M Movies

Mighty Gorga, The

Movies like Konga (1961) and A*P*E (1976) have proven that all you need to make a King Kong rip-off is a ratty gorilla suit and some bad models. But what if you only have half a gorilla suit? That’s the question The Mighty Gorga strives to answer.

Mark (Eisley) runs a circus under threat of foreclosure. To save his business he flies to Africa and recruits hunter Tonga Jack (Taylor) and his daughter April (Timothy) to help him capture Gorga, a giant gorilla worshipped by the native tribe.

Even in a sub-genre known for being cheap, The Mighty Gorga is very, very cheap. Gorga is only ever shown from the waist up, suggesting that the filmmakers didn’t have the bottom half of the costume, and the face has a frozen expression and bugged out eyes. As added bonuses The Mighty Gorga also features one of the least realistic dinosaurs in cinema history and an incredibly cheesy lost treasure.

Mighty Joe Young

Time for some monkey business. Promoters find a giant gorilla that follows the commands of young woman and put them both in show business. The gorilla goes on a rampage one night and it takes an act of selfless heroism to make people realize who the real victim is. It's kind of like King Kong shrunk down, with more humor and heart.

Mighty Joe Young

Remake casts the story of Mighty Joe Young in a more modern, eco-friendly light, but it's best to ignore the script and enjoy the visuals: Charlize Theron, of course, but also the technically impressive Joe, who appears as a computer animated gorilla and also as real-life men in suits and the animatronic creations of Rick Baker. Sweet and competently made, but definitely a movie for kids.

Mighty Peking Man

He's a ten-story-tall prehistoric primate -- and he needs love! This Shaw Brothers production is one of the better giant-monkey movies made since Kong first went ape over Fay Wray. It has the classic man-woman-ape love triangle, it has an intrepid explorer, it has a beautiful girl, and it has a tragic ending as a result of the explorer's heedless meddling. As Steve Ryfle put it, "Mighty Peking Man is a throwback to those good old days when technical virtuosity wasn't the only thing that mattered, and low budget didn't necessarily mean low-octane."

Review: Stomp Tokyo.

Monster Island

A young man, along with his annoying tutor, is shipwrecked on an island brimming with cannibals, monkeys, dinosaurs and giant caterpillars. Based on the Verne novel Mysterious Island only in that it features an island, this cheap Spanish movie is given the semblance of class by Cushing and Stamp, though Stamp's distinctive voice ruins one of the two twists at the end of the film. Cushing and Stamp's efforts are completely undone by David Hatton horribly unfunny performance as the highly strung tutor. Perhaps inspired by the hand puppet monsters, Hatton seems to be trying to be a Muppet himself.

Monster That Challenged the World, The

Navy researchers encounter humongous man-eating "snails" in California's Salton Sea. Thoughtful script and credible performances by Holt and Conreid rescue this movie from mediocrity.

Review: SciFilm.

Mothra

Mothra introduces another classic monster to the genre. Scientist find an island that has been covered in radioactive fallout, with mutations including tiny telepathic twin girls and a giant egg. The girls are kidnapped, and the egg hatches into a huge larva hell bent for Tokyo! The special effects are particularly good this time around, especially once Mothra becomes a full grown insect. Mothra is also noteworthy for being the first kaiju with good intentions.

Mysterians, The

Aliens from Mars set up a base in a secluded place in Japan and declare that they want women. The Japanese government doesn't take kindly to this, and a war of super-weapons is joined.

One of the alien weapons is a giant robot mole named Moguera. It appears early in the movie and is destroyed by conventional military tactics, making it practically unique in the Toho pantheon of monsters. At the film's climax a couple of Moguera robots are seen briefly.

Mysterious Island

Ray Harryhausen provided a number of giant monster to this adaptation of the Jules Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A balloon carrying Civl War soldiers is caught in a huge storm and stranded on a remote island. The soldiers, along with a shipwrecked cutie, must survive a giant octopus, a giant bird, giant bees and a volcanic eruption. It's all in good fun.

Mysterious Island, The

Loosely based on a Jules Verne novel, the movie features Barrymore as an inventor under attack by evil men who want to use his submarine as a weapon. Originally made as a silent film, sound sequences were added later. Features an appearance by a giant octopus and some sort of dinosaur, probably an alligator "in costume."