Konga

Name of movie that this character is from:

Konga

Original Release date: May 3, 1961 (Movie Theaters: :United States of America release)
Where can I find this movie now?: DVD & VHS

EPISODE TYPE: Growth Ray (Potion) & King Kong Situation
(see macro themes section for more on this category)

WHAT IS KONGA?:: A anthro, non furry, pet chimpanzee

IS HE MACRO ORIGINALLY?: No

HOW DOES HE BECOME MACRO?:: Growth Serum injected into him

WHAT DOES HE BECOME AFTER THEY GROW?: Larger Gorilla Version of Self

IS GROWTH SHOWN?: Yes

MACRO NAME: (SAME AS BEFORE )

QUOTE:: (NONE -- sounds as non furry chimp would)

SEX: Male Unknown

LOCATIONS:: London, England

MACRO SIZE (Approx or Average ): 50 feet

NATURE: Chaotic Animalistic Behavior

DESTRUCTION LEVEL DONE: Medium -- Roof and side of house, top of greenhouse and laboratory

SYNOPSIS OF EPISODE: A small prop plane flies over the jungle sounding like it has engine problems. Suddenly without warning the plane bursts into flames and apparently crashes. A news reporter for the radio tells listeners that Dr. Decker a famous English Botanist and his pilot were on that plane and that it appears that there were no survivors. A year passes and the newspapers report of the doctors return to England. He somehow survived the crash and finally made it home.

At the airport he holds a press conference with some reporters telling them that he survived the crash by bailing the plane just in time and winding up with a tribe of friendly natives in Uganda. He would have returned home sooner but had to study some interesting plants he found there that seemed to have weird growth traits. He knew he was onto something different but wasn't sure what yet and couldn't leave until he figured it out. He is holding a chimp that he tells everyone he named "Konga" the one who helped him find the village that saved him. He knew he had to bring him back with him when he returned to London.

Dr. Decker returns home and starts to talk to a female companion named Margaret who is upset that he didn't even ask how she was. He only seemed to be concerned about Konga and a cage being built for him. While they aren't married she would like him to take a little notice in her as she did keep his experiments and affairs in order while he was away for the year. Dr. Decker tells her that the chimp is the most important thing right now and that he has big plans for it to prove his theories that he learned while away. He will be an evolutionary marvel of sorts in a long line of others to follow. She thinks he is crazy but he insists he is on to something special. She still isn't sure what to believe and he says he will show her what he means. He takes her to the greenhouse in the back yard of their home and starts to toss the flowers in there away saying he no longer needs them. He starts to plant the plants he took from Uganda into the soil there after adjusting the temperature to 90 degrees. Margaret can't take the heat in the place and asks if they can go lie down. Dr. Decker agrees and they both head out for the night for some rest.

Dr. Decker starts to fix his potion in a pot while talking to Margaret. He isn't paying attention and some of the potion over spills to the floor. The cat starts to lick at it and Decker gets furious. He quickly grabs a pistol and shoots the cat numerous times killing it. Margaret is mad that he did that while the doctor explains that he can't have things messed up by a mere cat. They head into the greenhouse with the now fully grown man-eating plants in bloom there. Decker takes a few leaves after feeding the plants some raw meet and takes the samples back to the lab for further work on his potion. He adds the last parts to his serum and puts it into a needle shot and with the help of Margaret he injects it into Konga. A few seconds pass and the chimp does indeed grow in size slightly almost doubling in size. They are both ecstatic that it worked.

The next day in his class Dr. Decker teaches his class all about his experiences he had in the jungle. How the tribe treated him and about the witch doctor that he learned from. After the movie ends the class is over and one of the young female students stays behind to help the doctor clean up. Her name is Sandra and she seems very interested in the Doctors studies and wants to learn more. Decker though seems more interested in how pretty and beautiful she has become since he saw her last and starts to tell her about extra credit work she may be interested in doing. She agrees with him and leaves. Dr. Decker then walks into the Dean of the College's office for a private meeting he wants with him. The Dean is very unhappy with the remarks he made in the newspaper interview he had. Decker backs his comments saying that he stands by his intentions to further the evolutionary chain of plants and animals. The Dean calls him mad and says that he can't teach until he drops these ridiculous ideas. Decker storms out of there wanting to hear no more of it.

Decker returns home and tells Margaret everything that happened and knows what he has to do now. He must prove once and for all that he is right and that means more experimentation with Konga. He tells Margaret to leave so he can be alone with Konga and finish what he has to do. He puts more of the serum into Konga and soon the chimp turns into a huge 7 foot ape like creature. Decker starts to hypnotize Konga to do his bidding. Making sure he knows who is in control of the situation. Once he is done he calls Margaret back down to join him. Margaret can't believe it. Dr. Decker tells her that tonight will be Konga's first test of obedience. That night while the Dean of the college is in his study Konga attacks through a window of the door and kills the Dean instantly with it's bare arms.

Back in the greenhouse Margaret confronts Charles Decker about the murder of the Dean and knows he had something to do with it. He admits that he sent Konga to kill the Dean and asks what she is going to do about it. She says she won't do anything about it as she isn't totally innocent herself knowing of the experiment. But still questions why he had to kill the Dean. He says that it was important to prove his theories were correct and that it was only a matter of time before this happened. He still knows that she has no leg to stand on by trying to report him due to her involvement but still will give her what she wants to keep quiet. She pauses and asks him to marry her. He agrees but not until the school semester is over and until then she must still act as just a housekeeper, secretary and assistant. She agrees to the terms.

At the police station the Dean's former secretary is being questioned if she knew anything that could have lead to his death. She said she couldn't think of any enemies that he had. Charles Decker was fighting with him but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. They thank her for her help and then call Dr. Decker himself in for questioning. He tells the police that he was just having a discussion on scientific theories when he and the Dean got loud. Nothing more. That it was all settled by the time he left. He wishes he could help find who killed him but hasn't a clue. The police seem to believe him as he is very convincing in his explanation of the events of their last meeting.

That night at a party there is a professor from India who is there and talks to Dr. Decker about his own experiments in growth acceleration with the use of the plants. Decker becomes very intrigued by the information that the Indian professor is telling him. He too is on the verge of a serum to inject into others for growth, much in the same way Charles is. Decker makes a bold request to work with him together as partners. The other professor turns down such an offer saying most of the work is almost done and he is about ready to go public with it and has no need for a partner. Decker at least gets an offer to look over the work and offer suggestions. Decker accepts the offer and requests he have such a view at his work tonight. The other professor hands him his address in return. After the party ends he tells Margaret to get to bed and he has some unfinished business to take care of.

Decker drives in a huge van towards a home making sure to leave the back door of the van unlocked as he goes to the door of the house. He starts to talk to the other professor who takes him into his lab. After Decker looks over all the work he decides that he can't allow someone else to ruin all his work. He tells the other professor that it is over for him and behind him Konga strangles the other professor killing him and destroying the lab. Decker and Konga leave the destroyed lab and dead professor on the floor.

The next day Decker leaves quickly for college and brings his van with him. He tells everyone outside waiting for him that it is time for a field trip and starts to put them all into the back of the van. He asks Sandra to join him up front much to the disgust of the boyfriend of Sandra, Bob. While everyone is in the back Decker starts to put the moves onto Sandra telling her that she is more then just a student to him. As she looks on worried like. They all get out of the van as they arrive at the destination. He tells them all to go off and find specimens to study tomorrow. He keeps Sandra behind to join him for lunch. As he goes off to get the lunch she and Bob have it out as Bob thinks he is coming on too strong to her. She doesn't see it that way and tells him they will talk about it tonight that they are in class and its not the time. Just as Decker comes back. Bob heads off to find his ferns while Decker takes Sandra along with him to eat. It starts to rain and everyone heads to a near by cabin to stay dry. Decker shows up and tells everyone to head to the van he brought it near the path. Everyone leaves but Bob and Dr. Decker who have a talk. Bob tells him to leave Sandra along or else. The doctor doesn't like being threatened and hits Bob. Bob hits him back and they start to fight. Bob is about to strangle Decker and releases him when realizes what he is doing. He asks for the doctors forgiveness and gets it reluctantly as Decker tells him to just head back and not mention a word of it to anyone. Bob agrees.

That night Bob is talking to his family and can't even eat. He's so excited about seeing Sandra that he can't concentrate. He finally gets out of the house and gets onto his scooter about to drive off. From behind some bushes Konga shows up and strangles him to the ground leaving him there in a bloody mess as his scooter runs still. The family runs out seeing him down on the ground and quickly shout to get a doctor. Konga hops back into Decker's van and he drives off. The police start to investigate harder now realizing there is a connection in the three deaths and will focus on the college and question everyone if they have to . Decker explains his actions to Margaret saying it was all necessary in the means of science. She doesn't want to hear it but he talks her down from her rage saying that she is welcome to leave if she wants. She says she will stay with him. He tells her that they will have to move to Africa to finish their experiments. But wait awhile until suspicions die down. For now they should invite Bob's girlfriend over for dinner to help her cope with the loss.

Decker takes Sandra into his greenhouse while Margaret cleans up the dinner table. Marge gets suspicious of what Charles is up to as they walk out. Decker is showing all the rare man eating plants he has growing there. Decker puts the moves on Sandra while they are alone in the greenhouse. Margaret watches on from the distance repulsed by his comments about how he wants to be with Sandra and have her for his own. He then goes in to kiss her forcefully. Margaret in a rage of jealousy goes to the lab and grabs a shot putting more formula into it. She injects it into Konga and hypnotizes him to obey her now. He doesn't listen to her as he suddenly just grows bigger and stronger. Konga lifts Margaret up and tosses her away killing her as he slowly grows more outgrowing the very house. He stomps over towards the greenhouse as he sees Decker and Sandra fighting each other. He pushes his huge hand through the roof of the greenhouse as Sandra's arm gets caught in one of the man eating plants. Konga picks Decker up and starts to walk off with him in his grips.

Konga starts to stomp into the city still holding the doctor not letting him go. The inspector at the police station gets the call of the monster Konga on the loose and alerts the army and troops to head to the Embankment Area to stop it. The giant Konga stops by Big Ben and everyone circles around him as he stands there growling. The army shows up and starts to fire all the weapons they have at the huge beast. He tosses Decker at them killing him instantly while they continue to fire. Konga collapses unable to stand up now due to all the gun fire that hits him and reverts back to his previous chimp state.

REVIEW OF EPISODE: Add another one to the B-Movie list of badly done giant monsters on the loose. This one is different though then your typical 50's fare type of movie. It has a very strange story line in it for one thing. Not good by any means but different. It seems the doctor in this , Dr. Charles Decker that is, uses his giant creation to take care of people who get in his way. So the story pretty much was more about Decker and his personal vendettas against people more then a giant ape on the loose. But of course by the end that's what it turned into as how can you not have a giant ape rampaging through the streets for a climax?

This guy, Charles Decker was really messed up. Let me tell you. First of all he is living with his assistant, house cleaner and secretary but really has no love interest in her while she is crazy about him and wants to marry him more then anything. He has the hots for one of his students who is probably 19 years old if that old. While he is almost 50. He has anyone who is a threat to his work killed by Konga. Which included the Dean of the college and Sandra's boyfriend Bob killed. As well as a convenient professor who just happens to be doing the same work as he is. Seemed a little strange to me is all. He has a monster like Konga at his control and he uses him just to take care of personal annoyances who may or may not be a real danger to him or his work. Also the guy was a very good liar. He could look straight into the eye of the police investigator and claim to have no knowledge of any of the killings and come off looking like an angel. He was always plotting and scheming, always for his own selfish benefit and was, for lack of a better word, a real scumbag of a person. Just a very strange story and character for the most part in a movie like this.

But in a way, the movie is more about Decker then the monster ape. All of the events that unfold are really due to Decker's selfish needs and aspirations. This isn't your typical King Kong rip off as it only becomes that towards the end and mostly due to a jealous rage by Margaret putting too much growth potion into Konga. So in a way the whole movie is really just about how Decker wants to be famous and eliminate his enemies through the use of his obedient monster. And fall in love with a young college student while he takes advantage of all those around him. It almost felt like the whole monster angle was thrown in as an after thought to finish off the movie and all it's events.

Konga himself was in a way, disappointing. It was at first a chimpanzee when it was in it's cage or when we first saw him. But once he was given the growth potion for the second time it became a guy in a gorilla outfit. And a very bad looking gorilla suit at that. I was kinda disappointed at how lame the suit and Konga looked as that was probably the only real problem with the whole situation. If they could have just used a real gorilla somehow this would have been an awesome situation. Of course without computer graphics like we have now or very good obedience training that wasn't going to happen. But how a chimp becomes a cheap looking gorilla after it grows is beyond my understanding. The best part of course is at the end where Konga goes on his 'rampage' of sorts through London. But even that was done pretty poorly unfortunately. What could have been fun just wasn't done too well.

The growth situation at the end was a little awkward. Every time Konga went through a growth stage they put wavy ripples across the screen and made it hard to tell what was going on. I suppose that was to cover up the lack of growth effects and then reveal the now bigger Konga after the growth took place. But the last time it happened when he became King Kong sized was strange as well. She in a jealous rage gives him the rest of the serum and hypnotizes him to obey her. But he is about to do what she wants then stops and has a growth spurt and decides he is not going to listen anymore. Why that happened is anyone's guess as they said that the potion made anyone who took it obedient. Why it didn't work that way this time is never really understood. The strange part was more of Konga just standing there cleaning off the table as he is taking to his new height. Then he picks up a doll that is supposed to be Margaret and throws her killing her. But all the while he still fits perfectly in the room. Its not until they show him punching the ceiling that he is suddenly now gigantic in size. But no growth occurred . Just a poorly and cheaply done miniature house that he is now standing in to make him look really big. Still a fun situation though I have to admit. Its not often you see a Kong situation that was caused by growth. Most of the time the gorilla creature will be naturally that size. So it was a nice change to see that the gorilla (or guy in ape suit more accurately) grew in size this time to reach his proper monster size. Unfortunately though even the last moments of rampaging through London were a let down. All he did was stand still a lot and carry off Dr. Decker in his hand for some strange reason. I found it ironic that Decker was trying to court Sandra while for some reason Konga seemed more interested in carrying off the guy, that being Decker. Strange situation all around. Not often its a guy who is screaming for help while a huge ape holds him. I think Konga may have been a bit confused from all of this growing.

A sad part was when the cat was killed off. I didn't understand it myself. Dr. Decker is so interested in evolving creatures to giant size yet seems to only want it for his lame monkey. When the cat drinks some of the formula Decker pulls out a gun and shoots it. He claims he didn't want a giant cat roaming the streets of London. No but a giant smelly ape is alright of course . I don't know, of course I'm bias as to me giant cats are cool but if I had a formula like that I would be using it on all sorts of creatures to set loose upon the city. I think that would be fun. Why limit it to an ape who just likes to strangle people? Thats no fun. Decker just didn't get what he had. That cat wanted some fun too and deserved a better fate. Oh well, it's not easy being an animal giant in a human world.

I would say this is what you expect. A low budget film that tries to be something more then a King Kong film but it's special effects and far fetched story hold it back. Still fun though if you can get past the idea of Konga just being a guy in a bad outfit. It really is different then most films of this genre and doesn't have bad acting either which was surprising. The ending was a bit of a let down. They shoot Konga dead with every weapon you can think of none the less and all he did was stand there and hold a guy in his hand. He wasn't even destroying anything but they seemed to shoot first and ask questions later. Was even weirder when you see all the sad faces while they are killing Konga. If they were so sad why do they have to kill him? He didn't do anything except kidnap an evil doctor who ordered him to kill in the first place. No justice for giant monsters, I tell you.

Anyway, check it out if you haven't seen it and want something different. Just don't have your expectations too high. Its not great but its something different and sometimes thats fun for a macro situation. Sometimes.

RATING: D+

MEMORABLE QUOTES AND MOMENTS IN EPISODE:

(Margaret views the now over 7 foot tall Konga in a cage looking at him with disbelief as Charles Decker shows what he has done to him)
Margaret: "I.. I.. don't believe it!"
Dr. Decker: "But it is so. I have done it!"
Margaret: "Charles! It is astounding!"
Dr. Decker: "And tonight.. I'm taking Konga.. on his first test of .. obedience."

****************

Margaret: After this Konga it will be easier for you to obey me. This will give you more power, you will have greater strength. And you will use it all as I have instructed."
(Margaret walks Konga out of his cage after injecting him with the formula again)
Margaret: "Go Konga! You have your orders. Obey them!"

****************

Dr. Decker: "Konga! Let me down! Let me down!! Help! Help! Konga!!"

****************

Inspector: "Fantastic. There is a huge monster gorilla constantly growing to monstrous proportions loose in the streets! He's moving towards the Embankment area."

FINAL NOTES:

*Another take on the King Kong story. This time set in London, England instead of New York City. Various movies similar to King Kong would be made over the years. Often using similar themes such as a giant ape on the loose in a city, with a captive and interacting with buildings either to climb or loom by. Most would be cheaply done using poor special effects and cheap looking gorilla suits for the would be monster to wear while interacting on model sized sets.

*The filmmakers originally planned on using Steve Calvert, who had worked on "Bride of the Gorilla" and "Bela Luglsi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla". Both times he wore a gorilla suit to portray a gorilla. He turned them down claiming he retired from doing such things any longer. A stunt man who had done similar work in the past, George Barrows, was considered next but they decided to only use Barrows' gorilla costume, not Barrows himself. Barrows agreed to loan them the suit but was quite annoyed when his gorilla costume was returned from England in bad shape.

*Michael Gough who plays the head protagonist in this movie, Dr. Charles Decker, is still alive and acting to this day. His latest work includes voice acting for the movie "Corpse Bride". He also played Alfred in all of the Batman movies.

Errors--

Factual -- There is no reason why a chimpanzee given a growth serum would grow into a gorilla. Even when they were going over the figures on a piece of paper they said that he was growing in perfect proportion. If that was the case he should have looked exactly the same as he did originally only much bigger. To make matters more confusing the first time Konga was given the serum he did grow and still look the same. Once he was given the serum again is when he changed into a gorilla rather then a chimp.

Continuity -- Size fluctuation. At first when Konga grows towards the end in the lab he is only as big as the room. In the next moment he punches through the roof of the basement lab but his head is able to lift through the roof as he stands up. He never grew again but somehow was bigger then he was without another growth taking place.

Continuity -- Konga's feet and close ups appear to be much smaller when he is at his full size then how they should be when they show him at his full size from a full body shot.

+ :Fun growth moment towards the end with Konga getting a full dose of serum and outgrowing the house as he rampages towards London. Funny moments that aren't meant to be funny but come off that way.

- Very poor special effects. Some of the moments are very unbelievable and the script is very badly done as would be expected in a low budge film such as this. Silly situations involving a love triangle and the various people that had to be killed by Konga.

PICTURES OF KONGA

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