Today my attention turns to the big gorillas. I cite "King Kong" as
a preface to my main subject matter. Chiefly I'm thinking about a
character named "Konga," highlighted in a comic book series. This
character grew out of a movie which I never saw.
Named "Konga," the flick had a British botanist, Charles Decker,
discovering a serum that made his chimp subject "Konga" into a larger
and lurking ape. The tinkering has just begun. An angry and rejected
girlfriend of this mad scientist, as it were, gives the ape a huge
amount of serum whereupon it becomes Kong-like, absolutely huge. He can
be pretty belligerent too. The girl becomes his first victim. Meanwhile
Decker's current squeeze, Sandra, gets bitten by one of Decker's
carnivorous plants. The British army kills the ape and Decker. The ape
reverts back to a chimp in death.
Death onscreen does not spell the end of the ape character. I
discovered "Konga" on comic book racks. It was put out by Charlton which
has been described as a sort of "minor league" comic publisher. I was
intrigued by this Kong-like character who would go on a rampage in a
storyline that still seemed open-ended (unlike with "Kong").
"Konga" was a fresh character in spite of the tremendous similarity
(including its name) to the 1933 rampaging ape who came to us via
"stop-motion." Instead of making new "Kong" movies, maybe Hollywood
should go back to the well with "Konga." We'd be spared that tragic
scene at the end with the biplanes and machine guns.
One of the King Kong versions came out smack-dab in the middle of
the disco era. I was in college. Jeff Bridges played a hippie
photographer in this 1976 release, long before he could pass for Rooster
Cogburn. The flick is distinct because the backdrop at the end is not
the Empire State Building, rather it's the twin towers of New York City.
We all know the fate of those.
Peter Jackson came out with a King Kong movie long after disco had
faded into the depths of retro. This version was in 2005 and utilized
lots of CGI. I remember going to Alexandria on Christmas Day to see it,
fresh on its release. I remember it well because the trip turned into a
bit of an adventure, because I couldn't find any dining establishment
open for a long time. I thought Alexandria was big and bustling enough
that surely I'd find some activity somewhere. It took awhile but finally
I noticed cars in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant! I could stay
warm, have a pot of coffee in front of me and page through a newspaper.
Elena Kagan of our U.S. Supreme Court told a like story of discovering a
Chinese restaurant open on Christmas Day.
I felt the 2005 movie was done as well as it could be. I'm not sure we
need any more "Kong" versions with the WWI weaponry. I'd be much more
enthused about the revival of "Konga." The plot could go in unlimited
directions.
As a kid I had no knowledge of "Konga" the movie. Made in 1961, it wasn't
meant to be taken totally seriously. It had its fans even though it
exuded a "schlock" quality. The film made enough of a mark to be
novelized. The comic book series, put out by that "little engine that
could" Charlton, lasted from 1960 to 1965. That's at the heart of my
comic book-reading habits.
I have previously written about several Gold Key entries in the
'60s comic book universe. Today I'm happy to pay homage to Charlton and
its quite effective "Konga." There were 23 issues for that
character, total. My schoolteachers may have gnashed their teeth over
such reading fare. But I'll cite such stuff as the biggest inspiration
for developing a reading habit. I'll stick to my convictions on this.
The imagination behind such stories was limitless.
Adults might frown because there was lots of conflict. They
shouldn't be in denial about the interests of boys. I wonder if today
you'd get in trouble just having such a comic book in your possession at
school. Indeed, conflict is an essential element in drama. Comic books
in the 1960s had that in spades.
I'm sure comics haven't vanished. And I'm sure they present sharp
violence. But today, kids lose themselves in a sea of entertainment with
all the tech-driven resources at their disposal. Comics were far more
essential in my youth. We'd buy them at the little grocery store down
the hill from the old (now razed) east side school in Morris. Today that
building houses Fergus Falls Monument Company. I always cite the
building's history in my chats with manager Bob Welle. "That's where the
comic book rack used to be," I'll say, gesturing.
You can't make boys into pacifists. Our education establishment
seeks determinedly to do that. Boys' instincts will prevail. We love
stories like "Konga" the giant ape who faces a slew of aliens,
dictators, mad scientists, giant robots, great white hunters and
monsters. The character stands 30 feet tall.
"Konga" was part of a trilogy based on 'B' movies, where the comics
take over the story, continuing it. Konga became a surprise hit for the
Charlton publisher. Ditto for another part of that triology, "Gorgo."
Success did not accompany "Reptilicus."
There was a clue in how the "Konga" movie came to have a schlock
quality. Its original title: "I Was a Teenage Gorilla." Movies of that
era could occupy a gray area between serious and schlock. I was offended
once when a reviewer described a movie as "high camp." I hadn't seen it
that way. Reviewers can of course look down their noses a lot. Today
that whole reviewing world has been democratized. The elites have been
humbled by the Internet which is the great enforcer of honesty.
"Konga" in the movie turns from a chimp into a gorilla. We might
assume that a gorilla, based on appearance is more menacing. We learn
from horrific incidents in the news that the chimp is really a bad news
creature. It can tear you limb to limb. Chimps in popular entertainment
are young, drugged and neutered. Still I'm sure the actors (like Ronald
Reagan in "Bedtime for Bonzo") take precautions, like protecting your
genital area.
Hollywood is "the dream factory." Chimps are not in fact cute and
charming. The first Tarzan movie was in 1918, where we saw a chimp
captivate us. Hollywood noticed the ape appeal, which led to the "giant
gorilla" storyline impressed on us for all time with "King Kong." A
gorilla gone bananas!
Peter Jackson's 2005 version cost over $200 million and grossed
over $550 million. King Kong even gave us a look at how dinosaurs were
going to appear on the big screen. The stop-motion animation by Willis
O'Brien in 1933 was state of the art, impressing even today. O'Brien was
the mentor for the man whose name became synonymous with stop-motion:
Ray Harryhausen. "Dynamation" is another word for this.
Harryhausen would give us "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" (not the
comedian) and "Jason and the Argonauts." Who can forget the sword fight
scene with the seven skeleton warriors? Remember that scream?
Harryhausen's last film was "Clash of the Titans" (1981), after
which he retired. He left us for that Skull Island in the sky in May of
this year. He was a lifelong friend of Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was proud
to tell people he was "a graduate of the Los Angeles Public Library."
"King Kong" came out at the height of the Great Depression. The
special effects genius was complemented by Max Steiner's striking
musical score. We can easily conclude that CGI is not a step up from
that movie's techniques. "Mars Attacks!" was originally going to employ
stop-motion but went for CGI based on budget.
The "Kong" ape is obviously a tragic hero, symbolic too. It has
been written he's a symbol of racism, an emblem of the Great Depression
and an allegory of the clash of civilizations, also "a metaphor for the
rampaging male libido."
Let's not leave out the '50s
I should acknowledge one more entry in the gorilla movie genre. In
between the Great Depression and disco we had the 3-D craze of the
1950s, and thus we can appreciate "Gorilla at Large." The setting is a
circus where the top attraction is "Goliath," a bad-tempered gorilla. A
murder occurs. Did the gorilla do it, or a man in a suit pretending to
be the gorilla?
Raymond Burr is the circus owner. Lee J. Cobb is the cigar-chomping
cop. Anne Bancroft plays Burr's wife: a trapeze artist who dons
leotards. The gorilla hauls her up a roller coaster in a scene that
echoes "Kong." A "hall of mirrors" scene is memorable.
Both Goliath and the fake monkey are played by a man in a suit, so
distinguishing can be a little difficult. (In Three Stooges shorts, we
always knew it was a man in a suit!)
There's a surprise ending in this whodunit.
Monkeys and all their monkey business, whether in genuine or giant
size, have been rich fodder for the movies and our entertainment as a
whole. I'll give kudos to the "Konga" comic book creators who made what I
feel is an underrated entry. Hats off to Charlton. "Konga" lives (or
ought to).
I remember reading about an onlooker at the 1976 "King Kong" movie
set who shouted: "He died for your sins in Viet Nam." Haunting.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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