Tales of the Gold Monkey was a
television series in the early 80’s
that starred Stephen Collins. It
only ran for one season even
though it won a Primetime Emmy.
Norbert made an appearance in
the pilot episode as Hanus.
Tales of the Gold Monkey is now
available on DVD as a rental from
Netflix or for sale through various
retail outlets such as Amazon and
others.
Tales of the Gold Monkey is part Indiana Jones adventure mixed with part covert spy story lines and even a little
hint of Casablanca. It is set in the South Pacific in 1938, even though it kind of resembles the windward side of
Oahu in some places and Kauai in others... There are German soldiers as well as a wide mix of local and colorful
characters -- including Japanese Samurai.
Norbert appears as Hanus in the pilot episode very briefly. He is one
of two German officers posing as Dutch artists who are on the trail of
a Gold Monkey -- rumored to be a gold icon 100 feet tall that was
made of such strong gold and other metal that it withstood the heat
of an erupting volcano. The Germans want to learn how to make this
metal so they can build strong rockets.
In shades of the film Congo, the cave where this gold icon is supposed to be located, is guarded by large
cannibalistic and killer monkeys. The man traveling with Hanus shoots at one of the monkeys when it acts
aggressively towards them. It takes several shots to kill it, but its body eventually drops into a stream and floats
away. At that point, several more of the large-toothed, killer monkeys appear and attack the two men, tossing
their mutilated bodies into the same stream. As gory as it sounds, there really isn’t anything gruesome about
these scenes -- there is no blood to speak of and the violence is more implied than visual.
It’s interesting that there
are more German officers in
these southern Pacific
islands that any other
people. This is the German
officer who has come to the
islands on the trail of the
gold monkey. He is the one
who explains who Hanus and
his partner are, and why
they are after the Gold Monkey. He only knows that his men have
gone missing, not that they have been killed by the ferocious
monkeys. He has partnered with the Japanese in the area in hopes
of beating the Americans to the gold idol.
The killer monkeys attack viciously ripping one of the men apart
and killing Hanus as they throw him into the stream, claw at him
and drown him.
Hanus and his partner realize they are in serious trouble when several monkeys show up to avenge the death of the
first monkey. When his partner asks him what they should do, Hanus replies, “I think we die.”
The two men react to the first monkey swinging across the
stream to attack them. The other soldier shoots the monkey
several times.
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