Konga (1961) ** (out of 4)Dr. Decker (Michael Gough) goes down with his plane in Africa and is believed dead but a year later he returns from the jungle. He begins working on an experiment that can cause things to grow in size and after trying it on various plants he injects Konga, a chimp that he brought back with him. Soon he's using the now gorilla to kill off his enemies but eventually the killer grows to the size of, well, King Kong.KONGA is a fairly loved British film that manages to not only rip off KING KONG but also MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. I'm sure mixing those two films could have made for a good movie but sadly this thing here isn't it. There are some fun ideas scattered throughout the movie but in the end there are just way too many flaws. The biggest problem being the fact that the 90 minutes drag by at times and there are moments when the film comes to a complete stand still.Another problem is that the special effects are quite laughable. This includes the early scenes where the small chimp grows a little bit bigger. These transformation sequences are downright awful with the wavy screen doing very little. Things don't fair much better once the man-in-the-outfit happens. Once we get into KING KONG territory things really don't do anything because the budget is so low that the large gorilla really can't do anything. I will admit that the MURDER IN THE RUE MORGUE pieces are quite effective and I did enjoy the creature stalking around and killing for the doctor.Gough turns in a good performance in the lead as does Margo Johns but neither are great enough to make the film work. KONGA has a few good ideas but there are far too many logical issues and the lack of any good special effects keep this from being more than a cheap "C" movie.

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.

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.

I don't even know where to begin.... First off, my uncle showed it to me when he came down for a visit, saying it was serious "Mystery Science Theater 3000" material. And, after seeing it, I agree. It was so bad, words fail me. Yet, it was so funny too. (*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*) First off, how does a chimp transform into a man in a gorilla suit? I don't think anyone could answer that, because it's scientifically impossible; but that is the case here. Doctor Decker injects cute lil Konga with a serum, and Konga becomes a man in a gorilla suit.And, speaking of Doctor Decker, he is such a friggin' psycho, why in the world didn't his assistant notify the police after she knew of how he was using Konga to kill people? Okay, yeah, she loved him, but she didn't like the way he was killing people. Yet, she's all like, "I'll keep it a secret until he cheats on me." Sounds *REAL* smart there ma'am.And cheating? Oh yes. Our piggish Doctor decides to lure a young blonde college co-ed to the greenhouse in order to attempt to have sex with her... and then, she gets eaten by his plants. The assistant gets killed by Konga. And Konga dies too. Dismal... isn't it? This film needs to be seen... because it sucks so bad. Believe me. The only plus side is that Decker the douche gets killed by Konga too.