I love movies with apes. Giant apes, killer apes in 1930s old dark house movies, ape men in Bela Lugosi and Jungle Jim flicks, and the whole Planet of the Apes canon. As evidenced in a previous post, it was probably King Kong that got me into monster movies in the first place. A few months after my mom bought me issue #132 of Famous Monsters, I saw a magazine called King of the Monsters with a ferocious giant ape being fired upon by a group of terrfied sailors. This publication, a one-shot released in early 1977 to capitalize on the new Kong film, devoted most of its pages to King Kong and his overgrown simian cohorts in fantastic cinema. There were articles on the new film The Crater Lake Monster, Godzilla, and movies about mutations and freaks. But the emphasis, from what I remember, was on the big ape genre. Once again I begged my mom to purchase this from the Redford's newstand and fortunately (unfortunately?) she gave in.
Among the monster ape and killer gorilla motion pictures in the magazine's itinerary of murderous hairy brutes was something called Konga starring Michael Gough. My brother and I kept making fun of the silly title and I was somewhat tantalized by the still of the title creature holding a man in front of the Big Ben tower. At the time, I didn't know anything about London landmarks, Michael Gough, or the interesting pedigree of teenage horror pictures that spawned this film. All I knew was I had to see this movie and see if the giant ape climbs atop the clock tower.
Unfortunately, this movie never came on any one of the local TV stations from Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Huntsville. Or at least I missed them in the TV Guides. Even when we got satellite TV and had access to New York's WOR and WPIX, they only ran the RKO and Toho Kong movies (not that I minded seeing those). The Super 8 edition of Konga was advertised in the Captain Company section of Famous Monsters back during the late 70s, but I held out for the full version to hopefully be shown on the Up All Night or Shock Theater programs. But it wasn't until last night that I finally viewed this elusive monster chiller diller. And it was using the latest technology of video streaming through a video game unit using the too-good-to-believe Netflix service.
As my knowledge of fantastic cinema increased, I came to know the prim and proper gentleman supporting actor in British horror films - Michael Gough. I first saw him as the saddened artist who loses the use of his painting arm in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Then he'd pop up on the late show as the auctioneer taking bids on The Skull of Marquis De Sade, D'Arcy the music thief in Hammer's The Phantom of the Opera, or the corpse who won't stay dead in Crucible of Horror. In Konga, Gough plays botany professor Charles Decker, who returns to London a year after his plane crashes in Africa. While Decker is believed to have died in the fiery crash, he has actually been living among the natives after being led there by a chimpanzee. In the village, Decker discovers meat eating plants and learns from the witch doctor there that extracts from these plants can be used to effect growth in animals. Also, Decker names his chimp friend Konga and takes him (and some carniverous seedlings) with him to his motherland.
After a year's absence, all Dr. Decker seems to be concerned about is the well-being of his simian cohort. Not even his personal assistant Margaret seems to get him excited. All Decker cares about is whether or not she has a nice big cage constructed for Konga. Then he nearly suffocates Margaret by making her assist him in a 90-degree greenhouse, where he's babying his writhing and snapping vegetation. When he creates a formula with plant extracts that spills on the floor, Margaret's cat Tabby heartily laps it up. The doctor then pulls a gun out of the drawer and shoots the cat in front of Margaret, saying you don't want a giant tabby cat roaming about.
Margaret just sulks because the wants so much to be more than a bookkeeper and venus flytrap feeder. But Decker will have none of that because he has the hots for a blonde student in his botany class. Probably the most memorable scene in this movie - besides the scene where he turns the chimpanzee into a gorilla with a shot of the extract - is when Decker begins smooching and slobbering all over the co-ed. It'll leave you queasy and uneasily amused at the same time.
Oooga Booga!!!After Konga grows into a totally different species, the gorilla is sent out to crush and strangle Decker's enemies. Decker even hauls the big lug around in his van, something similar to producer Herman Cohen's other drive-in classic, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein - with Whit Bissell taking the walking cadaver around for midnight drives in his automobile. As a matter of fact, this movie was initially going to be called I Was a Teenage Gorilla. Alas, rational minds prevailed.
Of course, if you take notice of Konga's movie poster, you know the gorilla Konga will get even more of the growth serum as the movie progresses. It is here where we get to see some interesting miniature work and photo enlargement techniques as the man in George Barrow's gorilla suit (which looks unusually baggy in the midsection during the rampage - kind of like Konga needed some liposuction or the suit wasn't cared for in the monster wardrobe department) goes stomping through London as onlookers flee screaming. I remember seeing Herman Cohen posing with the miniature house in an issue of Filmfax and thought he seemed pretty young to be such an established producer of these B movies. Cohen even appears in a Konga cameo as the man who buys a newspaper near the beginning of the movie.
This is a doozy of a B picture from the AIP archives. The monster plants, chimp who turns into a killer gorilla who turns into a Kong wannabe, and the ripe dialogue between Gough, Margo Johns, the blonde female student, and her jealous suitor make this one that firmly belongs in the late night camp sci-fi monster pantheon. I love the rag dolls who get ape handled, too. All in all, this one's a real hoot. Cohen and Gough would reunite in 1963 for the horror film The Black Zoo, with Elisha Cook, Jr. and a murderous zoo animals that do diabolical Gough's dirty work. I've never seen that one, either.
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