B to Z Movies: Konga (1961)

Mighty Joe Young wasn't the only alternative giant ape movie I read about in the Crestwood House monster book on King Kong, as it also made brief mention of this flick, talking about how it concerned a little chimpanzee being turned into a giant, monstrous ape by a mad scientist and that it ended with the ape running amok while carrying the scientist in his hand (because of the connection to King Kong, I assumed the scientist in question was a woman, and it didn't help that it showed a picture of a giant ape holding a woman; I couldn't say if that was a deleted shot from this film or taken from a different movie entirely). And, as I've now said many times ad nauseam, that was all I knew of it for many years and I didn't actually see any of it until I was around twelve or thirteen years old, when I caught a bit of it one October when AMC was having its annual MonsterFest marathon (I'm not sure but I have a feeling it was the MonsterFest that was hosted by Roger Corman, which was in 1999). I remember seeing the moment where Konga is given his first two injections of the serum that increases his size, with the second inexplicably turning him from a chimp into a gorilla, and Michael Gough's mad scientist using hypnosis to ensure his obedience and sending him after those who threaten him in some way, but I didn't see the ending, where he becomes a true giant and roams through London. Weirdly, the first time I saw that was on an episode of Whose Lone Is It Anyway?, where they played a game of "Newsflash" and had clips of the movie playing on a green screen while Drew Carey acted as a reporter caught up in the mayhem. Although they, of course, assumed it was King Kong, I knew it was Konga just from looking at it. The next time I learned anything about it was when it was briefly talked about on a King Kong-centered episode of Animal Planet's Animal Icons series, which came out to promote the release of Peter Jackson's movie in 2005. The thing I remembered most about that was Harry Knowles talking about how, when Gough is being carried around by Konga, he keeps yelling at him and calling him a "fool," whereas in reality, "fool" would be the last word you'd be using in that situation.

It wasn't until I was in my mid-twenties that I finally saw Konga from beginning to end, after streaming it online, and I subsequently bought the old MGM DVD when I found it at McKay's. While it can hardly be called a good movie, as it's another dime-a-dozen, B-level sci-fi flick full of ridiculous pseudoscience and some cheap special effects (albeit among some admittedly good ones), it's certainly entertaining, mainly because of how over-the-top and utterly slimy Michael Gough is in his lead role. In fact, this is 95% a mad scientist movie and it only becomes a giant monster flick for about the last fifteen minutes, which, ironically, is when it really suffers.

A year after his plane crashed in Africa and he was believed to have been killed, British botanist Charles Decker makes a surprise return to London. Upon arriving at the airport, he tells a group of reporters that he learned from the tribe who rescued and sheltered him a way of linking plant growth with animal life, and plans to put the new theories he's developed into practice. He also introduces them to Konga, a little chimpanzee he brought back with him, saying the two of them grew very close during his time there. After getting back to his home in London, Decker begins growing a number of large, carnivorous plants from Africa in his greenhouse, replicating the heat and humidity of their natural environment, and concocts a serum from them that he believes will transfer their fast-growing properties to animals. He uses Konga as his test subject, and after his first injection, he instantly goes from a small chimp to a full-grown one, proving his theory correct. But, when Decker returns to his position as a teacher at Essex College, he's reprimanded by Dean Foster for telling the newspapers of his theories, fearing their outrageous nature may reflect negatively on the school. The two of them get into a heated argument that ends with Foster insisting that Decker take a leave of absence and forbidding him from continuing his experiments. Decker, however, is undeterred, and when he returns home, he injects Konga with more of the serum, causing him to grow into a brutish, man-sized ape. He then uses a flashlight to mesmerize him to do his bidding and sends him out into the night to murder Foster. Following that, the increasingly deranged Decker begins using Konga to take out others he sees as a threat, including Prof. Tagore, whose own experiments could supersede Decker's, and Bob Kenton, a student who has an eye for Sandra Banks, a lovely young woman whom Decker lusts for. However, Margaret, Decker's assistant and would-be lover, who's been complicit in his crimes, becomes jealous when she learns of his infatuation with Sandra and, to get revenge, ends up turning Konga into an even bigger monster than he already was.

Herman Cohen

Konga was the brainchild of well-known B-movie producer Herman Cohen, who was behind such films as I Was A Teenage Werewolf, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, How to Make a Monster, and Blood of Dracula. After the 50's, Cohen started making movies in England, and at this point had just done Horrors of the Black Museum, which also starred Michael Gough. Since he was a fan of King Kong, he decided to next do his own giant ape movie, co-writing the screenplay, and even going as far as to pay RKO $25,000 for the use of the name of "Kong." He also briefly appears in the film as a guy buying a newspaper at the very beginning. The actual director was John Lemont, a Canadian-born director who mainly worked in television and even then, has only ten credits in the director section of his IMDB page. In fact, Konga, his fourth feature, was his penultimate one, with his last being the same year's The Frightened City, a crime drama that actually starred Herbert Lom and Sean Connery. Lemont went on to write and produce a couple of films in the UK in the late 70's, like 1978's Deep Waters and 1979's A Horse Called Jester, but otherwise, didn't do much else. He died in 2004 at the age of 90.

I've heard that if Michael Gough didn't feel a movie he appeared in was worthy of his talent, he would purposefully overact and be as hammy as possible; if so, he clearly didn't think much of Konga, as he's really over-the-top here in his role of Dr. Charles Decker, the protagonist and real monster of the piece. However, that doesn't mean he's not entertaining, as he manages to be the kind of character you love to hate. He comes off as fairly benevolent in the opening, where he's good enough to talk with some reporters upon his arrival back from Africa (although, there is a sense that he wants to get out of the airport and back home as soon as possible), but when he does return home, his assistant, Margaret, starts to peel away some of the facade when she calls him out on how he doesn't treat her with as much warmth and respect as he could, considering how long they've worked together, and yet, he can easily turn on the charm when talking with strangers. Once he begins his research into the properties of the plants he brought back from Africa, you truly begin to see just how utterly ruthless and cold Decker is. First, he yanks out all of the lovely flowers he's had growing in his greenhouse to make room for his new plants, and when Margaret says he could have at least sent the flowers to hospitals, he responds, "Generous, but stupid," adding that he plans to use them as mulch. Second, when their house-cat, Tabby, finds his way down into the laboratory and licks up some of the serum as it boils over in a pot, Decker grabs a gun and shoots him, before snarling at Margaret, "You fool! You think I want the biggest experiment of my life menaced by a cat? Even those few drops might have made Tabby swell up to huge proportions! We're not ready to have a cat the size of a leopard running through the streets." And third, though he claims to have brought little Konga back with him because of the bond the two of them developed, it's obvious he really did so in order to experiment on him and to use their relationship, in addition to some special seeds he added to the serum, to ensure his obedience.

That obedience comes into play when Decker has a heated argument with Dean Foster when the latter feels the tidbits he gave to the press about the nature of his experiments could have a negative effect on Essex College's reputation, and when Decker raves about injecting the essence of plant cells into animals and humans, Foster declares him to be deranged and orders him to take a leave of absence. Decker, naturally, does not take kindly to this, telling him, "Nothing you do or say can stop

me! Trailblazers were always mocked, even put away. The classroom is safe and secure, and that's why you want nothing disturbed. But I have risked my life to learn something new. I know the truth because I've lived with it, and no one, you hear, no one will prevent me giving it to the world!" And when Foster tells him he'll do what he says as long as he's dean of the college, Decker goes home and decides to exact revenge by first giving Konga another injection, causing him to grow into a large, gorilla-like ape, and then using a flashlight to

mesmerize him into doing his bidding. After that, he sends him out to kill Foster and then, actually speaks with the police investigating the case, telling them that, despite what Foster's secretary said, the two of them did not have an argument that afternoon but rather, engaged in a scientific discussion in which there arose a difference of opinion. He also uses Konga to kill Prof. Tagore, a fellow botanist who's performing similar experiments to his own and who may steal away the glory, which he feels is rightfully his. Initially, he suggests the two of them join forces, but when Tagore refuses, and after Decker sees his laboratory and the extent of his experiments for himself, he has Konga strangle him, while he takes his notes.

Decker is shown to be someone who knows how to manipulate others to get what he wants, chief among them Konga. He uses the ape's attachment and affinity for him, as well as the seeds in the serum, which he says he was fascinated by when he saw them being used by the tribal witchdoctor to control his people, and old-fashioned hypnosis to ensure he does what he says, telling him, "I am your master, and you must obey me. Do you remember how it was in the jungle when you were little? You had many fears, until I took control of you. Now, you no longer have any fears, not of man, not of beast,

so long as you obey me. I have transformed you into a giant of great strength. With one blow of those powerful arms I have given you, you can snap a neck, crush a skull. And that is what you shall do at my bidding... You will not fail me because you know I shall always take care of you, shield you, and protect you, and bring you back safely." He does the same with Margaret when she confronts him with the fact that she knows he had Konga kill Foster, rationalizing it by saying he had to have Konga kill someone in order to ensure his

obedience and that, in addition, Foster threatened his work. He also tells Margaret that, to prove she has nothing to fear from him personally, he'll give her anything she asks; moreover, he says that he really doesn't have to promise her anything, as she's an accessory to everything he's involved in, including the murder, but he'll grant her request anyway. Margaret's request is for him to marry her and he, indeed, promises her that, saying they'll have the wedding after the school term is over. But, it's clear he's telling her what she wants to hear in order to ensure her continued cooperation and that, once she's fulfilled her usefulness, he'll cast her aside, as he indeed attempts to. He also reveals he has the same cold outlook on Konga, telling Margaret near the end of the movie that the time is approaching to where he should destroy him, as he now has the formula and believes he can do the same thing to another chimp.

As if weren't already enough of a creep, Decker also has eyes for one of his students, the lovely Sandra Banks, whom he takes every opportunity and excuse to spend time with, be it having her help him after class or stick by him when they're out in woods studying ferns. His overbearing obsession with her so frustrates her would-be boyfriend, Bob Kenton, that he stands up to Decker when they're out on the field trip and demands he leave her alone. Decker becomes so riled up by Bob's

demands and threats that he slaps him across the face, leading to a fight where Bob comes close to strangling him to death. But, when Bob manages to get a hold of himself and stops, Decker tells him that, even though he should, he won't report his behavior. Naturally, he instead has Konga attack and kill him that night when he's leaving to meet up with Sandra for a date. When Margaret confronts him about this, Decker merely says it was another test of Konga's obedience, but she

does convince him that his luck will run out sooner and later and it will have devastating results. Thus, he decides he must destroy Konga soon and says the two of them shall leave for Africa afterward. He goes as far as to attend Bob's funeral and invites Sandra over for dinner that night, under the pretense of consoling her. In reality, Decker, after he takes her out to the greenhouse to show her the plants, tells her that he wants her to work with him, saying that Margaret is no longer of use to him. Unable to control his lust for her any

longer, he lunges at her and begins forcefully kissing her, promising her everything she could imagine and more, as well as telling her he loves her in a very deranged voice and refusing to let her leave until she gives her consent. Unfortunately for him, this final betrayal towards Margaret partly proves to be his undoing, as she injects Konga with more of the serum, causing him to grow into a giant and tear his way out of the house. He smashes through the roof of the greenhouse and grabs Decker, carrying him in his hand while roaming the streets of London. Decker is unable to do anything but repeatedly yell for Konga to put him down, and just before the giant ape is shot down by the British army, he throws Decker to his death on the street below.

While she's Decker's assistant, secretary, and even housemaid, Margaret (Margo Johns) wishes to be much more. In her first scene when he returns to his London home, she tells him how she wishes he would show her more respect and consider her feelings more, especially with how she continued on with his work and kept his affairs in order during the period where everyone else believed he was dead. She also notes how, when he finally did write to her the previous week, he didn't make mention of her at all, but rather asked to have her construct a cage in the laboratory for Konga, which he inspected the minute he got home. Initially, she doesn't take his boasts about finding a link between plant and animal life seriously, commenting that it's an effect of his being stuck in the jungle for a year, and is taken aback by how ruthlessly he rips out the flowers in the greenhouse to make way for the plants he's brought back with him and when he outright shoots Tabby when he laps up some of the overflowing formula (to be fair, though, her reaction to the latter could have been far stronger). But, she starts to see what he means when she sees the full-grown, carnivorous plants and when he gives Konga the first injection of the serum and he instantly grows from a baby to an adult. But then, when Dean Foster is killed shortly after he and Decker had an argument over his work and he turned Konga into a large, powerful ape, Margaret easily figures out he had Konga do it. When Decker does admit to it and asks what she intends to do about it, she responds, "What can I do? In my own mind and heart, I've already taken you, for better, or for worse." That doesn't stop her from being shocked at how cold and detached Decker is when rationalizing why Foster had to die, and worries about what he might do to her as well. To prove she has nothing to fear, Decker asks her to tell him what she wants most and he'll grant it, leading her to ask him to marry her. Though she does obviously have genuine affection and romantic interests in him, Margaret explains her request by saying, "I'm tired of living and working in your shadow. I've had enough of this backstreet existence, pretending to be only your housekeeper, secretary, and assistant. I'm tired of lifted eyebrows on those rare occasions when we go out together and whisperings and the gossip. I'm tired of not being able to share everything with you openly. Whatever may be shoddy and soiled in my life, at least one thing will be clean: I will be Mrs. Charles Decker." Naturally, she's elated when he agrees to marry her after the school term is over and agrees to keep the secret of his responsibility for Foster's death.

Following the deaths of Prof. Tagore and Bob Kenton, Margaret, again, confronts Decker with how she knows they were his doing through Konga. She specifically demands to know how Bob was a threat to him and he merely says it was another test of Konga's obedience. As appalled by his actions as she is, she says she knows she can't leave him, given how she's an accessory in that she's helped him with his experiments and everything else, but warns him the police will catch

him sooner or later. Thus, Decker decides he may have to kill Konga soon and that they should relocate to Africa where he can safely continue his experiments. He also suggests he attend Bob's funeral in order to not arouse suspicion and invite Sandra Banks over for dinner to put up a front of being a teacher consoling his bereaved student. Following that dinner, Margaret becomes suspicious when Decker takes Sandra out to the greenhouse and follows them, overhearing Decker

talking with her about replacing Margaret as his assistant. Hurt and enraged by this betrayal, Margaret decides to use Konga in the same way as Decker, first using hypnosis with a small flashlight to ensure his obedience and then injecting him with more of the serum before sending him to kill Decker. But, she ends up giving him so much that he begins growing into a giant, trashing the laboratory and killing her before breaking out and going after Decker.

Aside from Decker, Margaret, and Konga himself, the rest of the cast is little more than cannon fodder. Among them is Sandra Banks (Claire Gordon), a lovely and studious young woman who, much to the annoyance of her would-be boyfriend, Bob Kenton (Jess Conrad), puts her schoolwork and aspirations to become a scientist above everything else, including him. Sandra spends a great deal of her time working personally with Decker, including at school, after class, and when he

takes the class on a field trip to look at ferns. While they're out on said field trip, Bob's impatience with the situation prompts him to confront Sandra about it, telling her that everything changed when Decker came back from Africa and now she thinks about nothing but him. He also points out something that Sandra herself is blind about: Decker's constant interest in her, which is unnatural. Sandra, in turn, tells Bob that she thinks of Decker as nothing but a teacher and that he himself is the one obsessed with being with her all the time. Adding that they should discuss their personal matters at another time and place, she agrees to go on a date with him that night. But, after Decker continues to have Sandra spent time with him on the trip, Bob confronts him when the two of them are alone in the ranger's cabin. He demands Decker leave Sandra alone, accusing him of brainwashing her in some way, and goes as far as to threaten him. Decker reacts to the latter by slapping him across the face and Bob, in turn, punches him in the gut, knocking him to the floor, and attempts to strangle him. However, he gets a hold of himself and stops the attack, even helping Decker to his feet. Admonishing him for not having better control of his temper, Decker says he won't report him, saying it'd be best if they both forgot about it. But then, that night, when Bob is leaving to meet up with Sandra, Decker has Konga kill him. After Bob's funeral, Decker invites Sandra over to his home, planning to replace Margaret with her as his assistant. He shows her the plants he's grown in the greenhouse and tells her of how he's learned to manipulate cell division and has changed them from insectivorous to carnivorous, before adding that he wishes for her to work with him in Africa and also to simply be with him. Sandra panics when he then comes onto her, kissing her violently and refusing to let her leave until she agrees to work with him. Before she can escape, the now gigantic Konga smashes through the greenhouse's roof and grabs Decker, while Sandra, in a panic, gets her arm caught in one of the Venus flytrap-like plants in the house, her ultimate fate left ambiguous.

Two other people fall prey to Konga due to Decker seeing them as threats. One of them is Dean Foster (Austin Trevor), the head of Essex College, who thinks Decker's theories and experiments are not only potentially harmful to the college's reputation but are also just downright insane. He demands Decker take a leave of absence, feeling he's become deranged from his time in the jungle, and the two of them get into a loud argument about it, with Foster saying he'll do

as he says as long as he's dean of the school. Obviously, he doesn't stay dean for very long, as that night, he becomes the first victim of the larger and more brutish Konga. Not too long afterward, Decker meets Prof. Tagore (George Pastell) at a party he and Margaret hold. He tells Decker that he's been engaging in experiments similar to his own and that he's achieved the same ends he's working towards. While Tagore refuses to work with Decker, he does allow for the two of them to have a consultation and invites him over to his laboratory in order to see the progress of his experiments. When Decker comes by after midnight and observes both the lab and his experiments, he tells Tagore he will not allow him to steal the glory of divulging it to the public away from him, saying he's worked so long and hard that he deserves it. With that, Konga comes in and strangles Tagore to death, while Decker takes his notes and escapes with his obedient ape.

Originally, I wasn't going to even mention the men of Scotland Yard who investigate Konga's killings, as they're such as a small part of the story, but I figured I might as well, as they do come off as competent, particularly Superintendent Brown (Jack Watson), as he deduces that Dean Foster died at the hands of some sort of powerful animal and informs Commissioner Garland (John Welsh) that black animal hairs were found on the back of Foster's neck, backing up his conclusion. He and Inspector Lawson (Stanley Morgan) go through the expected routine of checking all the zoos and circuses to see if any of their animals are missing and interview Foster's secretary and Decker, as they were the last ones to see him alive. Though they don't see through Decker's lies about having not fought with Foster the afternoon of the night he was killed (honestly, he comes off as so earnest that you can't blame them), they still come off as competent and not as ignorant about what Decker claims he and Foster discussed, insectivorous plants, as he initially thought. In fact, Lawson mentions to Decker that crime detection is also a sort of science and tries to confer with him about how anyone could have wanted to kill Foster, though Decker says he has no idea, saying, "I deal in life, not in death." Following the further deaths of Prof. Tagore and Bob Kenton, Brown correctly guess that there's a connection between them and that of Foster, given that Foster and Kenton were from the same school and black hairs were found all of the victims. That right there proves that Decker isn't as smart as he thinks when he boasts to Margaret that he made sure Konga left no clues at the crime scenes, as Brown notes the hairs have been identified as being of an ape. Of course, all of his deducing proves irrelevant when he then hears of the giant Konga roaming through London, prompting him to call up the armed forces and to be present, along with Garland, when Konga is killed in front of Big Ben.

If you watch an HD transfer of Konga, one thing will become evident: despite its being a schlocky, low-budget B-movie, it's quite pleasing to the eye in many ways. The sets and costumes have a surprising amount of rich color to them, particularly green and purple, with the former being the color of the upper half of the walls and pillars in Decker's laboratory, and a very bright, vibrant shade being that of the walls in the sitting room, while the dining room is colored in a bright purple, which is also the color of one of

Decker's suits. The same goes for the interior of the greenhouse, both when it's filled with the lovely flowers and after Decker starts growing his large, carnivorous plants, as even they have a beauty about them. That leads me into the actual production design which, besides often being colorful, is simple but effective. As you can see, Decker's laboratory is standard stuff, with all those test tubes and beakers, glass containers full of liquids, a machine he uses to grind the plants into a

juice before deriving his serum from it, and the large, standing cage in which he keeps Konga. The same goes for the aforementioned interiors of his home, while the greenhouse interior has the large carnivorous plants that, despite obviously being made of rubber and foam, are very memorable, such as the large Venus flytrap plants that are constantly opening and closing their maws and the large pitcher plants that immediately snatch up any meat given to them. The film also manages to get

outside of the sound stages and onto real locations, such as the forest Decker takes his class to in one scene (I can't be sure but I have a feeling it might be the famous Black Park) and the streets of London, most notably during the climax, where the filmmakers convinced the police to allow them to film late at night, when the streets were virtually empty.

Konga himself doesn't have any personality to speak of, going from just an innocent chimpanzee to a brutish, gorilla-like ape who does everything Decker tells him to, but there is something inherently sad in watching Decker take advantage of his obvious affinity for and trust of him in order to use him in his experiments and then to kill those who threaten him in. When Konga first becomes the large ape and Decker puts him under hypnosis with the small flashlight, his words, "Do you remember how it was in the jungle

when you were little? You had many fears, until I took control of you," suggest he's been conditioning him for obedience since they first met in Africa and it's only been amplified when he added some special seeds to the serum he used to make him larger. Therefore, it's very likely Decker's tale of Konga leading him to the village was just a fairy story and he, instead, was a random little chimp he found and immediately took control of (that is, of course, if we accept the notion

that Konga's actually comprehending the words Decker says to him). Because of his primitive brain, Konga's obedience seems easily transferable from one master to another, given how he was about to carry out Margaret's orders to kill Decker when she used hypnosis on him, only for the serum to go out of control in his system and cause him to grow exponentially. When this happens, Konga appears to go mad, tearing up the lab and killing

Margaret, before smashing out of the house and instinctively seeking out and grabbing Decker. He then wanders through London, growing ever larger, while carrying Decker in his hand. Ultimately, he's shot up by the British army in front of Big Ben, throwing Decker to his death before succumbing to the artillery fire. After he drops, he shrinks back down to the little chimp he started out as, lying dead next to Decker in a sort of poetic shot.

Not only does Konga start out as a chimpanzee and then randomly become a gorilla when he has two doses of the serum (which could be explained away through Decker's science babble about finding a way to manipulate cells), but they used an actual chimp in those early scenes before switching to a man in a gorilla suit about a third of the way in. The man in question was Paul Stockman, who said he got the part not only because he was exactly six feet tall but also because he had brown eyes, as a gorilla does, while the other two men vying for it

had blue eyes. The suit actor's height needed to be so precise so it could fit the suit, which was borrowed from professional gorilla performer George Barrows, and as far as gorilla costumes go, I don't think it's that bad. Of course, no ape costumes were truly life-life until makeup artists like Rick Baker came into the picture, and the use of a real chimp for the first act only makes it look all the more fake, but it has a look to it that I find to be fairly appealing, and I think the filmmakers

were correct in going with Stockman, as his eyes behind the mask are effective. As far as performance goes, Stockman is mostly unable to do much of anything except smash through doors, attack people, and tear up rooms, but his size and movements do make Konga feel like a genuine threat in these scenes. Speaking of size, when Konga becomes a giant during the climax, he comes off as out of control, raging, and almost seemingly in pain from the serum as it courses through his body and causes him to grow throughout the sequence, highlighted by how this is the only time in the movie where the gorilla Konga actually makes sounds, letting out a series of unsettling howls and roars as he walks through London (I would say stomp but his footfalls make no noise whatsoever, decreasing his impact).

Although the special effects are a mixed bag in terms of quality, a lot of them are better than you may imagine. Where they succeed the most is in the miniature sets, like the laboratory when Konga begins to grow into a giant, the exterior of Decker's house that he bursts out of, and the streets of London he walks through during the climax. The matting and compositing, however, are where they're more hit and miss. The combining of Konga with the footage actually shot in London with extras playing fleeing citizens is fair for the most part

(despite some problems of scale concerning close-ups of his legs and feet as he walks), particularly a low shot of them running towards the camera with him composited behind them, and the same goes for the many wide shots of Konga holding Decker in his hand, as you can tell they actually composited Michael Gough into them (all of these shots are undoubtedly aided by the sequence taking place at night). However, the close-ups of both Decker and Margaret being grabbed don't hold up as well, as the

actors and Konga's hand are obviously separate elements, and in some shots, Stockman is holding a doll to stand in for them (the doll meant to be Margaret in the laboratory is particularly bad, with its big poof of hair and how they don't even seem to try to cover up how fake it is). The effects of the serum on Konga come off as very archaic, with the screen covered in a rippling effect as one element is matted out by another, be it the small chimp with

the full-grown one or the latter with Stockman in the suit. In fact, during that latter moment, the matting removes Konga's legs, leaving him as nothing but a torso! Also, when Konga does start to grow into a giant, the wide shot of him standing in the lab while stretching upwards looks unintentionally funny, given how he lists back and forth like he's drunk while the effect occurs, and his upper half is then obscured by much of the ceiling. And finally, despite the quality of some of the effects shots, the constant reuse of them during the climax quickly wears thin and, as I'll get into, only adds to the disappointment of what should be the film's highlight.

Remember how, in my review of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, I described that movie as being bad all around but really dropping the ball during the last nine minutes, when you finally get what the title promises? Konga makes for an interesting inverse in that, like that movie, it doesn't deliver on why you would come to it until the last fifteen or so minutes and yet, up until then, it's actually very fair, all things considered. While certainly not A-level, it's quite entertaining to see Michael Gough being totally off the wall as an

unscrupulous and demented scientist, chewing up the scenery as he raves about what he plans to accomplish with his experiments, skillfully manipulating those around him, and arranging for Konga to kill those he dislikes. It makes for an average mad scientist movie but then, it's like they realized this was meant to be a King Kong ripoff and quickly had Konga grow into a giant to give the audience what they paid for. Ironically, though, that's when the movie totally falls apart, not only in terms of special effects but also because, like

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, it's not very exciting stuff. After the quickly growing Konga kills Margaret and smashes his way out of the house, he goes to the greenhouse, looks through its ceiling, sees Decker coming onto Sandra, and smashes through the glass just as Sandra breaks away from Decker and tries to escape. When the shards of glass come down in front of her, Sandra recoils and gets her arm snagged in one of the large Venus flytraps, while Konga reaches in, grabs Decker, and

lifts him out of the building. Like I said earlier, Sandra's actual fate is left unknown as she's never seen again, and you don't know if she ever got free, if she lost her arm completely, or what, and for me, the presence of such a blatant plothole says they were like, "Uh, who cares? Let's get into the giant monster stuff." In any case, the arriving fire department spots Konga before he walks off in the direction of London with Decker in his hand.

Now, we get Konga walking into the middle of London while carrying Decker, as crowds of frightened civilians run for it... and that's virtually all that happens for the rest of the movie. Konga just wanders around, Decker repeatedly yells for him to put him down, and people run to avoid him, all while the armed forces are shown being contacted and deployed. He causes no death or destruction whatsoever, merely leans over from behind some buildings and swipes at people down below or just walks towards them as they scatter like ants, and

the lack of any footfall sound effects and the repeat of effects shots over and over again make it all feel very ho-hum. After a long stretch of this, he stops in front of Big Ben and just stands there, gesturing and roaring at the crowd as they watch from nearby. That's when the police and armed forces arrive and set up their mounted machines while jeeps come in with armed soldiers standing in the back of them, all which feels like it takes an eternity. They start firing on him but most of their shots

either fly right past or above him (amazingly, Big Ben never seems to take a hit), as he does nothing but stand in place and slightly swipe at them. Eventually, he throws Decker to his death and continues to grimace and recoil under the machine and bazooka firings until he collapses to the street, making no sound of impact, and then shrinks back down to the little chimpanzee he once was.

I wouldn't say the music score by Gerard Schurmann is a major highlight but it is very energetic when it wants to be, especially the main title, which is a veritable symphony of fast-paced strings and blaring horns, big drums for the moment when the title comes up on the screen, a lovely, almost romantic-sounding, bit near the end, before finishing off with more horns and a very definite climax (the music goes well with the Saul Bass-like title sequence, with various colors streaking and zigzagging across the screen in the form of thick bars or large triangles). Many parts of that symphony are reused throughout the movie proper, which memorably include a low-key, unearthly flute-like piece for when you first see Decker's greenhouse filled with the carnivorous plants; a fast-paced blast of music for the times Konga grows upon being injected with the serum, which becomes lower and more monstrous-sounding when the same thing happens to Konga; the gorilla Konga has a kind of brutish theme that comes in full blast whenever he attacks someone and when he bursts out of the house as a giant; a slow, loping theme for when Konga roams through London, which doesn't help the lack of excitement one bit; and an almost expected sympathetic piece for when he's brought down in front of Big Ben at the end.

Yeah, I didn't expect to have so much to say about Konga but it's made me realize how much I do like this movie, despite its faults. Like I've said, while not a good movie, it is a fun one, with the best thing about it actually being Michael Gough's truly evil, scenery-chewing turn as Dr. Charles Decker, which is backed up by some good supporting players, surprisingly good production values, instances of creature and visual effects that are better than you might expect, and an acceptable music score. In fact, the only time when the movie becomes truly bad is, ironically, when it becomes a giant monster flick, with a climax that's not thrilling or fun whatsoever due to a lack of satisfying monster action and is further hampered by the low budget forcing the filmmakers to reuse the same shots again and again. All in all, if you want a schlocky but fun mad scientist flick, give it a shot; if, on the other hand, you want a King Kong ripoff, you could certainly do worse but you could also find some that'll give you more bang for your buck.