Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mystery Movie: WILD, WILD APES

While digging through the Temple library for newspaper ads to include in the latest installment of “Random Movie Ads” I came across this howler from December 1968, which deserves its own post and one hell of an explanation. I hope someone can provide one, because I’m stumped.


My take on it: some crooked sub-distributor, after examining the box-office take for PLANET OF THE APES, hauled a print of Cy Endfield’s awesome desert survival flick SANDS OF THE KALAHARI (1965) out of storage and – armed with scissors, glue and a few pressbooks (Antonio Margheriti’s WILD, WILD PLANET being one of the obvious ones) – came up with an ad campaign that looks like a case of fraudulent advertising if there ever was one. WILD, WILD APES is supposed to take place in 2068, when the world has been overrun by apes. All the artwork is recognizable from the WILD, WILD PLANET and SANDS OF THE KALAHARI advertising...



...except for the word “APES,” which was pulled from the PLANET OF THE APES ads...


...and that picture of Ursula Andress, which is what really has me scratching my head. If you can make out the credit block, you’ll notice Ursula’s name has also been added to the SANDS OF THE KALAHARI cast list. I have an image of Nigel Davenport staggering over a sand dune and - *cut*splice* - Honey Ryder's iconic entrance suddenly appears to him on the other side as a mirage.

I give up. The title is WILD, WILD APES. Anyone?

5 comments:

Marty McKee said...

Boy, I really really wanna know what this is all about.

Anonymous said...

I think you may have figured it out already
Reminds me of the BLIND FILM being sold as an APES sequel.

Anonymous said...

And Ursula Andress' image is from a poster for SHE (1965)!

Any idea on where in the U.S. the ad was published?

Temple of Schlock said...

High Point, North Carolina

venoms5 said...

Wow, High Point is scarcely an hour away from me. I'd say you've gotten your answer as well.