Konga is a 1961 technicolour science fiction horror film directed by John Lemont and starring Michael Gough, Margo Johns and Austin Trevor. It was shot at Merton Park Studios and in Croydon for Anglo Amalgamated, then distributed in the United States by American International Pictures (AIP) as a double feature with Master of the World. Anglo Amalgamated and AIP each provided half the funding for the US$500,000 film, with each studio receiving distribution rights in their respective hemispheres.
Konga was the basis for a comic book series published by Charlton Comics and initially drawn by Steve Ditko (prior to Ditko's co-creation of Spider-Man) in the 1960s.
The film epitomises the B-movie in terms of low budget special effects, such as a man in a gorilla suit replacing special effects (which would later be done in the 1976 King Kong remake).
Plot
British botanist Dr. Charles Decker 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, named Konga, to test out his theory. Decker goes insane after he discovers a serum that turns his chimpanzee subject into a ferocious gorilla-sized ape. To further his hideous experiments, he mesmerizes Konga and sends it to London to kill all of his enemies who have more credit in the scientific community than he already has. Among his targets are Dean Foster and Professor Tagore.
During a field trip to the woods with a group of his students he makes an inappropriate advance to Sandra. He is later confronted by her boyfriend Bob and, although seeming to concede to Bob, sends Konga to strangle him.
Decker's assistant and lover Margaret sees him ask Sandra to become both his new assistant and his lover, then sexually assault Sandra when she refuses. Margaret attempts to get even by hypnotizing Konga into obeying her, then giving him an enormous amount of the strange serum, which turns him into an enormous monster, at which point she becomes Konga's first victim. He keeps growing, and bursts through the roof of the house.
Seeing Decker still attacking Sandra in the greenhouse, the super-sized Konga grabs Decker in one of his enormous hands, while Sandra's arm is seized by one of Decker's carnivorous plants (her ultimate fate is not shown). His rampage comes to a stop when he is attacked by heavily armed soldiers. After he throws Decker to his death, Konga falls. Upon his demise, Konga changes back to a baby chimpanzee.
Cast
Michael Gough as Dr. Charles Decker
Margo Johns as Margaret Decker
Jess Conrad as Bob Kenton
Claire Gordon as Sandra Banks
Austin Trevor as Dean Foster
Jack Watson as Superintendent Brown
George Pastell as Professor Tagore
Vanda Godsell as Mrs. Kenton
Stanley Morgan as Inspector Lawson
Grace Arnold as Miss Barnesdell
Leonard Sachs as John Kenton
Nicholas Bennett as Daniel
Kim Tracy as Mary
Rupert Osborne as Eric Kenton
Waveney Lee as Janet Kenton
John Welsh as Commissioner Garland
Paul Stockman as Konga (uncredited)
Production
Following the success of Herman Cohen's previous British made film Horrors of the Black Museum that also featured Michael Gough, Nat Cohen (who was no relation to Herman) of Anglo-Amalgamated asked Cohen for another exploitation film.
As Cohen had long admired King Kong, he thought of a giant ape film shot in colour. Due to Cohen's success with his I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), AIP used "I Was a Teenage Gorilla" as the working title. Cohen paid RKO Pictures $25,000 for the rights to the name of Kong for exploitation purposes. Cohen recalled that the special effects for the film, that was one of the first giant monster movies shot in colour (Eastmancolor), took 18 months to complete.
The climactic scene in London streets was possible when the producer convinced the police that the scenes could be effectively staged late at night on essentially empty streets. A combination of miniature sets, an actor in a gorilla suit, and use of studio mattes also made the technical aspects of the production look better than its meagre budget would otherwise have allowed.