Konga

Konga is a 1961 technicolour science fiction horror film directed 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 feature with 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. 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. The film epitomises the B-movie in terms of low budget special effects, such as a man in a gorilla suit replacing special effects (which would later be done in the 1976 King Kong remake). Plot 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 Konga 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 are Dean Foster and Professor Tagore.