A MISSING LINK DOUBLE-BILL - SAME TITLE, TWO VERY DIFFERENT MOVIES!

Publicity poster for Missing Link (1988) and front cover of official DVD for Missing Link (2019) (© David and Carol Hughes/Universal Pictures; (© Chris Butler/Annapurna Pictures/Laika/Universal Artists/AGC – both images are reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Today's Shuker In MovieLand double-bill features two movies with the same title – Missing Link – but dramatically different formats and approaches, as will be seen.

MISSING LINK (1988)

The full cover for the official VHS videocassette of Missing Link, the live-action movie released in 1988 (© David and Carol Hughes/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After rediscovering during the afternoon of 11 June 2020 the hitherto-unwatched (by me) Time Masters animated movie on one of a batch of old videocassettes that I'd taped various movies, TV shows, etc onto, back in the late 1980s and 1990s (click here to read my Time Masters review), I carried on going through them and found another unwatched gem of a movie - Missing Link, made in 1988, which I duly watched the following day, and what an awesome film it is.

Directed and written by David and Carol Hughes, Missing Link is produced in the style of a wildlife documentary with a voiceover narration by actor Michael Gambon. It is set in Africa one million years ago, and follows a voyage of discovery across this continent by a lone adult male 'man-ape' belonging to the early hominin species Australopithecus robustus. He is seeking others of his own species after having fled from the direct ancestors of ours, Homo sapiens, when his entire family was viciously slaughtered by them, leaving him as the only remaining representative of his species in that area.

This very unusual movie is more than a little reminiscent of another one that I watched not long ago, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (click here to read my Shuker In MovieLand review of it), in that although there is not a great deal of plot, the cinematography (again the work of the Hugheses) is absolutely spectacular. Missing Link was filmed on location in various Namibian national parks filled with iconic African fauna such as lions, elephants, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, mongooses, wildebeests, and those veritable avian locusts the red-billed queleas, whose immense flocks swarm and swirl through the sky like living composite super-organisms.

This memorable movie's unnamed, unconventional star – a lone surviving australopithecine ape-man (© David and Carol Hughes/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The unnamed australopithecine is played by Peter Elliott, and the fur suit as well as the constructed head and face that transform him into the man-ape are very impressive indeed. Viewing this movie constantly reminded me of the much later TV documentary series Walking With Cavemen (first screened in 2003, it was a successor to the highly successful, ground-breaking Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts series). Certainly, Missing Link was indeed far ahead of its time, but its lack of any major storyline or dialogue (other than Gambon's occasional words) probably explained why it was not a commercial success when released, and why it is seemingly not available on DVD. (Following its cinema debut, it was released in VHS videocassette format, examples of which are occasionally listed for sale online, but these are usually quite pricey.)

This is a great shame, because Missing Link is very deserving of being seen, as a tragic testament to how our ancestors almost certainly contributed to these distant relatives' eventual extinction - unless the mysterious agogwe, séhité, kakundakari, and certain other diminutive hairy man-beasts reported across Africa in modern times are relict survivors?

Offering a taster of the dramatic wildlife vistas and compelling content of Missing Link, here is an official trailer for this very different but definitely must-watch movie.

MISSING LINK (2019)

Photographic still for Missing Link, the animated feature film released in 2019, with Dora the Yeti Elder seen at far right (© Chris Butler/Annapurna Pictures/Laika/Universal Artists/AGC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I spent the evening movie-watching on my birthday last year, 9 December 2019, of which my favourite was the DVD of Missing Link.

Directed by Chris Butler, this delightfully droll animated crypto-classic from early 2019 tells the story of what is supposedly the very last sasquatch (a restrained but all the more hilarious vocal tour de force by Zach Galifianakis). Namely, a very sensitive male bigfoot named Susan (don't ask!), who hires adventurer Sir Lionel Frost (voiced with great aplomb by Hugh Jackman) to end his loneliness by transporting him to the Himalayas where he can be united with his nearest kin, the yetis. (Cryptozoological purists be warned: the yetis here are portrayed as having white fur, a traditional if mistaken representation, as according to local eyewitness reports these mystery man-beasts are actually brown- or red-furred.)

Along the way, they meet up with a former significant other of Sir Lionel, the feisty Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), and are pursued tenaciously by the evil henchmen of Frost's nemesis, the repressive, insane Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry). His obsessive goal is to prevent Frost's discovery of both Susan the bigfoot and the yetis of Shangri-La from ever becoming known to the world at large.

Speaking of which: my favourite character is the etiolated, secretive, and deliciously paranoid Yeti Elder, Dora, voiced with acerbic zeal by Emma Thompson. Also worth listening out for are Little Britain stars David Walliams as Lemuel Lint, Sir Lionel's former assistant, who barely escapes with his life from his ever-perilous role, and Matt Lucas as Mr Collick, the no-less neurotic assistant of Lord Piggot-Dunceby.

Publicity poster for Missing Link featuring the Loch Ness monster (© Chris Butler/Annapurna Pictures/Laika/Universal Artists/AGC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Full of the dry, quip-driven humour that always appeals to me, but with a hefty dollop of good old-fashioned visual slapstick thrown in too, Missing Link also includes many spectacularly eyecatching scenes (one of which features fellow cryptid Nessie, the Loch Ness monster!), but none more so than the splendorous ice palaces and hidden valley of the yetis. Watching this charming movie was without a doubt a very enjoyable and highly entertaining way to pass a birthday evening.

To prove my assertion, here is a very funny official trailer for Missing Link – and here is another one!

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

A version of this double-bill review of cryptozoology-themed movies can also be accessed here on my ShukerNature blog.

WHAT A WHOPPER

Publicity poster for What a Whopper (© Gilbert Gunn/Regal Films International/Viscount Films - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I can still fondly remember the first time that I ever saw the early 1960s British comedy movie What a Whopper. I was around 13 years old, and had been fascinated by the Loch Ness monster ever since I first read about it as a child in a wonderful book entitled Stranger Than People (click here to read on my ShukerNature blog all about how this fascinating volume greatly influenced my interests in mysteries in general and cryptozoology in particular). The movie was shown on TV one evening in England, and I watched it in absolute delight on our faithful old b/w television (as the movie itself was made in b/w, I lost nothing by not watching it on a colour TV), thoroughly engrossed and willing Nessie to appear asap. A few years later, it was reshown, and again I watched it avidly, despite knowing the plot this time. But after that – nothing.

Years and years went by, and never once did What a Whopper make an appearance in the TV schedules here in the UK, despite my scrutinizing them closely, especially when I eventually acquired my first video recorder, meaning that I could then tape it off the TV for my own personal rewatching as often as I liked thereafter. I think that its absence was due to the fact that it was a b/w movie – since the turn of this current century, b/w productions, even ones as cinematically significant as the classic Laurel and Hardy features and shorts, and the countless silent comedies starring the likes of Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd, are shown on British TV far less frequently than in the past. Happily, however, during the early 2000s, What a Whopper finally made a much-belated but very welcome return to the small screen here, and I was ready, armed with my newest VCR and a top-quality videocassette. Moreover, last year I treated myself to this movie's official DVD, released in 2011, adding it to my sizeable collection of cryptozoology-themed films.

Speaking of which: it may come as a surprise to learn that in spite of the longstanding, global interest in Nessie, particularly since the first major flourish of modern-day sightings occurring in 1933, only a single LNM-themed movie had been produced – Secret of the Loch, directed by Milton Rosmer and released in 1934 – prior to the release in 1961 of What a Whopper, directed by Gilbert Gunn. Moreover, even What a Whopper is less concerned with Nessie directly than with utilizing her celebrity to make some money by decidedly nefarious but hilarious means. Although its leading star is none other than 1960s British heart-throb singer Adam Faith (but who did become a well-respected full-time actor in his own right in later years), for the most part the cast list of What a Whopper reads like a who's who of classic British comedy stars – including Sid James, Spike Milligan, Wilfrid Brambell, Amanda Barrie, Charles Hawtrey, Clive Dunn, Lance Percival, Terry Scott, Molly Weir, Frank Forsyth, and Freddie Frinton, plus an appearance by famous Scottish journalist and broadcaster Fyfe Robertson playing himself.

Another publicity poster for What a Whopper (© Gilbert Gunn/Regal Films International/Viscount Films - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Written by screenwriter Terry Nation (who also created the Daleks for Doctor Who), reworking it from an original story by Jeremy Lloyd and Trevor Peacock, the plot saw Faith as perennially-unsuccessful would-be writer Tony Blake. After receiving yet another rejection from a publisher for his latest book, concerning the Loch Ness monster, but in dire need of some cash to avoid being evicted from his rented one-room flat in Chelsea, London, Tony hits upon the idea of faking a photograph of the selfsame monster and selling it to the media for a tidy little sum of money.

Travelling to Loch Ness with his friend Vernon, Vernon's girlfriend Charlotte, and pretty French hitch-hiker Marie whom they pick up along the way, Tony uses a hidden speaker to create a monstrous roaring sound that he convinces the locals living near the loch is none other than the cry of Nessie herself. He also attempts to create his planned phony photo using a fake monster – only to discover to his alarm and chagrin that several locals have come up with exactly the same idea, using their own equally faux LNM lookalikes. And when one of the locals finds his hidden speaker, Tony realizes that the game is not so much afoot as up – well and truly up, in fact.

Fleeing from a posse of enraged locals, Tony and Marie jump upon a rowing boat and row rapidly from shore out across the loch, but still facing the shore, and becoming increasingly puzzled as to why the locals standing there suddenly stop shouting angrily at them and instead begin gesticulating frantically to them. So when Tony and Marie then hear a loud roar behind them, they immediately look over their shoulder – and yes, you've guessed it, there is Nessie herself, all scaly vertical neck and grinning face, who turns to the camera and gives an extremely louche wink before rumbling: "What a whopper!" Wonderful! (Click here if you'd like to view this fantastic closing scene on YouTube.)

Nessie's long-awaited appearance in What a Whopper (© Gilbert Gunn/Regal Films International/Viscount Films - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Having said that, my other favourite scene from this movie sees Adam Faith's character Tony listening to the radio with Marie when who should come on but – yes indeed – Adam Faith! Under the name Eden Charity, he is performing his new song, 'The Time Has Come', much to the disgust of Tony, who calls him a nit and loudly bemoans to Marie that he can't stand him! It is of course noticeable that despite Tony's complaints, the radio just so happens to stay on long enough for Adam/Eden to sing the whole of his song, and Tony even croons along to it, barely suppressing a smile as he does so! Indeed, in real life Adam Faith did release this song as a single, which went on to achieve a very respectable #4 position in the UK Singles chart during 1961, while the movie was on general release in cinemas. Click here to view on YouTube the above-described scene from What a Whopper and hear this song.

Far superior in my opinion, however, was the eponymous theme song to What a Whopper – which can currently be heard here on YouTube – playing through this movie's opening scene, which depicts the beginning of the Swinging Sixties scene in London in a somewhat saucy manner. Incidentally, both songs were written by Laurie Johnson, a celebrated British bandleader and prolific writer of scores for countless films and TV shows.

As I noted earlier, What a Whopper is now available on DVD, so I heartily recommend all dedicated fans not only of vintage British comedy films but also of cryptozoological monster movies to add this very funny 86-minute rarity to their collection. Moreover, as it’s in Region 0 DVD format, it can be played on any DVD player anywhere in the world.

Finally: to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

The official DVD of What a Whopper, which I'm delighted to own after having sought out this movie on TV for such a long time (© Gilbert Gunn/Regal Films International/Viscount Films/Renown Pictures Ltd - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)