Son of Ingagi (1940)

Very Cool!!!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

SON OF INGAGI is a little B-movie about a murderous ape-man sent out on a rampage by a vengeful old witch who has it in for the various people who cross her. The villain of the piece is hardly frightening and more likely to provoke laughter than fear when watched with a modern mindset, but nonetheless SON OF INGAGI deserves mention for being the first horror movie with an all-black cast. The plot is familiar from the usual Monogram fare like THE APE MAN, but there's some Southern Gothic atmosphere and the cast are up to the job.

This movie is truly awful in so many ways that it will be hard to mention them all, but I will try.This is another very short movie with very little dialog or action.It's lots of people walking and not talking.The entire first half doesn't even have anything to do with the story.Then there's an old woman wearing a Stevie Ray Vaughn hat and she's angry at life.You will never suspect she isn't white until her brother shows up and he's clearly black.She mentions having gone to Africa decades ago many, many times.I guess we are supposed to assume that she somehow brought an ape man back with her because they never explain any of it.She's some kind of doctor and she has just discovered the most important thing in science since Louis Pasteur.And you know she keeps the ape man locked up in her basement lab, because that makes sense, and he immediately drinks it and goes nutzoid.So he kills some people and innocent people get blamed but not arrested.Instead the cop decides to just stay at the house overnight.The cop tells his chief the dead guy "had a broken neck, two collapsed ribs and a twisted back.I thought he had committed suicide until I noticed he had two broken arms".WTF?He thought the guy broke his own neck and twisted his own back?Dumb.Did I mention the old lady use to summon the ape man from the basement by banging a gong but when a guy empties his revolver into the ape man, no one up stairs can hear it?And when a woman screams from the basement everyone hears it?Dumb.When the third guy gets killed the cop jumps up and screams "Help!Murder!Police!" three times.Dumb.The most interesting thing about this movie is seeing how blacks were 75 years ago.Apparently they were all well mannered, dressed nice, spoke English, had jobs and they all had normal names.Yet today they can't do any of that.I didn't even come close to pointing out all the bad stuff about this horrible movie but I'm done.Don't waste your time with this.

Up to the 1950s, small studios made films for consumption in black movie houses across America. Given that these movies were never shown to mixed audiences, their audiences were rather small and their production values even smaller. For the most part, these films lack the polish and professional acting you'd find in other contemporary films--though there are a few exceptions. "Son of Ingagi" is an exception--but not in a good way. It manages to be significantly WORSE than the average black-produced film of its day and my score of 2 might just be a bit charitable.This film is supposed to be a horror film--much like the low-budget stuff being released by PRC and Monogram. However, given the budget is even LESS than that of these poverty row production companies, the film never elicits any chills or thrills, only giggles.It begins with a young couple getting married. Soon after the wedding, a strange old lady doctor comes to visit the bride (who, by the way, is the worst actor in the film...by far) and wish her well in her new marriage. In the following scene, you see the Doc at home and she has some sort of ape-man living in her home that she brought back from Africa. Despite having lived with her peacefully for MANY years, the ape-dude ends up killing her and others. The young couple then inherit the home and killings continue. The idiot police send their #1 idiot (Spencer Williams of "Amos 'n Andy" fame) to solve the crime though he isn't much good. Eventually, the man of the house rescues his bride (who the monster just kidnapped) and destroys the creature. However, there is so little energy and excitement that you really won't care....just laugh! While this isn't quite as bad as an Ed Wood film, it is close. The acting and writing were pretty bad and the film is, unfortunately, rather dull. The only good reasons to watch it are if you like watching bad movies or you want to see an example of black cinema. Other than that, stay clear.

While it's been said that there are other older films with all black casts dealing with the subject of voodoo or the supernatural this is without a doubt the first one to feature a creature and an African one at that.Historically this is a pretty interesting picture but as entertainment value it's extremely primitive. Made on teensy budget that would make a Monogram studios effort look extravagant this is an oddity even for ethnic films of the day as they were almost exclusively musical comedies or morality plays. Serious films and roles for African Americans would take a long time to get into the mainstream but the writer and Co-star of this piece of fluff would do much to change that a little later with his film The Blood Of Jesus. Unfortunately the stigma of playing Andrew Hogg Brown on the CBS TV show Amos and ANdy would hang over his head until recently when a lot of his serious films for the Harlem crowd were rediscovered.As the pithy story goes a rather bland couple has received a mysterious wedding gift from a seemingly "Grinchy" woman doctor who just happens to have a seven foot hairy ape type guy living in her basement. Nothing much is explained in any of the characters motivations but sometimes the critter is treated with sympathy, sometimes for chills and other times for laughs. In the first few scenes he comes off more like a mentally challenged human with a hirsute disease rather than the Gorilla Man that he's referred to later. Just when the good Dr. is on the verge on presenting a medical miracle serum to everyone her hairy companion drinks the stuff and goes on a rage and kills his benefactor. Whatever the stuff was it sure didn't agree with him. Most of the movie sort of clunks along with near run ins with the beast until the young couple inherits the house meets the ape man and the movie abruptly ends. I've actually seen worse old films than this tailored for a racial audience but this one is more for historians and exploitation buffs.