Konga (1961)

A deliriously mess of a film, Konga represents an all too rare UK based attempt at a giant monster film. With a great performance from Michael Gough, some endearingly awful special effects, and a script that mixes a range of influences from King Kong to Poe, we get a film that is ridiculous but never less than entertaining.

After disappearing for a year in Africa, Dr Charles Decker comes back with a baby chimp and some crazy ideas about a way of growing plants and animals to an enormous size. As he slowly loses his mind he decides to use his discoveries in order to get rid of his enemies – but has he created something way beyond his control?

Despite the British setting and cast, Konga was actually the brainchild of American producer Herman Cohen, the man behind 50s horror hits such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and How to Make a Monster. Cohen moved to the UK to make the delightfully lurid thriller Horrors of the Black Museum, which also starred Michael Gough as an arrogant sadist with a taste for murder, albeit one who works in journalism rather than science, and the film proved to be a big success. When asked to make a follow up, Cohen opted to move into more fantasy rooted territory.

Although King Kong is the most obvious influence, judging from the posters at least, the only element borrowed for Konga is the presence of a giant ape, and that does not show until the final act. A more obvious source is the Edgar Allen Poe story “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, from which it borrows the idea of a primate being trained to carry out the murderous wishes of its owner. However, an interesting twist on this comes when Decker's assistant Margaret also trains Konga to bump off what she sees as her rivals for the Doctor's affections. This makes Konga become something akin to the "Monsters from the Id" from Forbidden Planet.

Gough chews the scenery from the outset, but also gives Decker an oily, sinister aspect that stops his performance becoming grating. Make no mistake, he is definitely evil - he shoots his pet cat dead "in case" it interferes with his experiments - but Gough never resorts to foaming at the mouth theatrics, instead playing Decker as cool and sometimes charming, which would make for a chilling character if the situations were not so ridiculous and the dialogue not so portentous.

With such a dazzling lead, the other characters in the film are inevitably going to get overshadowed. However, Decker's assistant Margaret is fairly memorable, utterly devoted to him, turning a blind eye to his crimes, and only getting on the moral high ground when she learns he has been eyeing up one of his students. And, this being set "Between the end of the Chatterley ban, and The Beatles' first LP...", Dr Decker's students are hilariously dated, with lots of sensible sweaters and Trad Jazz.

However, just as entertaining as the star and the script are the special effects, especially the Gorilla costume. Despite starting (and ending) the film as a chimpanzee, one of the side effects of Dr Decker's growth serum is to, once he reaches a certain size, turn Konga into a gorilla. Herman Cohen had previously worked on "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla", and while I am not sure if it the same costume (or the same man in the costume), it is certainly a similar quality. Elsewhere, we get some ridiculous man eating rubber plants, straight out of Little Shop of Horrors, and when Margaret gets picked up and thrown around by Konga, it is very obviously a miniature doll. 

Son of Kong (1933)

Released just months after King Kong, and using much of the same cast and crew, Son of Kong is no match for the original. Despite some unique touches, and a likeable title character, the rushed ending and talky script make this sequel sometimes exciting, but, too often, dull.

The film opens with Carl Denham, the man who bought King Kong to New York, penniless and up to his neck in lawsuits from the death and destruction that caused by Kong. Jumping at the chance to get out of the country, he takes a job on a cargo ship, where he meets Nils Helstrom, the man who sold him the map to Kong Island in the first place. Helstrom is now full of tales of buried treasure on the island and says he wants to go back there - but is something much dangerous waiting for them instead?

The screenplay feels poorly thought out and put together in a rushed manner, which, given how quickly the film was released after the original, surely must have been the case. It assumes you have some knowledge of the first film, but given how fresh it would have been in the minds of the movie going public (and the extent to which the character of King Kong is still part of popular culture) this is unlikely to be a problem.  The first half is relentlessly talky, with dull dialogue delivered in a wooden manner, and while things pick up slightly when the characters reach Kong Island, there is still no momentum to the search for the treasure, a wasted opportunity.

The film only really comes to life during the action sequences, particularly the fights between Kong Junior and the assorted beasts, such as giant bears and dinosaurs that inhabit the island. While the special effects look dated, and not as carefully constructed as in the first film, presumably due to lack of time and money they are still elaborate and well done. Kong Junior comes across as more than just a roaring beast, being quite charming at times, and even a bit goofy and childlike, at one point doing a shrug of his shoulders to camera.

As is common in many of the films of the time, the attitudes to race look very dated. However, both the “Ooga Booga” tribesmen that the party encounter on the island, some of who look obviously blacked up, and Charlie the Chinese cook and his broken English are both too silly to cause any serious offence, being more insensitive than intentionally offensive.

In the closing few minutes, with an earthquake appearing from out of nowhere to destroy the island, we finally see the characters in some real peril, with a chance they might not all get out alive. Unfortunately, the rushed nature of the film means that we have not had time to get to know any of them, and when one does make the ultimate sacrifice, there is little emotional impact.