British botanist Dr. Charles Decker comes back from Africa after a year, presumed dead. During that year, he came across a way of growing plants and animals to an enormous size. He brings back a baby chimpanzee, named Konga, to test out his theory. Decker goes insane after he discovers a serum that turns his chimpanzee subject into a ferocious gorilla-sized ape. To further his hideous experiments, he mesmerizes the ape and sends it to London to kill all of his enemies who have more credit in the scientific community than he already has. Among his targets is Dean Foster Professor Tagore and Bob Kenton, the lover of Sandra Banks, the woman that the doctor wants for himself. After Konga strangles Bob Kenton to death, Decker attempts to make Sandra his own. This does not sit well with Margaret, the botanist's assistant and current girlfriend, who attempts to get even by giving Konga an enormous amount of the strange serum and turns him into an enormous monster, although she becomes his first victim. Just before going on a rampage, the super-sized ape grabs Decker in one of his enormous hands, while Sandra's arm is eaten by Decker's carnivorous plants. His rampage comes to a stop when he and Decker are killed by the British army. Upon his death, Konga changes back to a baby chimpanzee.
Following the incredible success of Herman Cohen's previous British made film Horrors of the Black Museum that also featured Michael Gough, Nat Cohen of Anglo-Amalgamated asked Cohen for another exploitation film. As Cohen had long admired King Kong, he thought of a giant ape film shot in color. Due to Cohen's success with his I Was a Teenage Werewolf, AIP used "I Was a Teenage Gorilla" as the working title. Cohen paid RKO Pictures $25,000 for the rights to the name of Kong for exploitation purposes. Cohen recalled that the special effects for the film that was one of the first giant monster movies shot in colour took 18 months to complete. The climatic scene in London streets was possible when the producer was able to convince the police that the scenes could be effectively staged late at night on essentially empty streets. A combination of miniature sets, an actor in a gorilla suit and use of studio mattes also made the technical aspects of the production look better than its meager budget would allow.
Reception
Konga appeared as part of a double feature with Master of the World. The film was reviewed in The New York Times, where the film critic Eugene Archer noted it played to "misplaced guffaws" and was further described as: "... the British 'Konga' is nothing more than an overblown 'King Kong,' hammily played by Michael Gough and an improbable-looking ape." In a later Time Out film review, Konga was considered: "Inept, silly, and ludicrously enjoyable monster movie, with Gough as the mad boffin who injects a chimp with a growth serum, only to see it turn into an uncredited actor in a gorilla suit. Thereafter the ape grabs a Michael Gough doll and heads for Big Ben. Deeply political." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 33% based on, with a weighted average rating of 4.4/10.
Novel and comic book version
A novelization of the film was released in paperback at the time of its original release. From 1960 to 1965, Charlton Comics published 23 issues of the comic Konga. It included work by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko. The series was renamed Fantastic Giants with issue #24, which turned out to be the last issue of the series. Konga also appeared in a three-issue miniseries that started off as The Return of Konga, before it was renamed Konga's Revenge with issue #2. The series ran from 1962-1964. This was followed by a one-shot reprint issue in 1968. In 1990, Steve Ditko illustrated a back-up story in Web of Spider-Man Annual #6 called "Child Star". In this story, Captain Universe creates huge versions of toys based on Gorgo and Konga to battle giant monsters that are attacking the neighborhood. For copyright reasons, Konga's name was altered to "Kongo". This sequence was Ditko paying homage to his earlier work with these characters from the 1960s Charlton Comics comic books. Some of these issues were reprinted in a trade paperback in 2011 called Angry Apes n' Leapin Lizards. In August 2013, IDW Publishing reprinted all the issues that artist Steve Ditko worked on as a deluxe hardcover collection called Steve Ditko's Monsters: Konga. In April 2019, IDW published a book called Konga vs. Gorgo which collected issues #5 and #6 of the series.
