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Michael Gough, Margo Johns, Jess Conrad, Clarie Gordon, Austin Trevor

Although many people think that “Konga” was designed to cash in on the success of “King Kong”, it really was Producer Herman Cohen’s ( “Trog!”, “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”) attempt to pull in the 50’s fascination with giant monsters in films like “It Came From Beneath The Sea”, “Black Scorpion” and “Godzilla” into the 1960’s. “The Lost World” (Irwin Allen’s cheesy remake) had already been a big success at the box office proving that giant monsters were still a big trend. Konga despite its cheesy effects and storyline has some good acting in it from Hammer stalwart Michael Gough (“Horror of Dracula”, “Batman”, “Batman Returns”). Even in cheap exploitation films the Briish reign supreme. All of Cohen’s (who co-wrote the film with Aben Kandel) films have a strong misogyny streak throughout them and “Konga”( which supposedly had a working title of “I Was A Teenage Gorilla”) is no exception. The most important relationship in the film is that between Dr. Decker and his flunky giant gorilla. ***

Dr. Charles Decker (Gough) is presumed lost in a plane crash in Uganda. British society is surprised by his return but he’s brought something back with him; a secret formula taken from a witch doctor in Africa that can cause anything that drinks it to become enormous in size. He plans on using this to grow his carnivorous plant specimens into giant meat eating creatures as part of an experiment. More importantly he is also going to use the formula to experiment on Konga a chimp he brought back with him. He wants to use the formula to prove the link between man and chimp. Instead he ends up with a chimp that somehow turns into a giant Gorilla (another example of the films wonderful gaffes). Decker then use Konga to do his bidding and get revenge on those who crossed him. ---

“Konga” is presented in 1.66:1 aspect ratio and the rich Eastman Color looks remarkably good in this print. Although flesh tones aren’t very strong the other colors are rich. The soundtrack has nice clarity and presence and is presented in its original mono format.

We get an assortment of trailers from MGM and Sony including “Godzilla: Final Wars” and “Mirrormask”. That’s it. ---

A cheesy film “Konga” is still fun to watch for the silly effects and dialogue (“Fantastic! There’s a huge monster gorilla growing to outlandish proportions loose in the streets…”). The best part of this film is the rich Eastman Color which still looks surprisingly good without any restoration. This actually would have made a good double feature with the silly Dino DeLaurentiis “King Kong” remake. You might want to consider it for a lazy Saturday afternoon when you need something lighthearted.