Konga - Erbe von King Kong

I love this underrated little gem starring a Michael Gough in great shape, as good as he was in HORROR IN BLACK MUSEUM or even THE BLACK ZOO, another Herman Cohen production. Some kind of a poor man's Peter Cushing or even Christopher Lee, I nevertheless love this actor in such lousy but so good looking psychotronic stuff from the early sixties. The inspiration from KING KONG is so obvious that I won't insist on it. It is fun, amazingly entertaining, the perfect non intellectual time waster that you can wait for; but of course the new generation of movie buffs will hardly appreciate. Me, on the contrary, am always a bit attached to this poor chimp, this innocent little animal who will become some kind of evil beast.... The contrast between both of those images move me, it is so sad, despite the quality of this assumed B movie.

Konga is a film about a giant gorilla. It was obviously trying to emulate an earlier film by the name of King Kong but the two films are so different.

Michael Gough plays a mad scientist who gives Konga a growth serum. He gets Konga to do his bidding throughout the film but things spiral out of control eventually.

The film is totally crazy and it's fun seeing the actors so straight faced. Michael Gough as Doctor Decker is so obviously a nutter but no-one (even the police who question him) seems to notice much. Eventually, Konga becomes uncontrollable and goes on a rampage. So what does London do? Does it call in fighter jets? No. It calls in the local police and a few dozen soldiers. If it was up to me I'd clear the city and send the fighter jets in.

The film is an absolute lesson in buffoonry. It's also not very scientifically accurate. Now I'm no scientist but I have learned a bit in my long life. Michael Gough brings a CHIMPANZEE from the jungle and injects him with growth serum but instead of the CHIMPANZEE becoming a bigger CHIMPANZEE, he actually becomes a GORILLA. So for all his bravado, Doctor Decker didn't realise that his serum actually caused the chimp to become a different animal entirely.

But, that's what I like about films like this. Don't you just love a film that is scientifically inaccurate and crazy. Check it out.

I very much enjoyed Konga when I first saw it in a theatre at about the age of nine, and surprisingly enjoyed it almost as much on television. The plot is the standard issue mad scientist who comes up with a growth serum that makes a creature large which then goes on a rampage formula, set in England this time. The creature here is an ape who just happens to be called Konga (hint..hint), which gives one a sense of the degree of subtlety in the film.

If one can call scenery chewing magisterial I think it's fair to say that Michael Gough, as the mad scientist in this one, does it with an authority worthy of at the very least a knighthood, if not a lordship. The special effects are, alas, dreadful even for a modestly budgeted film such as this, but no matter. Gough is the whole show, and his performance is of such profligacy as to bring a round of applause from Messrs. Zucco and Atwill, were they still with us.

***Plot Points Ahead, or my interpretation of those plot points***

What can you say about a cute funny little chimpanzee who grows up to be a not so funny giant Gorilla? That he was once young and beautiful? That he loved bananas? That he once played carefree in the jungle, only to journey to England to become the star of his own feature film? That they surrounded him with some of the worst over- acting ever to grace a horror film? That his toy doll people were not much fun to play with? That he had to die to be returned to his former lovable monkey self? Oh the horror of it all!

For most of this film, when the wicked Dr. Decker, played with a giant side order of ham by Michael Gough, injects that poor Chimpanzee with his nasty super grow essence of hulk formula, it is just plain stupid, boring, ridiculous, and dumb. Apparently the good Doctor also sees the new formula as sort of a viagra type grow drug, because he suddenly gets the hots for a young college student. He's got it bad, really bad, so much so that he sends Konga out to kill a young male college student who has the hots for the same gal. And that guy didn't even have any of the drug. When the doctor's female assistant who apparently has the hots for the good doctor also, (guess she sees him making good use of the drug also) finds out about all this nonsense, she overdoses poor Konga with this super steroid, thinking Konga will rip the good doctor and/or the college girl to shreds. Instead she only manages in getting herself killed, and letting a gigantic Konga loose on London and an unsuspecting movie going public. Konga has a little jealousy streak of his own, does away with the college girl, then carries the good Dr. through London. At First, all the people run hurriedly away, but eventually they reach the end of the studio back lot and can't go any further, so they stop to gawk and stare. At this point, Konga realizes he doesn't have the good doctor in his hand after all, but a wooden doll, so angrily he throws the doll to the ground, which must have been under some kind of magic spell because it suddenly turns back into the now very dead doctor. Unfortunately for Konga, the movie has reached it's budget limit, so unable to tear down any buildings or step on any gawking spectators, the police show up and fire one million shots at him, none of them actually hitting him. This is all too much for the poor Konga, who drops dead of a heart attack and shrinks back to the innocent chimpanzee he was at the beginning. I'm not sure how they shrunk the man in the ape suit but I think he died and shrunk into a dead chimpanzee suit because the fellow is nowhere to be found. Shakespeare should have written such a tragedy.

Till Next Time With tongue held firmly in cheek Next Class Please

Utterly ludicrous movie in all departments,but if you like Edward D wood Jnr then you will enjoy this.One of the funniest lines delivered is when guy in charge of the police rings up the police radio room and says (with a straight face)"there's a huge monster gorilla loose in the streets get my car and all available cars ready"