Orangopoid: Scarier than the Mugato?

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I leave it to your judgment.

Orangopoid, from Flash Gordon (1936):

Mugato, from Star Trek (1968):

For the record, that orangopoid did some serious jabbin' and stabbin' with that horn, on top of that mean-ass expression of his.

 

[Warped9]

The Orangopoid looks better, at least in that shot.

 

[Melakon]

The Orangopoid was played by B-Movie film star and stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan. He showed up a lot in gorilla suits (he may have owned one), including a few shorts with the Three Stooges. His last film appearance was the title role in It! The Terror Beyond Space, sometimes thought to be the inspiration for Ridley Scott's Alien.

The Mugato is Janos Prohaska, who frequently built his own costumes, and his ape creatures all have a distinctive facial style. Prohaska also did work on the original The Outer Limits. Compare his Mugato with his chimp Darwin in the Outer Limits episode "Sixth Finger", with David McCallum.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Fascinating!

 

[TOSalltheway]

A Private Little War is a classic example of what could have been a great episode ruined by cheap monsters, and silly wigs.

It had so much to say about geo-politics but I can can think of is the Mugato and the hill people with their silly blow dried blonde wigs.

 

[Melakon]

The Orangopoid in action can be seen during the first few minutes of this Flash Gordon chapter, here retitled as "Space Soldiers" for television. The costume does sort of look like the same one Corrigan wore in the Stooges short "Three Missing Links", without the horn, and some of his ape mannerisms are similar.

The full chapter is about 18 minutes, so I'm not embedding it here. It looks laughable by today's standards, but this was the equivalent of Star Trek in 1936. Of course, Charles Middleton's iconic Ming the Merciless is in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNRA872JfEk

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Ehh, the horn does flop around a little bit, doesn't it?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I think Prohaska's Mugatu costume was extremely good. And his performance as a dangerous wild animal was stunning.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

The Orangopoid in action can be seen during the first few minutes of this Flash Gordon chapter, here retitled as "Space Soldiers" for television...It looks laughable by today's standards, but this was the equivalent of Star Trek in 1936.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNRA872JfEk

This makes me wonder if kids today, looking back on the original Star Trek, see it in any way similar as to we would have looking back on Flash Gordon when we were young?

 

[Melakon]

Wait until their kids start laughing at Star Wars: A New Hope.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

My 6-year-old is quite enthralled by Flash Gordon; he watched the original serial for the second time this week.

The one ambivalent comment he made was "Why do the girls in this scream all the time?"

 

[publiusr]

The Orangopoid was played by B-Movie film star and stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan.

And the Mugatu was played by Will Ferrell...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The Orangopoid in action can be seen during the first few minutes of this Flash Gordon chapter, here retitled as "Space Soldiers" for television...It looks laughable by today's standards, but this was the equivalent of Star Trek in 1936.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNRA872JfEk

This makes me wonder if kids today, looking back on the original Star Trek, see it in any way similar as to we would have looking back on Flash Gordon when we were young?

Probably, of course when I was young they showed both Flash Gordon and Star Trek on TV (in reruns at least) so I don't quite have the same point of reference.

My 6-year-old is quite enthralled by Flash Gordon; he watched the original serial for the second time this week.

The one ambivalent comment he made was "Why do the girls in this scream all the time?"

I watched it earlier in the year, it's still pretty entertaining.

 

[Melakon]

There was also a 1950s television version of Flash Gordon, made in West Germany I think, starring Steve Holland. I remember watching it at least once.

There was a line from either that series, or perhaps the Buster Crabbe serials, that has achieved some internet notoriety. All I remember about the scene is Flash is being tortured or brainwashed or something, and some woman is chanting, "Men are weak. Women are strong," repeatedly. I haven't been able to locate where it's from specifically.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

There was also a 1950s television version of Flash Gordon, made in West Germany I think, starring Steve Holland. I remember watching it at least once.

There was a line from either that series, or perhaps the Buster Crabbe serials, that has achieved some internet notoriety. All I remember about the scene is Flash is being tortured or brainwashed or something, and some woman is chanting, "Men are weak. Women are strong," repeatedly. I haven't been able to locate where it's from specifically.

Oh, that German show was truly awful. Pure product of the Marshall Plan. I've got four episodes on a cut-rate DVD and they're laughably hideous.

There was one cool thing, though: a kind of tangled star-chart that could have been the inspiration for the complicated diagram Daffy Duck drew in "Duck Dodgers." Can't recall the quote you mention, but I'll bet it's from that.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Wait until their kids start laughing at Star Wars: A New Hope.

Funny thing is, some kids do laugh at it--even after all of the endless CG Special Edition and DVD changes.

 

[Melakon]

"Duck Dodgers" is the best sci-fi satire ever made.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

"Duck Dodgers" is the best sci-fi satire ever made.

Did you ever see the series made for Cartoon Network? It was much in the spirit of the original.

 

[Melakon]

No, I've missed it. But without the talents of Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Michael Maltese, and Carl Stalling, it just wouldn't be the same.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I think one of the last things Jones did was to give the project his blessing. It wasn't quite the same, but it had respect for the legacy of the classic cartoons and was astronomically better than the insipid "Looney Tunes Show" they're making now.