In 1976, famed movie producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the rights to King Kong and planned to update the age old film in a big budget special effects bonanza. Imagine his anger when heard about A*P*E.
Schlockmeister Jack H. Harris, an experienced b-movie producer, decided to jump on the big ape bandwagon, throw in a bit of Jaws and release a pretender to the throne filmed in low budget South Korea. Dino would legally challenge the production, but failed to stop it. Besides, couldn't he read the poster? A*P*E was NOT to be confused with King Kong. It's right there, clear as day.
A*P*E would be the first project featuring young Joanna De Varona, who would rise to greater stardom under her married name of Joanna Kerns. Playing the twisted, modern day, cut rate Anne Darrow-type character, Ms. Kerns hit the right marks- screaming and thrashing on cue.
Sadly, this isn't the most ridiculous scene in the film- really.
The fake special effects couldn't cover up the fact that the "vicious" A*P*E of this film was just a guy in an ape suit. It would take a special kind of incompetence for a 1976 film to make the effects in a 1933 film look cutting edge and state of the art. Mr. Harris was definitely up to the challenge. His attempt to introduce a shark that could take on the titular ape looks as fake as anything else in the film. The filmmakers obviously bought a dead shark from a South Korean fish market and had their guy in an ape suit pretend to wrestle it.
The scene that makes SeaWorld look humane and caring by comparison.
Sadly, the film would dive to greater, unbelievable depths. We've seen fake giant hands, shameless promotion, a man in a suit wrestling a dead shark, could things get worse? Yes they can. In an amazingly bizarre FU to the audience, the ape actually flips off the camera.
I got one finger up for you Siskel and Ebert!
After seeing that last picture, what more could really be said?
