King Kung Fu (1976)

A remote monastery in China has trained a talking gorilla, King Kung Fu, in the ancient art of kung fu. Having mastered his fighting skills, King Kung Fu is sent to America to demonstrate ... See full summary »

Director:

Lance D. Hayes

Writer:

Lance D. Hayes

Stars:

John Ballee, Billy Schwartz, Lois Ayers

Cast

Credited cast:
John Ballee	...	Gorilla
Billy Schwartz	...	Bo Burgess
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lois Ayers	...	Myrtle
Allan Baker	...	Smilin' Jack
Fred Burton	...	Bruce the Great
Dan Campbell	...	Dr. Harris Freeb
Robert Carroll	...	F. Lawrence LaRue
Lee Elliot	...	Sig Heil
Jim Erickson	...	Al Funku
Maxine Gray	...	Rae Jean Fey
Pat Hayes	...	Meter maid
Lillian Kelley	...	Agatha
Jack Lee	...	Wild Bill
Tim McGill	...	Herman
Stephen S. Sisley	...	Officer Pilgrim

Storyline

A remote monastery in China has trained a talking gorilla, King Kung Fu, in the ancient art of kung fu. Having mastered his fighting skills, King Kung Fu is sent to America to demonstrate the power of Chinese martial arts to the West. As he is travelling through Kansas, a pair of bumbling reports see KKF and decide he can be their ticket to fame and wealth. Of course, the gorilla gets away from them, and soon everyone is chasing the Shaolin simian.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | gorilla | martial arts | falling down stairs | balloon | 

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Taglines:

He came from China ... He knew Karate ... The Monster Master of the Martial Arts ... They called him ... "King Kung Fu"

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Genres:

Action | Comedy

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Filming Locations:

Wichita, Kansas, USA

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Began filming in 1974, production was shut down several times when they ran out of money, was finally released in 1987.

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Quotes

Gorilla: I gotta make like a banana and split!

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Connections

References King Kong (1933)

User Reviews

Death, destruction and despair II

I revisited my comments here for the first time in years, and was horrified to see that I'd misidentified it as the bad local film they used to show at the Drama Department picnic. Absolutely wrong--that was ANOTHER Wichita POS made for local TV called something like Creature From Beyond Time or similar. The Creature was Tom Leahy, the only remotely amusing actor in King Kung Fu.

I apologize to anyone who was harmed, offended, or left the profession because of my thoughtless remarks.

Otherwise, the rest stands. Bob Walterscheid said it best in his comments herein:

'If you laugh at the opening titles when it says "Filmed in SimianScope" then you'll laugh all the way thru the movie.'

Exactly. Couldn't have said it better.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Original comments:

In my decades-long hunt for the World's Worst Movie, I'm finding that there's distinct categories of Worst. There's sincere-but-lame Worst (Night of Horror), totally-inept Worst (Rat Pfink), crass-exploitation Worst (The Acid Eaters), and so on. There just isn't one standard of Worst that'll put Manos, Blood Feast, and Showgirls on the same rating scale.

King Kung Fu is the World's Worst Movie in the category, "Wichita, Kansas, In-Joke Films Made by Local Commercial Production Companies and Never Released Theatrically." All I can figure is that Bob Walterscheid, the person responsible, saw what fellow Kansas commercial producer Herk Harvey had accomplished with Carnival of Souls up in Lawrence a few years earlier, and decided to try and make his own feature-length film, and in color, yet.

To paraphrase Monster a Go Go, "It was mutilated in a horrible way no one had ever seen before."

The only public showing of this - "film" - I can document was as a running joke at the annual Drama Department picnic at Wichita State University, where you could hoot and point out everyone you recognized. Otherwise, even if you're as dedicated as I am in the hunt for the World's Worst, or, alternatively, even if you're a blood relative of one of the participants, trust me - you DON'T WANT TO KNOW. LET IT GO. PUT THE TAPE DOWN AND BACK SLOWLY AWAY. KING KUNG FU WILL SUCK THE AIR FROM YOUR LUNGS. IF THEY SHOWED THIS MOVIE ON THE BEACH AT PADRE ISLAND AT THE HEIGHT OF SPRING BREAK EVERYONE WATCHING WOULD IMMEDIATELY TURN INTO WARREN CHRISTOPHER.

I'm not kidding.