In the early 60's, England gave us a pair of color giant monster movies. GORGO, about a rampaging dinosaur, is still heralded as a milestone in the genre. This one, however, KONGA, isn't. The picture was advertised as a KING KONG knock-off, although it's really more of a mad scientist picture. Michael Gough plays the obsessed Dr. Decker, who has found a way to use fluid from carnivorous plants to enslave and enlarge animals. Konga, his pet chimp, is soon turned into a gorilla used to kill those who get in Decker's way. Though hardly a classic, the film is delight for the gripping performance of Gough. The Konga suit was actually George Barrow's rather identifiable costume, rented out to the British film company (so George often gets credited for the film despite his not being in it). Reportedly, the crew trashed the suit and even broke the mouth mechanism, thus ending Barrow's loan-out policy. Infamously, this film (along with GORGO and Denmark's REPTILICUS) became the subject of a pornographic paperback novel (!) as well as a Charlton comic book series. Featuring art by the well-known Steve Ditko, the Konga title is remembered well among comic book geeks -even those unaware of the movie's existence! A beautiful transfer was issued on disk by MGM.
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