How Jack Watson ever delivered that line with a straight face is beyond me, as it made me burst out laughing watching this film alone when I first saw it on TV in 1986!
After footage of a small plane crashing in the Amazon lifted from 'Run for the Sun', even before Michael Gough makes his entrance we see the movie's real villain (and auteur), executive producer Herman Cohen, buying a newspaper in front of St. Paul's. As the late Bill Warren summed him up, "although they are usually glossily produced and cast with entertaining and/or capable actors, Cohen's movies are uniquely sleazy". (One might agree that an audience might get a kick out of seeing "a very pretty girl" gratuitously devoured by carnivorous plants. But to admit that out loud as Cohen later did in an interview...?)
Although 'Konga' starts off persuasively enough with an excellent title sequence stirringly scored by Gerard Schurman (and the whole film throughout looks gorgeous in Eastmancolor) it's downhill all the way once the maddest scientist on celluloid - Dr. Charles Decker - takes the stage. Gough always overacts in his films for Cohen, and although constantly prattling on about science never shows the care and patience required of a genuine scientist. His disagreement with the dean (Austin Trevor) swiftly degenerates into a shouting match and his treatment of innocent young heroine Claire Gordon shows even less control over his loins than his scientific ambitions. When finally (SPOILER COMING:) picked up and carried through London by Konga, Decker would have been killed instantly had Konga actually followed his repeated demands to let go of him...
I've sat through some lousy movies in my time, and 'Konga' is definitely one of the most enjoyably awful that I've ever seen; and as such is enthusiastically recommended.
After footage of a small plane crashing in the Amazon lifted from 'Run for the Sun', even before Michael Gough makes his entrance we see the movie's real villain (and auteur), executive producer Herman Cohen, buying a newspaper in front of St. Paul's. As the late Bill Warren summed him up, "although they are usually glossily produced and cast with entertaining and/or capable actors, Cohen's movies are uniquely sleazy". (One might agree that an audience might get a kick out of seeing "a very pretty girl" gratuitously devoured by carnivorous plants. But to admit that out loud as Cohen later did in an interview...?)
Although 'Konga' starts off persuasively enough with an excellent title sequence stirringly scored by Gerard Schurman (and the whole film throughout looks gorgeous in Eastmancolor) it's downhill all the way once the maddest scientist on celluloid - Dr. Charles Decker - takes the stage. Gough always overacts in his films for Cohen, and although constantly prattling on about science never shows the care and patience required of a genuine scientist. His disagreement with the dean (Austin Trevor) swiftly degenerates into a shouting match and his treatment of innocent young heroine Claire Gordon shows even less control over his loins than his scientific ambitions. When finally (SPOILER COMING:) picked up and carried through London by Konga, Decker would have been killed instantly had Konga actually followed his repeated demands to let go of him...
I've sat through some lousy movies in my time, and 'Konga' is definitely one of the most enjoyably awful that I've ever seen; and as such is enthusiastically recommended.