Konga (1961)

Great Film overall

Brilliant and touching

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Well...at least producer Herman Cohen is right up front about what exactly he's ripping off here. However, there is a hook in that he's combining a King Kong type story with your typical "Frankenstein" type of cautionary tale. The demented scientist determined to play God in this instance is insane botanist Charles Decker (Michael Gough). Having crash landed in Africa and been missing in action for a year, Decker figured out the means of greatly increasing size in plant and animal matter. So he takes his newfound chimpanzee friend Konga, and injects him with his extra special new formula. The result is a great big man-in-a-gorilla-suit monster that eventually goes insane with rage.This *could* have been more of a campy delight, but too often it gets bogged down in story and becomes dull. There's not that much action here. Of course, considering just how *awful* the special effects are, that might have been for the best. The actors do their best, and due to the fact that they've got their own problems and aren't having to deal with Konga, they don't look *too* embarrassed. Margo Johns plays Margaret, Deckers' loyal assistant who's uncomfortable being party to things like murder, which Decker tries to dismiss as just "testing Kongas' loyalty". But she's willing to let it slide, provided that Decker marry her. But the gal that he's really got his eyes on is his vivacious, lovely student Sandra (Claire Gordon), whose boyfriend Bob (Jess Conrad) gets understandably upset. Also among those slumming away with this material are Austin Trevor, Jack Watson, George Pastell, Vanda Godsell, and Leonard Sachs. One worthy component is the music by Gerard Schurmann, but what really makes it watchable at all is Goughs' wonderful schlock movie hambone acting. As you can imagine, Decker is one of those "I'll show them! I'll show them all!" nut jobs in the classic tradition.A young Steven Berkoff has an early, uncredited role as a student.Five out of 10.

Complete review of a deathless masterpiece......Good old Michael Gough, first seen carrying a chimp unhindered through customs, he soon departs for his house, in which every room seems to be painted green. Gough then accidentally smashes his growth serum on the floor of his lab, proceding to shoot his cat when he licks it up. "We can't have a cat the size of a leopard roaming around London!" After a few injections the tiny chimp Konga turns into a bloke in a gorilla suit, aided by a "wavy line" screen effect, and is promptly hypnotised by The Goughster, looking extremely stoned when the process is finished. "Nobody in the world suspects how close we are!" Gough then has Konga off the Dean of his college, probably for being a baldy annoyance. His ultimate goal is to "Change the shape of human beings",and to this aim he has a greenhouse full of rubber carnivorous plants. Some bloke with a tea towel on his head turns up as a rival to Gough's scientific theories, and Konga kills him on his master's orders, too. The Great Gough also takes his students on field trips to study mosses and ferns, which is extremely interesting. Cue a blink and you'll miss it jazz radio sequence in the back of the van with the students, who all look about 35. Of course it being Britain it p**ses down. Despite offering to marry his secretary, who is fully aware he's a murderer, Gough also puts the moves on one of his students; "He's old enough to be your father!" His love rival, a truly terrible actor in a natty blue pullover chins The Goughmeister, which is probably a bad idea when he's got a gorilla for a bessie mate. "You'll probably have me expelled for this." Nah, not when gooney-eyed Konga can unconvincingly choke you as you're trying to start your Vespa! "Here, Konga!" Of course the law is useless as usual. The big revelation is when we see Gough having his breakfast in a purple-painted kitchen - it's not all green! "It's shocking" says his sec/lover, presumably referring to the multiple murders rather than the decor, although I could be wrong. "Destroy Konga? But why?" Er, he's a homicidal gorilla, responsible for 3 killings luv.70 mins gone. Still no giant Konga in sight. Gough decides to ditch his secretary for the 30 year old teenage student he's got the hots for. The sec rebels, sticking about 45 pints of serum into Konga. And at last the Gough starts overacting. Konga chucks a plastic doll that looks nothing like the woman around and then bursts out of the house, picking up the Gough on the way - Yaaaay! The local Trumpton fire bobbies arrive about 15 seconds later. Konga goes on a non-rampage, carrying an Action Man. "There's a huge monster gorilla thats constantly growing loose in the streets" says the inspector. A1 for observation, then. Konga, still looking stoned, refuses to lower the Gough. Lots of extras run into the camera, desperately trying to get away. Shock horror, Konga makes for Big Ben, the only part of the UK most Americans recognise.....Having spent 10 minutes going "Urgh, arrgh," while stuck in Konga's grasp, Gough struggles to no avail. The army, deploying outside the "Famous for Shoes" store, arrive in what looks like 2 diddymen trucks and promptly open fire, missing completely from a distance of about 10 yards. Poor Gough gets chucked at them. Konga dies, even though every tracer bullet has gone wide of the mark, falls over next to Gough, and reverts back to chimp size, arrrh! The final shot has Gough lying next to his tragic creation. What a classic! 4 stars for the sheer cheek of the thing!

Dr. Charles Decker (Michael Gough) comes back from Africa after a year, presumed dead. During that year, he came across a way of growing plants and animals to an enormous size. He brings back a baby chimpanzee to test out his theory.Where to begin with this film? I find it really, really enjoyable... especially since the doctor is played by Alfred Pennyworth. But two things simply have to be brought up: The professor's attraction to his student is odd. I mean, it is not unique to this film, but the creep level here is pretty high (not seen at this level again until "Re-Animator"). For being the protagonist, he is a pretty dastardly fellow.And, that "chimp" that looks like a man in a gorilla suit. Clearly, the director did not care about the audience, because no one could possibly find this believable. I am not even sure how the other actors could take this seriously... the film has a serious tone with the exception of the suit, so I have to believe they were not trying to be campy.

The plot and special effects for this film are terrible--especially the special effects. However, despite being a completely terrible film, it isn't total garbage. Michael Gough's completely one-note and over the top performance actually makes the entire thing worth seeing, as this terrible over-acting is the only way they could have made this thing work at all.The film begins with Gough being discovered in the jingle a year after he was assumed to have died in a plane crash. He's in fine shape and excited about carrying on with botanical experiments based on what he learned while staying with Ugandans until his rescuers arrived. Apparently, a local witch doctor taught him a lot of cool things about genetic manipulation and mind control (little-known fact--most of the world's top geneticists are in fact witch doctors, with three recent Nobel Prize winners being witch doctors).It seems his research has to do with, get this, infusing plant DNA into animals in order to make them grow to huge proportions in a matter of minutes! My favorite experiment is one where he gave a cute little chimpanzee injections and it grew into a gorilla!! How the miracle drug caused the animal to not only grow but change species is beyond me!! And, for these scenes, there was of course the obligatory man in a gorilla suit! You'll love Michael Gough's performance as the doctor, as he manages to wonderfully create as mad a scientist as you can find on film. With such stock phrases like "you fools!" and "I'll show them!!", he's perfect for the part. And, like any self-respecting mad scientist, he's not above using his giant chimp/gorilla to settle some grudges. In fact, having the beast kill is sort of like eating potato chips--you can't stop with only one! By the end of the film, not only are several people dead, but Gough's jealous mistress decides to give the animal a HUGE injection--resulting in a 60 foot high creature. However, how big the animal is seems to change in each scene (the scale was NOT well established or maintained)! And eventually, when the "chorilla" takes Gough prisoner and while he's struggling in vain in the clutches of the animal, what does he repeatedly yell? Yep, "you fool, you fool"! The final scenes show the chorilla (with Gough) roaming the streets of London. Oddly, the beast does NOT go on a rampage but rather ambles about without causing any particular harm. In fact, much of the time he just stands there doing absolutely nothing! This made it easy for the military to attack it and in a less than thrilling finale, you see tracer bullets and bazooka shells consistently missing the creature--even though the folks are only about ten yards away!! These are supposedly trained soldiers and he's the size of a house...and yet they keep missing! It's actually pretty funny.Overall, the costumes and special effects are truly dreadful. The story is quite silly (but watchable in a cheesy sort of way) and Michael Gough does pretty much the same job acting as he did in most films he made during the 1960s and early 70s--an angry and superior sort of fella from start to finish. For bad movie fans who like laughing at inept films, this is a movie just for them. For anyone else, forget it--you can't help but do better picking another film.