Konga (1961) on Netflix
Presumed dead, Dr. Charles Decker returns from Africa with a way to grow animals to enormous size and a chimpanzee, Konga. Rivals at home hold more credit in science than he does.
- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb4.5/102,386 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes43%
Trailer
Plot summary
After a year in Africa, during which those at home had given him up for dead, the British botanist Dr. Charles Decker comes back with a method for making plants and animals grow far beyond their normal size. He brings a baby chimpanzee, Konga, to put the method to the test. At home, Dean Foster and Professor Tagore carry more weight among scientists than he does, and Decker means to turn the chimpanzee on the enemies he has there. Margaret is his assistant and also his lover. A serum he discovers turns Konga into a ferocious ape the size of a gorilla.
Cast
- Stanley Morganas Insp. Lawson
- Nicholas Bennettas Daniel
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Konga (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Konga was the basis for a comic book series published by Charlton Comics in the 1960s, initially drawn by Steve Ditko before Ditko went on to co-create Spider-Man.
- Herman Cohen, who had long admired King Kong (1933), paid RKO Pictures $25,000 for the rights to the Kong name, and AIP first used the working title I Was a Teenage Gorilla, after Cohen's I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).
- The actor hired to wear the gorilla head said he beat the other two finalists for one simple reason: they had blue eyes and he had brown ones, and everybody in the room knew that a gorilla has brown eyes.
- The producer convinced the police that the climactic scenes in London streets could be staged late at night on essentially empty streets, and the resulting mayhem alarmed residents, who were awakened by sounds of gunfire.
- Konga was one of the first giant monster movies shot in color, using Eastmancolor, and Cohen recalled that the special effects alone took 18 months to complete.
