her and she walks straight [towards the camera] — you see this gold just glimmering, and it’s very regal.

Okoye (Danai Gurira, left) with the Dora Milaje (Photo: Marvel Studios)

So those are kinds of ways that the costumes represented the ancient indigenous tribes of Africa. And I used so many books — I think everybody loves African art, I don’t know anybody who doesn’t, but we didn’t want to approach it from an anthropological point of view. Like the man with the lip plate. You see him with this lip plate, and you mostly see that in National Geographic, on a woman who’s bare-chested in her village, you know, cooking outside on a fire. But this way we honored it, and we made it classy and regal, and we gave the actor a beautiful suit to wear that represented the tribe, and we painted the lip plate to match the color of the suits, and we made it an outfit. So in those ways we gave it honor.

Forest Whitaker (right) as the royal adviser Zuri (Photo: Marvel Studios)

Can you talk about how you used fashion to express the cultures and beliefs of the different tribes of Wakanda: the Border Tribe, the Panther Tribe, the River Tribe, the Mining Tribe, the Merchant Tribe, and the Jabari?   There was a color theory that Ryan set out. It was pretty basic: he wanted the River Tribe to be green, the royal palace is purple, the Border Tribe is blue — they represent the police, they patrol the border of Wakanda — and the Merchant Tribe is this aubergine with lots of metal.

Daniel Kaluuya’s W’Kabi is a member of the Border Tribe. (Photo: Marvel Studios)

So I just took it from there. And once I divided my research by the different tribes of Africa — the Merchant Tribe representing the Tuareg, the River Tribe representing the Surma and the Kongo, the Mining Tribe representing the Himba — I was able to apply it.

The Mining Tribe (Photo: Marvel Studios)

And I wanted to apply the art of the tribes to their costumes. For example, silver is a precious metal for the Tuareg, and that fit within the Wakandan ideology of vibranium, because vibranium is also silver. So I combined the silver from the Tuareg look with that aubergine-baby blue kind of mixture for the Merchant Tribe of Wakanda.

The same goes for the River Tribe. The cowry shell was a form of commerce [in West Africa], it was how they traded. And so I used a lot of the cowry shell on Lupita’s costume, and a lot of beads and shells because she represented the river and the water and the grass. So I had a wealth of resources of artistry to pick from.

Lupita Nyong’o, Chadwick Boseman, and Letitia Wright (Photo: Marvel Studios)

You mentioned metal, which reminded me how amazing the jewelry is. Were those all custom pieces? Ramonda’s earrings are bought from this man in Atlanta, and I’ve been looking for his name since then. He came into my shop, this old guy chewing on a licorice root.

Chadwick Boseman and Angela Bassett as Ramonda (Photo: Marvel Studios)

He had everything rolled up in a black cloth, and he unrolled it, and then there those earrings were! And I just bought some things from him. But much of the jewelry was handcrafted by Douriean [Fletcher], who I hired — she’s a jewelry designer who I met and I really liked her aesthetic, I liked her work ethic, and I felt that the jewelry of Wakanda needed to have this hand-tooled look that would also be reminiscent of the craftsmanship of Africa and of ancient Africa. So I started everything with a prototype that was made of metal, and then we molded it and were able to recreate the jewelry in rubber and paint it to look like metal.

Angela Bassett (Photo: Marvel Studios)

I want to talk about a couple specific characters.  Wakandan princess Shuri (played by Letitia Wright) has such a distinctive fashion sense. What was your inspiration for her? When when we first meet Shuri, the tradition is uncomfortable for her — she says, “Can we get this over with? This corset is really tight.” So that informed the rest of the story. When we first meet her at the airstrip and she asks T’Challa if he froze — she’s the one who’s wearing the cape! She has a little cape on her costume. All of her costumes were inspired by fashion, were inspired by new technology. When we see her in her lab, I didn’t want to use a lab coat.

Shuri (Letitia Wright) in her lab (Photo: Marvel Studios)

I wanted to present these overlays — everything was overlaid, and I wanted the overlays to feel as if they were different recycled fabrics. So I chose carefully whether it was a mesh, or a sheer white kind of a sweatshirt-y feel. Also, I wanted her colors to be young and fresh, and her look to be that of, not a 15-year-old, not a preteen, but of a girl who’s going from teenage to womanhood.

Chadwick Boseman and Letitia Wright (Photo: Marvel Studios)

I also want to talk about Erik Killmonger’s street look when he first see him in the museum, with the denim jacket. It’s such an unexpected look for a villain, sexy and geeky and cool.  In one of the first versions that we read, Killmonger was an anthropologist. And we thought, when you think of the stereotype of an anthropologist, you think of a tweed coat and slacks, like he’s coming from the university. And Ryan really wanted him to feel like he was basically urban, he was unapologetic about his look. He was learned, which is where the glasses come in, but we gave him drop-crotch pants, Balmain boots, a shearling denim jacket, and an oversized T-shirt.

Michael B. Jordan and Killmonger and Andy Serkis as Klaue (Photo: Marvel Studios)

He’s also wearing some kind of African beads, so there’s a little bit of culture there. There are signs that he has a connection to his past but it’s not overt. He is representing the Lost Tribe, so we needed to make him really feel like an African-American urban cat, you know, an urban guy, and have the security surround him as if they don’t really know what to make of him — is he a thug? What is he? And so it just really plays him against T’Challa really great, because T’Challa comes from a place that’s never been colonized, he was raised a prince, and so his look is completely the opposite.

This movie is looking to be hugely influential in the fashion world. You’ve done so many iconic films; is that an experience you’ve had before, of seeing designs inspired by your films on the runway or in stores?  I have not had this experience before. I feel like we’ve got an opportunity here to have a voice and shape the world in a sense, and that’s where fashion comes in. If that’s what people want to buy, the fashion industry usually provides that. And if the Panther film has influenced people to want to wear these things — I see it on my Twitter feed all day long, I see it on my Instagram all day long. People are re-creating the fashions because they feel a connection to the story, they love the story so much, and so I feel like the H&Ms and all those people will have their Wakandan vibe in some of their clothes. And hopefully it won’t go out of style like most things in fashion sometimes do. Because it’s a movement more than a fashion statement.

Athi Patra Ruga at World Gallery #costumedesignerblackpantherfilm #southafrica

A post shared by Ruth Carter (@iamruthecarter) on Jan 13, 2018 at 4:05am PST

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Letitia Wright’s freestyle on the ‘Black Panther’ set is the best thing you’ll see all day

‘Black Panther’ star Michael B. Jordan wants his Killmonger’s hairstyle to become a trend

‘Black Panther’ breakout Shuri crowned the best Disney princess by social media

#BlackPantherSoLit and beyond: Cast of Marvel’s megahit reveals favorite ‘Black Panther’ memes

The biggest ‘Black Panther’ Easter eggs and end-credits scenes explained (spoilers!)

Inside the ‘Black Panther; cast’s ‘Coming to America’-themed party, featuring Ruth Carter’s costumes:

[eyescenario21]

Do you still do scenarios? If you do could I get a scenario where Agon/Clifford/Rui/Kid confess their love to their crush(you can leave some out if there are too many) If you don't do scenarios I am very sorry for bothering you!

I’m actually touched??? I know I’m inactive so I kinda blamed that for the reason I stopped writing… I need prompts to write.— [ + ] —Agon:Agon was — is — an asshole. He got anything he wanted when he wanted. Simple facts. That’s how it was then and that’s how it was now.He really was an entitled piece of shit but he was a sexy beast too. So he felt that the two kinda evened out. He didn’t really care if everyone hated him or not because everyone was scared of him — except that piece of blonde trash that was missing a fucking brain and lacked any talent whatsoever — and he did have Unsui.He had Unsui to take of him and that’s all that really mattered. But you wouldn’t catch him dead admitting that to anyone. He didn’t care for anyone. Not unless it meant a warm body in bed and some added bonuses. Then he cared a little bit.Then he met you.He couldn’t remember who you were standing up for the day you met but he remembered very vividly a weak looking, baby-faced teen that threw their shoes at his head.Yes, your shoes.It was in the park — or was it near the baseball field? — and he’d been with a straight-up babe when you had appeared. Your eyes had flashed with fury and then you assaulted him with a pair of beat up, dirty sneakers. “You fucking waste of space!” That was a very memorable moment. Agon had completely snapped, wrapping a strong hand around your throat and lifting you off the ground and demanded what the hell you’d just say to him. “You. Are. A. Fucking. Waste. Of. Space.”He’d been pissed off beyond belief, completely focused on your defiant eyes until he wasn’t. Until he was holding to his jewels and groaning and you were stumbling around, coughing. “Find someone else to park that millimeter dick in!” That had got his attention. No way were you in his bed before. He would’ve remembered someone like you. And you would’ve remembered that his junior was not a millimeter. After that, Agon made it his mission to find you and annoy the fuck out of you because he couldn’t understand why a trash like you had captured his attention. Hell, Unsui was becoming concerned which was never a good thing. Not only was Agon becoming distracted by someone practically half his size in just about everyway, he was actively harassing you and skipping practise. Unsui could’ve put up with the girls, the partying, the drinking but he would not put up with Agon wasting his time on someone that wouldn’t benefit him in any way.Which led to their little disagreement. Agon had told him to piss off, saying how Unsui had no say in what a genius should be doing. Unsui had retaliated in kind, harshly asking if Agon really was a genius if he was hanging out with someone like the likes of you.Agon had pissed off instead and looked for you. Unsui was right as much as he didn’t want to admit it. How fucked up was getting if Unsui, his pushover of a brother, was standing up to him in something that wasn’t football? He blamed you. And unfortunately for you, he had spotted you lazing in the park. “How fucking predictable.” You gazed up at the grey sky, eyes half closed. You really didn’t want to do that English essay —“Oi. Trash.” “Asshole. Fuck off.” Agon barked out a laugh, setting himself beside you. You looked at him out of the corner of your eye and found him staring.“What?” “I don’t fucking get it. You look like you’ll fall over if the wind blows. Your clothes are fugly — ““ — like you’re one to talk, have you looked in the mirror lately? Because damn, my little cousin wants their finger paintings back — ““Shut the hell up. You’re ugly. Nothing. No assets. Nothing. So what the hell are you doing to me.”You sat up. “Are you… Is the great Kongo Agon actually not being an asshole and opening up to someone?”“Answer the damn question.”“I’m not doing shit. You’re annoying and a major fuckboy. Like you can get any lower.”“Piss off. You’re already on your knees.”“I am on my ass, you blind shit. But you can only see as far as your dick is long so I’m not surprised your short-sighted.” Now that was a good one.Damn, were your insults better than that trash’s. As much as your tone was mocking and scathing, you kinda just made him feel warm. “Hey, _________.” “What now, drama princess?” “Be mine.” “Do I look like a fucking thing you could buy — bitch, you haven’t even taken me out to eat — ““I’ll eat you out, if that’s what you want.” “Is this your shitty way of asking me to be your friend with benefits because hell no. I saw what you did to — ““I’m asking you to be mine, dumbass. Mine. Not anyone else’s.”“Are — Are you confessing?” “Fuck that. I’m declaring — you’re mine.” You couldn’t find it in you to protest the rough kiss he pulled you into because as much as he was an asshole, you really did like him too. You just weren’t going to tell your fraternal twin that.— Clifford:You were playing a game of chest against the game master himself. It was stupid — you knew he would win. He always did. Clifford had never lost. Never. You didn’t think it was possible for him to not win until that day. Until the day it was broadcasted nationwide that Japan had tied with America in the Football Youth World Cup. You weren’t even shocked — more like numb. You couldn’t comprehend what you were feeling because it wasn’t a feeling or an emotion but you remembered afterward feeling smug.Clifford had finally lost at something but at the same time you kinda did feel guilty. But why should you?You remembered walking in late into that chess club meeting and finding him seated in front of your usual partner and beating him. You didn’t feel any real emotion until you learned that in the ten minutes you weren’t there he’d beaten two other people. And now he was facing your partner who you had beaten in half your matches and winning so effortlessly it made you astonished and self conscious.“Checkmate.”You heard gasps — maybe even your own — but the whispers around you were saying how it hadn’t even been two minutes.You’d challenged him then and he infuriated you with that lazy, cocky smirk that even at ten years old literally overflowed with arrogance. He’d taken your king after five minutes and offered a half-repentant shrug. “You’re not terrible.” “If you’re so freaking amazing how come you only showed up now?” Because you could vividly remember him walking around the hallways, with those laughing idiots. “Football practise was cancelled.” Hah. That ended your thinking of dumb jocks and smart nerds because Clifford was a genius. Absolutely and truly. You’d challenged him again and he’d smirked lazily, raising a brow at your declaration of war. You had lost again. And you kept on losing, again and again. He’d come in when practise was cancelled and then he started inviting you over. It became a tradition even as the two of you transitioned into different high schools — him to the infamous Notre Dame, and you, to a school nearly an hour away by public transit for the IB program. You’d go over to his house on every Wednesday, and he’d crash your Friday or Saturday breaks with a chessboard.It was nice. Very nice. And sometimes if the both of you wanted to listen to something other than your mumbled complaints and silence, you’d have pleasant conversations.Sometimes about homework, teachers, projects and idiotic friends — even football. You didn’t even watch it but had become an expert in Clifford’s company. You really did like him. Even if he pushed your buttons. “Damn it all, Clifford!” You screeched, slamming your hands down and jostling the chess board. “Can’t you let me win just friggin’ once?!” He snorted. “Then it isn’t any challenging, _________.” “Shut up! You’re only doing this because you’re a sore fucking loser — “Clifford stopped chuckling just as you slammed your hands over your gaping mouth, your eyes wide with shock. “You… You watched that? You watched that game?” You swallowed and nodded. Clifford grimaced and stood up abruptly. “Wah — WAIT! Clifford — son of — ow! Damn it! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” And with a sprint and tackle that would make Panther proud, you tackled him from behind, hugging him closely. He didn’t fall over, obviously — you were too weak for that — but he did stop. “I’m so, so, so, SO sorry… I didn’t mean it… I know — I know that you’re taking it hard and I… I’m such a child. I’m sorry.” You really were trying to keep it together because you shouldn’t be crying over one of your many defeats. Clifford was the one who was upset. So very damn upset. You had heard your mother gossiping about him leaving the room whenever that game was even alluded to.Damn it all, you were such an asshole! “I’m sorry.” Clifford heaved a sigh and you felt it. He turned around in your arms and hugged you back — properly for once. Not those half-hugs where he would taser you. “ … I don’t like the fact you’ve seen me lose.” “Oh, shut up,” you breathed, looking up at him. “You’ve seen me lose how many times? It’s embarassing, yeah, but like, I kinda think it makes me feel better too — you’re too good for me.” “Bullshit,” he snapped. “A consort is just as good as their king.” “Aw — you’re sweet. I know I’m royalty you don’t have to say it.” Now, he looked uncomfortable. Usually he’d retort and your arrogance by saying you were part of the royal family of trash cans and you’d both — well, you would laugh and he would snicker. But now, he looked a little out of his element. Something you thought you would never see becase he was always so cool. “I’m the king.” You nodded at his slowly enunciated words. “And you, you’re my consort. At least, I mean, I want to court you.” Your eyes widened. “That… That’s okay with me.” A real genuine smile lit his face for the briefest of moments before he hugged you again. Properly too. “But the way you said it… you’re kinda old-fashioned, huh? Makes sense since you dress like your in the 70’s or some shit…” “Shut up.” What could you say? You really didn’t do confessions.You squeezed Clifford extra tight, just enough for him to tense, and sighed. You really did like Clifford. It was the best thing that he said it first or else you would just never tell him. He was bold. That’s why he was the king.And you were more than happy to be his consort. —Rui:Rui didn’t understand why you were attending Zokugaku. Seriously.You were so sweet and understanding and patient so the fact you were attending Zokugaku didn’t make any sense. None at all.And if that didn’t interest him before, what really got his attention was the fact that you knew football. Like, actually knew. He remembered Megu openly and bemusingly remarking this, eyeing him and his reaction — much to his chagrin. You had laughed, bright and airy, and replied kindly.“My trouble maker older brother came here. He graduated three years ago. Football literally changed his life and he hasn’t stopped talking about it ever since.” Huh. That must’ve meant your brother played with his brother. He had to make a note of that. Ask his brother about anyone with your last name. “Ah. Is that why you came to Zokugaku? I heard you intending to go to Oujo.” That got his attention again and he growled. Damn it all, was that Shin Seijuuro annoying as hell! He didn’t deserve his title — damn it all to hell! Rui kicked the desk in annoyance and startled you.Great. He cursed again. “Don’t fuckin’ mention them in front of me again, Megu!” He warned, “I’ll really split someone’s face!” You looked at him apologetically. “Is it becase of that last game?” You didn’t even flinch under his smoldering gaze. “You guys did good is what I think.” Habashira could feel his muscles tense up and not because he was angry or anything like that. “And you’re reall cool, y’know? It’s amazing how wide your tackle range is. Admittedly, you’re not so fast but your reach is impressive — “The chairs groaned and the desk screeched as Rui walked out, not bothering to hear the ending of your praise. But still, the hallway echoed with his footsteps and he could still hear your conversation with Megu. “Was it something I said?” “Really?” He could imagine Megu snorting if she wasn’t actually doing it. “You didn’t see how red he was getting?” “Wha — Why? Did I offend him?!” You could never have offended him, he clicked his tongue in annoyance, pausing the middle of the hallway.Eavesdropping was never a crime. Just rude and Rui never claimed he was polite. “Are you kidding? How do you not know that he — ““MEGU!” He barked, storming back in. “Shut it!”“You’re not earning any points with that attitude, Habashira — ““I said: ‘shut it!’” He growled, “Are ya deaf?!” “Habashira-kun, I’m sorry if I offended you but please don’t take it on Megu-chan — ““I’m not fucking mad at you, idiot!” He roared and instantly regretted it when you wilted but his anger reigned supreme. “I’m mad at her!” “Megu-chan?” You repeated incredulous. “But… But Megu-chan… Megu-chan is Megu-chan. How could you be angry with her?” Damn it all, he thanked and cursed your obliviousness. Megu noted his turmoil and bemusedly snorted. “Oh, he’s not mad at me — this idiot can’t even make friends to save life, much less confess to someone.”You gasped and he withered as you whirled at him, giving him a blinding smile. “You have a crush?! Habashira-kun, who is it?” He groaned. He really didn’t want to do this. Not here. Not now. And certainly not with Megu —MEGU! “Megu — ! Don’t you dare!”But Megua had already grabbed you, languidly placing an arm around your shoulders and watched as his face flush red with anger and embarassment. Oh no. Hell no. Megu smirked at him and he couldn’t even move. It felt like the universe was collapsing onto him. And Rui briefly wondered, who had he fucked over to have the karma of being friends with such a shitty person like Megu? “__________ - chan? Don’t you realize yet? He likes you.” Both your faces turned redder than a tomato. “How cute. You two are already matching!” Megu singsonged. “Shut UP, Megu!” —Kid:Mushianokoji Shien’s nickname was kid. Simple. Not very memorable and had none of the prestige and expectations that his birth name carried. He was one, free kid. And with Tetsuma by his side, it didn’t matter to him that his father may or may not be ashamed — did his father even care if he was gone? Probably not. The man was so focused on winning, he never realized — and stil hadn’t — that his son was never having any fun.That’s why he went to some obscure school that his father wouldn’t approve, joined the football team and moved into the dorms — fully paid for by his scholarship. Perks of being bred to be first class — he was kinda smart. Not the smartest but he was smart enough to pass his classes with some difficulty.He missed his dad at times but the feeling of freedom and joy he got playing with Tetsuma? That was the best. It was still the best. His best friend through everything. Still, Kid did feel a little guilty when he remembered you — a thoughtful thinh by the name of __________. And just that. You never went by your family name. Never. When he asked why — the three of you had been maybe eight or nine — you said you wanted to be your own person. Not someone of the ________ family. He knew that feeling and had never called you by your family name ever again. Even if it made his father grumble about his lack of manners. The smile that graced your face when he called you by your name was unforgettable and unmatchable. That smile seemed to light up his memories when he was feeling nostalgic. Admittedly, it may also have been the fact he had had — well, still had — a crush on you.He couldn’t help it.You were so reckless and carefree and loved yourself so much — it was so alluring. You didn’t rely on other people’s opinions even as a child and that was so utterly beautiful now, as he thought about it.It was also envious and Kid briefly wondered if you were still like that.He wished you were still like that — well, maybe less ditzy and immature but he still wished to see you grown and still the same. Wished you still liked him. You did tell him you liked him but he had run away with a red face. Tetsuma had to drag him back by your command and he couldn’t look you in the eye. You giggled and rolled you eyes. “Gosh you’re such a child.” “But I am a kid.” “You are the kid — I don’t think anyone is childish as you.” “Yeah? That’s what you think.” “Uhuh. Tetsuma did he not make you break the rules so he could sneak out?” Kid had blanched when Tetsuma had nodded, all the while you smirked victoriously in all your year old glory. “See? Throwing tantrums.” “It was not a tantrum — ““Aw, is the little baby crying — ““What? I am not — “Kid shuddered presently. All your “playdates” were just you arguing while Tetsuma looked on conflicted. The loyal boy couldn’t decide to break the fight up — maybe insulting the two, restrain one — which would offend the one, or one of their parents — which would only make them both angry. Kid chuckled. Ah, for the days when the three of you were happy and carefree and just were kids. He wondered every now and then, more often than not, how you were.He wished you were still happy and hopefully with better, more loyal friends. And maybe…Maybe like him you still kinds liked him like he kinda liked you…? Maybe. Just maybe.He knew it was stupid. A false hope just like being champions because they had him as a shitty quarterback. You were probaby drop-dead gorgeous and totally out of his league and why would you remember a kid that would just argue with you? Why? An average, ordinary, no-good — “Shien?” His heart stopped and he could’ve sworn he felt his soul leave his body. That voice — No. It couldn’t be. He looked up from under the brim of his hat and stared at an all too familiar face. Wow. It was you. You still had the same unreadable gleam in you eyes, a mischievous tilt to your lips and a warmth that was both welcoming and just screamed out to the world how much of living ball of energy you were. “Wow. You look old.” He couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Still call them as you see them, huh, __________ ?” You grinned and sat beside him on the dewy morning grass. “So,” you began, sitting cross legged, your knees nearly kissing his cheek. “Why’re you napping on the grass at like — wait, hold up — six thirty in the morning?” Kid rolled his shoulder and cozied into the grass. “Tetsuma. He wakes up and goes jogging at ungodly hours. I had to wake up this early to remind him we have a game today. This is his usual route. I’m just waiting for him to pass by.” “Huh, makes sense,” you laughed. “You never really did grow out of nap time, huh, kid?” He smiled a bit. He may or may not have picked that his nickname because of you. “And you?”“What?” “Why’re you up this early?” “Mmm… My cousin — he was living in the States for while — likes and plays football. He’s here in Japan and joined a team and all that but he doesn’t have time to scout out Oujo because of practise — and he lives in Osaka so I told him I’d go since we’re gonna be in the area for stuff. I coudln’t sleep and like, it’s already such a beautiful day — “He smiled more. You still were such a chatterbox.“I know Oujo,” he interrupted your tirade. “School we’re plaging against.”You blinked. “You play football? Oh, cool! What team? Maybe I’ve heard of it — OH! And what position?” “Who’s the kid now?” “Oh, shush and answer the question. And the answer is still you — you still keep goading people instead of just taking their faults with a grain pf salt.”“Just sayin’. You talk a mile a minute.” “And you’re so irresponsible — look at those grass stains! When was the last time — ““Quarterback.” “What?” “I play quarterback for the Seibu Wild Gunmens.” You paused and he sighed. He really couldn’t handly your nagging. “Is… Isn’t that… I really don’t wanna say it but, isn’t that gramatically incorrect?” He chuckled. “Still a stickler for details, huh?” “‘Image is everything,’” you quoted your father. “‘And image is presentation.’” Kid paused. “You haven’t changed at all.” You grinned. “Really? I thought I got cuter — I’m kinda disappointed now.” “You are cute,” he ammended. “Thank you, Shien,” you pinched his cheek and he swatted your hand. “Maybe you’re not so much of kid anymore.” Kid offered her a lazy grin. “Yeah? That’s good. Hated you nagging on me about that, y’know? Acting like you were my mom or — ““Wife?” You supplied, nose scrunching. “Yeah, I did — do — sound like my mom when she’s scolding me or dad.” Kid nodded. “Hey Shien…” “Mhm?” “On the topic of the past… Do you — Do you, y’know, sorta, kinda… still like me? As in like-like me?” And you called him childish? Well…He looked at you out of the corner of his eye before pulling his hat down.“Maybe.” ...“You ass!” You slammed your hand down on his abs, “What kind of confession is that?!” He laughed and rolled away from your palms of fury and down the green slope of the river bed. You shrieked in rage and chased after the lazy shit just as he stood up to run.— [ + ] —Thank you for this cute prompt @ultra-animefangirl! And getting me back into scenario writing groove!

[scifipinups]

[raccoonslittlehands]

got tagged by my one and only @darlingonex ♥

so, put the playlist on shuffle, on whatever medium, post 10 songs from your playlist (without skipping!!) and then tag 10 people. 

1- Fool - Stellar

2- Ticket To Ride - Beatles 

3- Gods And Monsters - Jessica Lange

4- Come With Me Now - Kongos

5- Galway Girl - Ed Sheeran

6- Come Together - Beatles

7- Circus - Britney Spears

8- Lowlife - Poppy

9- The Beast of Pirate’s Bay - Voltaire

10- Gloryhole - Steel Panther

my url doesn’t lie, miscellaneous af

i’m gonna tag the last ten people in my notifications, feel free to ignore this post if you don’t want to do it or can’t do it! @christocas @aathenns, @demonkidpliz, @damnedapostate, @emilinetrevelyan, @penguinwarlords, @sjezhailhallyu, @l-a-v-e-l-l-a-n, @wolfdragonowl aand @quizzys-left-arm! 

[mst3kproject]

The Ape

In the vein of movies that should not be confused with eerily similar previous entries, The Ape is distinct from The Ape Man... but not by much.  Both feature a slumming horror superstar, glandular secretions, and a stupid gorilla suit.  All these things also showed up in early seasons of MST3K, of course, and The Ape Man also has a surprise bonus.  Apparently, the guy in the gorilla costume is none other than Crash Corrigan, of Undersea Kingdom!

Long ago, Dr. Adrien lost his daughter to polio, and ever since he's been obsessed with finding a cure.  That sounds pretty noble, but unfortunately, Adrien is a mad doctor, so the cure he comes up with requires killing healthy people to drain them of their cerebralspinal fluid!  In order not to arouse suspicion, he kills and skins a gorilla that escaped from a circus, and wears its hide when he murders people... you know, as one does. To nobody's surprise but his, he ends up getting shot, but hey, at least he cured beautiful young Frances' paralysis!

This is a weird, dumb movie but one thing I can say in its favour is that everybody seems to have given it a good try.  This material was far beneath Boris Karloff but he takes it seriously and actually gets a couple of decent moments, as does Maris Wrixton (who was also in The Face of Marble) as Frances.  Nobody else is even close to Karloff's level, being just bland 40's actors who talk too fast, but none of the main cast are phoning it in, either.

Conversely, the worst thing in the movie is its truly horrendous gorilla suit.  The puppet face shows the actor's eyes and can curl its lip, which is cool, though the features don't look very gorilla-ish.  The rest of the suit, however, is terrible. It's way too shaggy and in order to give it a gorilla-like silhouette, they stuck a big hunchback on it.  This might have worked if Corrigan had tried to walk on all fours like gorillas actually do, but instead he waddles along upright like a toddler with a full diaper, which ruins it.  The people who made the movie also appear to think gorillas are nocturnal which, for the record, they are not.

Gorillas were kind of a big thing in movies of the 40's and 50's.  The species had been scientifically described a century earlier, but hadn't really been studied until the 1920s and most people had never seen one outside of King Kong. Films of the period were not kind to the gorilla.  One of the first gorilla movies was 1930's Ingagi, which purported to be a documentary about gorillas kidnapping women as sex slaves.  That kind of set the tone, and subsequent movies depicted gorillas as creatures prone to violence and rape.  Examples from this blog alone are numerous: The Ape Man (1940), Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955), and Bride of the Gorilla (1951) for starters... Robot Monster (1953) might also count.

The Ape has a slightly more nuanced approach to gorilla behaviour.  Yes, its gorilla does maul people to death... but the first victim is its trainer, who has been shown mistreating it.  Another circus employee even tries to tell him that he'll catch more flies with honey.  When the ape batters its way into Dr. Adrien's house, it does so in order to get at the trainer's coat, which Adrien left draped over a chair when the dying man was brought to him for treatment.  We see far more fear of the escaped ape than we do of the animal itself, and it does not commit near as many murders as Adrien does while dressed in its skin!

So that's halfway progressive for the 1940s.  We can also look at the treatment of Frances, the wheelchair-user partially paralyzed by polio.  She is clearly meant to be an object of the audience's pity, and Adrien is obsessed with making her able to walk again – as he could not do for his own daughter.  To some extent the movie infantilizes her, as she is clearly dependent on her mother, unable to have much of a social life, and her boyfriend Danny professes his willingness to 'take care of her'.  When she regains movement in her legs at the end of the movie, she and her mother immediately burn her wheelchair.  Apparently she's not allowed to build up her stamina slowly... if she walks ten minutes from home and then can't continue, she's just gotta sit there until she recovers or somebody finds her.

On the other hand, Frances' family aren't trying to force Adrien's possible cure on her, but let her choose it for herself. Her mother doesn't mind looking after her, and Danny is happy to accommodate her by, for example, hiring a cart so she can accompany him to the circus.  Danny in particular is very suspicious of the fact that the injections Adrien gives to Frances are causing her pain, and takes the doctor to task for it, telling him he would rather have her disabled and happy than walking but in pain.  “I'd rather carry her around all my life!” he says.  Her loved ones are willing to try for the cure, but it doesn't seem like anyone will be miserable if it fails.  Frances herself wistfully admires the acrobats at the circus, but shows no anger or bitterness that she cannot be like them.

Frances is even allowed some initiative, as she hurries down the road in her wheelchair calling to Dr. Adrien and trying to warn him that the gorilla is in the area.  This, ironically, is what leads to Adrien getting shot, as it attracts the attention of the posse hunting the animal.  But as Adrien lies dying, he gets to see Frances standing for the first time in ten years, so I guess we're meant to think this was all worth it.

But was it?  Several people died in order to provide the spinal fluid that helped Frances heal.  The movie shows them as terrified of Dr. Adrien and/or the gorilla, but other than that it is oddly uninterested in their fates.  None of the deaths are presented as tragedies, with families left in mourning... the only family we hear about for the gorilla trainer is a father who is already dead, and another one of the victims was an asshole who told his wife if she didn't like him cheating on her she could always drown herself(!??).  So... are we supposed to think they don't matter?  That their deaths are acceptable because they helped Frances – who was not dying or even deteriorating, and was satisfied with her life as it was – to a cure?

It is notable that we do not see what happens when Frances finds out that people had to die for her to be able to walk.  She would have to reassess her opinion of Dr. Adrien, whom until now she has thought of as a loving father figure.  She would have to figure out what this means for her future and perhaps need reassurance that she is not culpable.  Her unconcerned happiness at the end suggests that nobody bothered to tell her, and that she has not yet made the connection herself.  This is really quite unfortunate, because it deprives Frances of her only real chance to be a character rather than a plot point – which is ultimately all she is here.

Nobody else is shown dealing with the aftermath, either.  The town has long mistrusted Dr. Adrien because of rumours that he was experimenting on his patients, and a recent spate of missing dogs is shown to be his fault.  An early scene shows a group of boys bothering the doctor by throwing rocks at his house (which made me wonder if toilet paper hadn't been invented yet. According to Wikipedia, it dates to 1857, so there's your Fun Fact for the day). Seeing their worst fears realized really ought to have some effect on the people.  Even if nobody bothers to tell Frances how her miraculous cure was effected, others will surely figure it out and have to weigh up what he achieved versus the crimes he committed to get there.

Yeah, I know: this is a movie about a guy killing people while wearing a dead gorilla.  I'm thinking too hard.

Finally, I want to note some interesting possible connections between The Ape and a number of other movies I've seen.  Both The Ape and The Ape Man appear to have been inspired by the 1932 movie Murders in the Rue Morgue, which also features a gorilla and injections of bodily fluids in the name of mad science, and did not feature very much resemblance to Edgar Allen Poe's story of the same name.  I don't know if these films directly inspired each other, and it's been ages since I saw Rue Morgue... but the combination of plot elements here seems weirdly specific to be something different people came up with independently.  I should watch all three again and see if I notice any more similarities between them.

There are also interesting likenesses between The Ape and another Boris Karloff movie, 1945's The Grave Robber.  The latter is the story of a doctor who needs fresh corpses as part of his research, which culminates in surgery to allow a paralyzed girl to walk again.  The doctor in this film is more a victim than a villain, himself, as he finds that the man he's been paying to rob graves for him is actually murdering the homeless, and he can't expose this criminal without jeopardizing his work and incriminating himself.  It's been a long time since I saw this movie, either (as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've had some shit going on and I haven't had a lot of time for movies, bad or otherwise), so I can't actually say if it's better than The Ape, but it's definitely less silly.

Anyway, the moral of this story is vaccinate your fucking kids or a gorilla will kill you.

[warezator-blog]

Panther Girl of the Kongo 1955 BDRip x264-VoMiT

Plot: Jean Evans of an international wildlife foundation has made herself at home in Africa as the elephant-riding, vine-swinging, miniskirted ‘Panther Girl.’ On safari to film animals, Jean encounters something really wild; a giant crayfish monster (created by greedy scientist...

DOWNLOAD: https://warezator.net/panther-girl-of-the-kongo-1955-bdrip-x264-vomit/

[seminaldesigner]

Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955) "Man-made Monsters Terrify the Jungle!" #RepublicSerial #pulp #adventure #PhyllisCoates #LoisLane #serial #jungle #blackandwhite #Republic