KONGA (1961)

Botanist Charles Decker (Michael Gough) is missing and presumed dead when his plane goes down in uncharted African jungles, but a year later, he returns to England; having been befriended by a native tribe, he stayed with then for a time, studying the rather exotic carnivorous plants that bloomed near their village. He brings back a few of those plants, and is also accompanied by a chimp named Konga. Decker, theorizing that these plants have almost-human properties, thinks they may be a missing evolutionary link between plants and humans. He creates a growth serum from the plants and gives it, in controlled doses, to Konga who is soon human sized. When he gets in trouble with his university for making outrageous claims to the press, Decker hypnotizes Konga to follow his commands, and the first one is to kill the university dean. Later he sics the beast on a rival botanist and when Decker falls for a young student named Sandra, he has Konga get rid of her more age-appropriate boyfriend. When his housekeeper Margaret (who has an unrequited crush on Decker) gets jealous, she pumps Konga full of the serum, resulting in his explosive growth; he crashes through the roof of the house and goes on a destructive rampage through London. Unlike in KING KONG, Beauty won't kill this beast as Sandra winds up as food for the carnivorous plants. Here, it's Decker who Konga picks up to take on his rampage. Eventually, with military might unleashed, both meet their fate below Big Ben, and on his death, poor Konga shrinks back to baby chimp size.

KONGA was part of the late-50s-early-60s horror movie revival which often put young people front and center (THE BLOB, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN), and here we have the lovely Clarie Gordon as Sandra and the nice-looking Jess Conrad, a minor British pop singer, as her boyfriend Bob. But they are both overshadowed by old pro Gough chewing the scenery as another nutty older guy (see HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM) who gets more unhinged as the various passions around him--Margaret for him, he and Bob for Sandra--go out of control. The giant Konga effects mostly involve a man in a gorilla suit against miniatures and matte shots, and the scenes of Konga bursting the house apart are almost laughable. The worst effect is of Decker (holding stock still) in Konga's huge fist--it was done much better 30 years earlier in KING KONG. The best effects are some shots of the creepy carnivorous plants in Decker's greenhouse that chew and move in an almost sexual manner. If you're nostalgic for this monster movie era, catch it. [Streaming]