Very disappointing...

Good movie but grossly overrated

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Okay, Konga.... this is a great movie up until the last ten minutes. Then it's just shit.The story: Dr. Charles Decker (played by Michael Gough) returns home after a year in Africa after being presumed dead. He brings with him a small chimp affectionately named Konga which required a $25'000 fee (in 1961 by the way!) to RKO Pictures who made the original King Kong. He also brings back plants from Uganda and starts injecting Konga with a special serum (which not only makes him bigger but turns him from a lowly chimp into an APE!!!). This movie would have been KATTA had it not been for Charles shooting his wifes cat after it got a few mouthfuls of his serum.He gets into a very heated and loud argument with the dean of the university who threatens to have him fired should he continue his experiments. Enraged at his boss's thick head, he hypnotizes Konga and sends him/her/it to kill the Dean. Next in the Konga line is a rival scientist who discoveries were more far-striding and impressive than Dr. Deckers. This scientist was foolish enough to tell him that he lives in an isolated area and keeps his doors unlocked. Next, a handsome schoolboy whose girlfriend is being extremely subtley hit on by our main character/villain. This culminates in the boy attacking Decker while they are alone in a shed. He quickly realizes what he is doing and stops, horrified at what he did. Decker advises that they both forget about it. That night, said school boy is preparing for a date with this girl when, just as he's getting his Lambretta scooter started, he too is sadly killed by Konga in the driveway of his own home, his body found by not only his parents but his younger siblings!Skip past Dr. Decker forcing himself onto the bereaved girlfriend and his wife catching him, making Kinga grow huge, getting herself killed by Konga, the girl getting her arm caught in one of our mad scientist's man-eating plants (which presumably eats her alive) and Michael Gough carried off by Konga much like Fay Wray in the hands of a certain giant ape.As Michael Gough's cheeky acting is rapidly reduced shouting "Konga, put me down! Put me down, Konga!" and similar lines over and over, the armed forces fire upon Konga once he's in front of Big Ben and all of their bullets seem to be missing. I kept waiting for Konga to climb Big Ben with Decker in hand and swatting down planes while Charles begs Konga to hold onto him so he can't be shot but nope, nope! Decker is thrown to the ground and very unceremoniously killed by his creation. Konga is killed by the many many MANY bullets that were missing him. Upon death he goes from a Kong-sized ape to the lowly chimpanzee he was before. A disappointing and very underwhelming climax to an otherwise spectacular MST3K-worthy King Kong rip-off.

I first saw this movie when I was five years old. Actually, can't believe my mother let me go to see this movie with my older brother-seven years old, and a friend. Anyway, we did, and I had nightmares for over a month. I would not go upstairs into my bedroom for fear of Konga. My mother tried to calm me, but hey, I knew that this gorilla could just reach into my bedroom and grab me with his fist. I was actually more scared of the Gorilla sized Konga that hid in the bushes. Jesus! In any case, the giant venus fly traps, the insane professor, the crazy plot---that's why it got my seven points on the review.

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.

Konga is set in London where Dr. Charles Decker (Michael Gough) has returned after his plane crashed in Uganda & was missing presumed dead there for over a year, during that year Decker was living with native tribes in the jungle & learning about new species of plants & the scientific & medical possibilities they held. Bring back a serum that local tribes developed & a Chimpanzee named Konga he intends to carry out experiments into the link between animal & plant life, injecting Konga with the serum the Chimp grow's to human size in a matter of minutes & Decker concludes his experiments are a success although much more work still needs to be done with help of his assistant Margaret (Margot Johns). Not everyone agrees with Decker's revolutionary experiments & he uses Konga to kill all those oppose him or threaten his work. Margaret becomes aware that she is also to be killed by Konga after she discovers too much & tries to use Konga herself to kill Decker first but the giant Ape breaks free & rampages through London...This British & American co-production was directed by John Lemont & is considered a real Turkey amongst film fans & to be fair Konga is bad but I had a good time watching it & thought it was reasonably entertaining in it's silliness, the whole film seems to have been made as a King Kong (1933) rip-off with a giant Ape that runs amok in a world famous city & is killed by a famous landmark in said city & taken as just a silly & cheap monster film there's some fun to be had here. The script is far too talky & Konga himself is more of a subplot until the last fifteen minutes when he that silly woman Margaret injects loads of growth serum into his arm & he grow's taller than Big Ben, the majority of the film focuses on Dr. Decker & his vague experiments (are they about increasing size or mind control or about changing physical form?) as well as he lecherous longings for his pretty young blonde student Sandra, his possessive & quite frankly dim secretary Margaret also causes him problems as do various other people whom he has to kill off as the script tries to throw in a few murders & an opportunity for the tatty Konga Ape suit to be seen. Don't expect Konga to ask any serious scientific questions as the whole thing is just absurd, what I want to know is why Konga changes from a Chimpanzee to an Ape when he grow's. At 90 minutes long Konga does drag a little in places & it has horribly dated from the dumb cop's to the way the teens talk & act to the daft plans that people come up with, but I liked it's dated quaintness & charm as it gives you a few extra things to laugh at whether the filmmakers wanted you to or not. If taken for what it is & watched in the right frame of mind then Konga is good clean totally ridiculous monster filled fun, nothing more nothing less.The effects are really poor, the Ape suit was apparently hired from George Barrows & it's a really tatty & unconvincing looking thing. It just looks terrible so directed Lemont has to naturally feature it as much as often in bright light & keep his camera on it for as long as possible with it's shifty moving eye's yet otherwise totally motionless face which is the exact opposite of what he should have done, did this look as bad to audiences back in 1961? It must have. The giant carnivorous plants look like polystyrene & the end shot when one has Sandra's arm in it's trap you can clearly see the green paint flaking off it as she struggles, it really is that cheap. Some of the models look OK but the BIg Ben model at the end is wasted as Konga just stands next to it & nothing else, ion fact his entire rampage through London is nothing more than him walking down a street holding Decker. Not particularly violent & featuring no gore Konga would make good family viewing.With a supposed budget of about $500,000 I suspect that it was even less than that. Filmed in London here in England. The acting isn't great, in fact apart from Michael Gough's larger than life villain whose motivations & plans are all over the place it's quite poor.Konga is good fun if your in the right mood & your a fan of silly giant monster films, if not then I would advise you stay well away from this as you will probably hate it. I liked it, Konga is not a good film at all but it has a certain charm that I enjoyed. As a cheap King Kong rip-off it it's bad but good.