Konga (film)

Konga (also called I Was a Teenage Gorilla) is a 1961 British/American international co-production science fiction horror filmdirected by John Lemont and starring Michael Gough, Margo Johns and Austin Trevor. It was shot at Merton Park Studios and in Croydon for Anglo Amalgamated then distributed in the United States by American International Pictures (AIP) as a double featurewith Master of the World. Anglo Amalgamated and AIP each provided half the funding for the US$500,000 film with each studio receiving distribution rights in their respective hemispheres.[1]

Konga was the basis for a comic-book series published by Charlton Comics and initially drawn by Steve Ditko (prior to Ditko's co-creation of Spider-Man) in the 1960s.

Plot
British botanist Dr. Charles Decker (Michael Gough) 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, 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 chimp and sends it to London to kill all his enemies who want more credit in the scientific community than he already has. Among his targets is Dean Foster (Austin Trevor) Professor Tagore (George Pastell) and Bob Kenton (Jess Conrad), the lover of Sandra Banks (Claire Gordon), the woman the doctor wants for himself.

After Konga strangles Bob Kenton to death, Dr. Charles Decker attempts to make Sandra Banks his own. This doesn't sit well with Margaret (Margo Johns), 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: Konga Kills Margaret.

Just before going on a rampage, the super-sized ape grabs Dr. Charles Decker in one of his enormous hands, while Sandra's Banks arm is eaten by Dr. Charles Decker's carnivorous plants. His rampage comes to a stop when he and Dr. Charles Decker are killed by the British army. Upon his death, Konga reverts to a chimpanzee.

Cast

 * Michael Gough as Dr. Charles Decker
 * Margo Johns as Margaret
 * Jess Conrad as Bob Kenton
 * Claire Gordon as Sandra Banks
 * Austin Trevor as Dean Foster
 * Jack Watson as Superintendent Brown
 * George Pastell as Professor Tagore
 * Vanda Godsell as Bob's Mother
 * Stanley Morgan as Inspector Lawson
 * Grace Arnold as Miss Barnesdell
 * Leonard Sachs as Bob's Father
 * Nicholas Bennett as Daniel
 * Kim Tracy as Mary
 * Rupert Osborne as Eric Kenton
 * Waveney Lee as Janet Kenton
 * John Welsh as Commissioner Garland

Monsters

 * Konga
 * Carnivorous Plants