That little chimp will become the first link in modern evolution between plants and animal life.
Dr. Charles Decker (Michael Gough) is a British botanist. On an exploratory expedition in Africa his plane crashes in the African jungle. He is presumed dead. A year later Dr. Decker returns from Africa to London with a pet chimpanzee he has named Konga. He relays that while he was recovering he learned some amazing things about some of the plants growing there. With the help of his assistant Margaret (Margo Johns) he begins experimenting with carnivorous plants that he brought back with him.
Decker also begins teaching again and hires a student, Sandra Banks (Claire Gordon) to assist him in class. Her wanna be boyfriend Bob Kenton (Jess Conrad) is not happy about it. Neither is Margaret, who assumes she is his significant other.
The plants grow huge. He feeds them meat. Using his special plants Decker concocts a serum. He injects his chimpanzee Konga with the serum. Konga gets big. Because Dr. Decker is a know-it-all jerk he makes some enemies. Dean Foster (Austin Trevor), from the college, chastises him for an interview he did. Things get heated. Decker storms off in anger. He goes home and gives Konga more serum thus turning him into a Gorilla. He hypnotized Konga and orders him to kill Dean Foster. Even though Margaret figures out what is going on she keeps quiet. However, she is not above blackmail. Her currency? She wants Dr. Decker to marry her. To placate her he agrees.
Decker has a dispute with another professor who is working on the same theory and refuses to work jointly. Decker has Konga kill him too. When Sandra’s boyfriend confronts him about spending too much time with Sandra they have a knock-down drag-out. Guess what. Bye Bye Bob Kenton.
Sandra is upset at Bob’s death. Pretending to console her, the Doctor invites her to dinner. After dinner he takes her to see his greenhouse. He tells her how he feels about her and that he wants her to come to Africa with him. He tries to rape her. Margaret hears and gets pissed off. In a fit of fury she injects Konga with another dose of serum. She tries to hypnotize him and fails. Konga grows another 25 feet and more. Then he goes on a rampage.
“Konga” was released in 1961 and was directed by John Lemont. It is a British made film. No one can do slimy pompous ass quite as well as Michael Gough. His over the top performance is more memorable than the gorilla’s. The movie itself is OK. The special effects are bleh. As far as it being a King Kong type movie, well, Kong was always big. Konga doesn’t get big until the last ten or fifteen minutes. And then he just walks around. I'm afraid that even Michael's overacting can't make up for a guy in a gorilla suit just standing there. King Kong was much more athletic. Still it’s a monster. I’ll take it.
Producer Herman Cohen thought of using "ape" actor Steve Calvert, who he had worked with before, but Calvert had retired from performing in his gorilla suit. Cohen then turned to another renowned "ape" actor George Barrows, but only hired Barrows' gorilla suit, not Barrows himself. Instead he hired Paul Stockman, basically because he fit into the suit. Barrows was annoyed when his gorilla costume was returned from England in bad shape.