Kongo (1932) User Reviews (46)

KONGO (William J. Cowen, 1932) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 15 April 2006]

This is a talkie remake of WEST OF ZANZIBAR (1928) which, alas, is one of the few of the legendary Tod Browning/Lon Chaney collaborations which has eluded me thus far. To begin with, I was shocked to learn that William Cowen (who only directed 6 films during his brief career, this being his most substantial effort) made the lackluster OLIVER TWIST (1933; which I watched only a few weeks ago) soon after! Anyway, KONGO is not really a horror film – but, with the accent being on sadism and degradation, it certainly makes the most of the liberal Pre-Code attitude of the time. Besides, you can almost feel the humid jungle atmosphere: actually, apart from a few of the Chaney films and this one, MGM did several other African-set adventures during this time including TRADER HORN (1931), RED DUST (1932) and the Johnny Weissmuller/Maureen O'Sullivan "Tarzan" films (1932-42). Walter Huston is as commanding as ever in Chaney's old role (though he had originated it himself on stage!) – even if he wasn't quite his equal, I think, particularly where pathos is concerned. Interestingly, the film's plot is also quite similar to that of THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (1941) – which also stars Huston but where his role is more or less reversed! The entire cast is excellent (C. Henry Gordon' role, replacing Lionel Barrymore from the original, is brief but pivotal) including, surprisingly, the 'romantic' leads (Virginia Bruce and Conrad Nagel) – though that's because their roles are complex rather than insipid, as was the norm during this time. As for Lupe Velez – who had been Chaney's daughter in WHERE EAST IS EAST (1929) – the passage of just 3 years has seen her relegated to 'other woman' types and, despite receiving second billing, her role is basically a supporting one (especially since Velez practically disappears during the latter stages of the film).

The film drags in spots and is perhaps overlong for its purpose; however, there's an abrupt passage of time – in which we never get to see Bruce's descent to the skids at Huston's hands – which confused me at first into thinking that she was actually her own mother! Huston exerts his grip on the fearsome, gullible natives by the use of magic tricks (including, ironically, the decapitation routine I had seen only a couple of days earlier in Browning's THE SHOW [1927]!; could this have been used in WEST OF ZANZIBAR, too?) and a lot of rather silly chanting of mumbo-jumbo. While I knew of the plot revelation, it's still very effectively handled; indeed, given Cowen's non-reputation, I have to wonder how this film compares scene by scene with the original, i.e. whether the director here consciously copied Browning and that's why KONGO is so powerful! Curiously, Huston's comeuppance at the hands of the natives he had exploited for so long is strikingly similar to that of ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1933) – though it's considerably less graphic (also because here we're not told what really happened to him {is it the same with WEST OF ZANZIBAR?}, whereas we know what Dr. Moreau's fate is going to be without having to actually witness it).

I doubt that the film's reputation is solid enough to justify a stand-alone (and most probably bare-bones) DVD release from Warners – and, despite the obvious connection, I would think it'd be out of place on an eventual second set of Lon Chaney vehicles; still, I would very much like to have an official DVD edition of this one, also because my copy froze for an instant during a crucial scene

Fascinatingly Grungy

[db_blab · 8/10 · 5 February 2000]

See this film especially if you are young enough to think that no one in films had illicit sex, took drugs, or committed psychopathic murder before "Pulp Fiction". This film is a bizarre ride. Never seen anything like it. I recommend it highly!

Sadistic Goings-on in Africa

[Bucs1960 · 8/10 · 13 December 2008]

Your best bet when viewing this film is not to take it too seriously or you will have a bad taste in your mouth for a week. It is a raw, sadistic, unbelievable story containing every possible type of aberrant behavior that could be translated to film at the time. Pre-code at its best, it puts all others in the shade. Where else can you have drug addiction, incest, murder, torture, human sacrifice and rape wrapped up in an over the top story with some pretty good actors? Walter Houston plays "Dead Legs" Flint, a paraplegic holding court in an African village and vowing revenge on the man (C. Henry Gordon) who kicked him in the spine thus paralyzing him. Keeping Houston close company is Lupe Velez as his Portugese(?) mistress, Conrad Nagel as a drug ravaged physician and Virginia Bruce as the daughter (or not) of his sworn enemy. Houston's aforementioned revenge on Gordon for his paralysis is taken out vicariously on Bruce in unremitting style, off-screen as well as on, ......and it is nasty!!! Bruce, plays without make-up which adds to her interpretation as she is transformed into an abused, drug addicted whore and she is in a word....fantastic.

I have only touched on the essential plot of this film. There are other aspects that amplify the scenario, such as the attempted tongue removal scene..........yikes!!!

This film was a shocker at the time and frankly, still is.....it is downright unpleasant. One of the rawest of the pre-code films, it is a must-see for fans of that film era and you will either despise it or love it. The word "unclean" comes to mind and you might feel like taking a shower after viewing.

Don't Miss This One

[femme_fatale5367 · 14 November 2004]

It won't be shown during "family" hours, so stay up or set your VCR. This pre-Code tale of revenge, sex, brutality, and, ultimately, redemption was one of Walter Huston's best performances (not that he was capable of a bad one). It's like a train wreck--you don't want to watch, but you can't turn away. Virginia Bruce is excellent as the innocent convent-educated girl who becomes a pawn in Huston's diabolical revenge scheme. Drug addiction and abuse of women run rampant, along with racism and superstition. Sweaty, dirty, and disheveled characters, sex, violence, drugs, and great performances. It doesn't get any better than this. Even though you'll guess the ending early on, you'll still want to watch it, and you'll want to see more of Walter Huston's films.

Strong stuff

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 21 October 2002]

A beautiful, young woman is mentally and physically tortured by a rival of her father. Bizarre, to say the least. VERY very brutal even by today's standards. The film opens with a decapitation! There's also rape, whippings, drug abuse, torture, incest...basically the works. It's very surprising that MGM let this film be made let alone released! It's a really good movie but very tough. For strong stomaches only.

Fascinatingly lurid

[marcslope · 7/10 · 22 October 2008]

As pre-Code as they get, and very un-MGM-like for 1932, this stage success and remake of "West of Zanzibar" is both hilariously racist and quite creepy, with nightmarish imagery and lots of sadism. Walter Huston, hamming it up entertainingly, is the warped, lame white-boss-man whose appetite for vengeance leads him to make a disastrous mistake. He's surrounded by some MGM players at the modest peaks of their careers: Conrad Nagel as a drug-addicted doctor, Lupe Velez as Huston's two-timing mistress, and most memorably, Virginia Bruce (without makeup, very unusual for the time, and emoting affectingly) as a convent school girl driven into prostitution and drink. The love story between her and Nagel is more convincing than usual: These two do seem made for each other, and there's little of the hearts-and-flowers romantic excess of the era. But the prime appeal is how beastly Huston is to all around him, and how memorably he gets his comeuppance. The natives' ooga-booga costumes, dances, and obeisance to the white massa are kind of hard to take, and William J. Cowen's direction is workmanlike at best. But the piece is, in its own way, as horrifying and memorable as that other atypical MGM horror classic of 1932, "Freaks."

Amazingly brutal and cruel

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 9 November 2008]

This is a remake of the Lon Chaney film, WEST OF ZANZIBAR--a silent film that was made just a few years earlier. The original film and this remake both are quite shocking even when seen today because of the amazingly brutal and cruel script. Both films are very similar, but since KONGO is a sound film, the shrillness of the film seems even more intense. Considering that Chaney had died of cancer two years earlier, the studio had no choice but to find another actor the the lead. While no one would ever accuse Walter Huston of being subtle in this film, his kooky and over the top performance worked because the film had no pretense--it was meant to be sadistic, sleazy and low-brow. After all, this film was made before the new and strengthened production code, so it was still an "anything goes" world in Hollywood.

The film is about a crazed magician (Huston) who lives in the middle of the African jungle. The natives are all ignorant savages and Huston controls their murderous impulses by convincing them he's a powerful witch doctor. In reality, he does a lot of really cool stage magician tricks and this is the most exciting part of the film. Apparently, he and his sleazy sidekicks have been there for many years amassing a fortune in ivory, though instead of taking the money and running, they stay because apparently Huston has a cunning plan. Only later do they realize that they've all spent years in this hellhole because kooky Huston is bent on a complicated plan for revenge. Like the original film, there is a twist and the plan backfires--leading to horrible complications.

This is really not a good film in the traditional sense. There is TONS of overacting, the script is impossible to believe and the whole thing is very shrill to say the least. However, this and its strong Pre-Code sensibilities make it a fascinating film because of its excess--and that's pretty much the same way I felt about WEST OF ZANZIBAR. Both are indeed guilty pleasures.

Apocalypse Then!

[1930s_Time_Machine · 7/10 · 25 May 2023]

You're immediately plunged into a nightmare world similar to that psychotic, psychedelic half-world which Colonel Kurtz presided over in APOCALYPSE NOW. It's so unreal, it's like a never-ending bad acid trip which you can't believe it's actually happening but can't escape from. This is not a normal picture. If you've seen SAFE IN HELL or RAIN made around the same time and think this will have a similar feel, you're wrong. This is unique; it's strange, disturbing cruel sick and nasty but like the drug you feel you must have taken to experience this, it's totally addictive.

Walter Huston plays a crazed character who has devoted his life to hatred. The theme of this picture is hatred and everything you see is of a result of his insane dedication to vengeance. He rules an isolated tribe of savage cannibals like people from prehistory but it's he who is the least uncivilised and is virtually a base savage beast. His 'Flint' might be the least likeable character ever put onto celluloid. Although he is beyond evil, by the genius of Walter Huston's manic (over)acting, it is he and not the innocent girl he captures, degrades and tortures whom we empathise with. It's exceptionally clever filmmaking.

The direction and stunning, claustrophobic photography (by the same guy who filmed THE WIZARD OF OZ!) create an absurdly over the top sense of menace, dirt and utter unpleasantness. The expressionistic lighting makes Flint glow with evil whilst allowing darkness to hide the edges of the frames - the fuzziness enhances its dreamlike quality. You can't see everything which is happening, you can't see Flint's henchman raping the girl, you just get to see Flint's manic grin outside the door. You don't see the people being burned alive on Flint's pyre but you hear the screams, you hear the pain. The sound makes the nightmare real. There's constant noise, constant drums, the constant sound of eternal despair.

Sound is massively important to this film. It's a remake of the silent WEST OF ZANZIBAR made just a few years earlier but without sound, that is a million times inferior to this. In the original, there's an explanation of why Flint became this monster but in this version he's just thrown at us - the shock value works so much better. We don't need to see that he was a third rate music hall magician. We don't need to see how his rival (Lionel Barrymore!) ruined his life. We don't need to see the humanity he once had. If he is to be our antihero-hero, we have to accept him for who is is now.

A lot of symbolism can be seen in this; there's good versus evil, there's redemption, there's humanity versus savagery and of course love versus hate. Unlike in the original there's even an allegory of Adam and Eve. Lupe Velez is inexplicably attractive and sensual amongst the filth, grime and squalor representing temptation. She's doesn't need to seem real, she is simply Flint's manifestation of unrestrained sexual desire, tempting and offering forbidden fruit.

Irving Thalberg at MGM loved to (and indeed could afford to) take risks, to do something a bit more edgy than normal and nothing in 1932 was more edgy than this. It's not a happy film, it's actually genuinely disturbing but it's also pretty amazing and will be something you will always remember.

An Almost-Lost Classic

[JHC3 · 9/10 · 1 November 1999]

Walter Huston plays Flint, a paraplegic living in a self-made ivory empire in deepest, darkest Africa. Flint is cruel, brutal, and autocratic. Using simple stage magic and sleight of hand to make the superstitious natives believe he is semi-divine, he also employs a handful of Europeans to help him run his trade. He is a vengeful man and his vengeance when it comes to an old rival and his daughter is horrifying. Some of the implications are far darker and more grim than would be permitted to be openly portrayed in a film of the 1930s.

Until it aired recently on a cable television movie channel, I was totally unaware of this film. It is impressive. It is set in the tropics and just watching it makes you want to sweat. Walter Huston's chilling performance as Flint is excellent. The supporting cast is solid and the romance that blossoms between two characters seems far more genuine than many such relationships that are portrayed in other films of the early 1930s. This is a film that is not to be missed by anyone who enjoys classic suspense or adventure.

Jungle Kingdom Of Degenerates

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 6 April 2011]

Walter Huston got to recreate his stage role of 'Deadlegs' Flint when Kongo was done as a sound film in 1932. The original production ran for 135 performances and then a silent version entitled West Of Zanzibar was done by MGM that starred Lon Chaney. So for those of you who marveled at Chaney's compelling performance in West Of Zanzibar, be advised that Huston actually created the part on Broadway.

The jungle sets used for Trader Horn's interiors and later for the Tarzan films are put to good use in Kongo. The rest of it revolves around Walter Huston's equally compelling performance as a crippled degenerate paraplegic who rules a jungle kingdom with some equally degenerate associates and who keep the natives in line with some old magician's tricks. That and a knowledge of the narcotic effect of some of the jungle plants.

Huston lives for only one reason to exact a terrible vengeance on another white overlord of some jungle turf, the man who crippled him and stole his wife at the same time, C. Henry Gordon. The instrument of his revenge will be Virginia Bruce who is Gordon's convent raised daughter who Huston lures into his jungle domain.

Lupe Velez is on hand as Huston's mistress of undetermined racial origin since she certainly doesn't look like any of the natives. Lupe does have a roving eye however since her sex life with Huston has to be somewhat limited. She gleefully aids in Huston's depravities however.

Kongo in one sense takes a really horribly racist point of view toward the natives. At the same time however it certainly doesn't show the whites as anything noble. Both Huston and Gordon aren't hypocrites, you won't see them mouthing any pablum about the white man's burden.

It's a dated film, but Walter Huston will keep you riveted to your seats with what he does with this part.

Startlingly Raw But At Core A Bit Prosaic

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 17 January 2005]

Walter Huston plays the brutal figure who lives in Africa in a wheelchair and orders everyone around. He seems to have a sexual relationship with Lupe Velez, misused by the script and director as she so often was. The movie's attitude toward natives of the area -- known, as they were for decades in adventure movies just as natives -- is insulting but of its time. I am writing on Martin Luther King Day; so it does seem a bit ironic.

The Huston character's primary goal in life is revenge against the man who put him in the wheelchair and this he plots through debasement of the man's daughter. Virginia Bruce, whom we first meet in a convent school, is very convincing as the slatternly alcoholic he turns her into. She is rescued by a drug-addicted doctor who happens into the area -- this is sort of a "Petrified Forest," African style.

Huston discovers that she is actually his own daughter and this changes him entirely and a little implausibly, not to mention in a soap opera-like way.

It's a weird and gripping movie, though; make no mistake, and it's definitely worth watching.

Huston discovers that she is actually his own daughter and this changes him entirely and a little implausibly, not to mention in a soap opera-like way.

It's a spooky movie, though; make no mistake, and definitely worth watching.

Nasty, nasty film

[jackgriffin1-1 · 10/10 · 22 June 2005]

This is one of the most perverse pre-code films ever made. Drug addiction, rape, incest, nudity, you name it. Every time I show it to people their jaws drop, I burned a TCM showing onto DVD but would love to see an official MGM release.

There is no comparison to the original, "West of Zanzibar". As great as Chaney was, and in my opinion he was one of, if not the, greatest actors that ever lived, "Kongo" beats just about every film I've ever seen for sheer seaminess. C'mon, Virginia Bruce a forcibly drug-addicted heroine forced into prostitution by her father?

"Freaks" has nothing on this one.

nothing quite like it!

[mukava991 · 7/10 · 13 November 2008]

Flint (Walter Huston) is a grizzled, twisted paraplegic holed up in the African jungle where he lords it over a tribe that mistakes his cheap vaudeville magic tricks for supernatural powers and provide him a living by running trade missions from which he profits handsomely. He also controls the whole area for miles around due to some sort of ill-explained mumbo-jumbo involving a magical circle called "ju-ju" which dooms anyone who dares to trespass. But his main focus in life is to lure, trap and wreak vengeance on Gregg, a rival who once upon a time fought him, kicked him in the spine and paralyzed him below the waist. Through plot machinations too complicated to detail, Flint manages to entrap Gregg's innocent daughter (Virginia Bruce), subject her to physical and psychological torture, then lure the father to the scene of the crime, where he hopes to revel in the man's despair before doing away with both father and daughter. To keep his mind focused during the long years of planning of this feat he marks off the passing months on a crude homemade calendar emblazoned with the words "he sneered," which keep fresh the memory of the facial expression of his nemesis after the paralyzing kick.

All the while he hangs out with two cronies and a vivacious Portuguese girl (Lupe Velez at her most engaging) who seems to be in a constant state of heat. They are surrounded by strapping black natives who obey orders in return for occasional cubes of sugar which has the same effect on them as a biscuit to a dog. Everyone glistens with perspiration.

The outrages he perpetrates against the captured Virginia Bruce are evidently so horrid that the film doesn't even show them. One moment we see her as a prim young lady preparing to venture out of the convent and the next time we see her she is a fever-crazed basket case who apparently lives on brandy. The contrast is so stark and sudden that for a while it's not clear that we are still watching the same actress. Into this bizarre setup staggers Conrad Nagel as a doctor who has become addicted to a local intoxicating root. Huston breaks the doctor's addiction by piercing his torso with a knife and then tying him to a log in a swamp so that leeches can suck the poison from his system, then having sobered him, enlists his services to perform surgery to stop the pain from his spinal injury. And on and on it goes, as overstuffed a scenario as one is likely to see.

Huston also played this role in the original Broadway stage version of this piece in 1926 and clearly has an actor's field day, dragging his limp limbs across the stage, hoisting himself into a wheelchair, scowling with his scarred face and permanently squinting eyes and breaking into demented peals of laughter as he abuses poor Virginia Bruce. It would be hard to find any other early 30s film in which a young, attractive female is allowed to look so messed up for so long. There is something startlingly modern in the way her long, gnarled blonde hair falls loosely over her shoulders. The only signs of makeup on her face are the sometimes obviously drawn-in naso-labial creases and under-eye bags that are supposed to indicate exhaustion and dissipation. She tries hard to give a good performance and often succeeds. There are some lovely moments between her and Conrad Nagel as they realize they are falling in love. Nagel also gives his best and manages to squeeze charm and gallantry out of a role that might have been written for Dwight Frye at his weirdest.

In sum, the persuasiveness of the plot is only medium. The impact comes from the exotic setting, the outlandishness of the goings-on and the insane intensity of the central character. It has more the feel of a talky thriller than an engrossing dramatic narrative. This is one of two stylish 1932 films in which Huston plays a fanatic in the tropics, the other being Rain. Despite the problems, it really should be seen to be believed.

Huston's Ham on Rye...

[IdaSlapter · 3/10 · 3 May 2021]

I guess I must've seen a different film than the others who gave this such glowing reviews.

For me it was a one-note film, heavily marred by Huston's hammy bellowing and scenery-chewing performance. My gawd, in this film he makes Rod Steiger seem like Marcel Marceau...

The only redeeming feature was Virginia Bruce, who was willing to play it rough, in many scenes without any makeup, a niche Bette Davis claimed as hers and hers alone. Sorry Bette, Virginia beat you to it.

Delirious jungle melodrama for pre-code fans

[rfkeser · 28 November 1999]

Walter Huston steps into Lon Chaney's wheelchair to play the evil crippled magician commanding a "juju" cult of natives who burn women alive. Lupe Velez is on hand [and narrowly escapes getting her tongue twisted out with a wire]. Enter blonde Virginia Bruce, a convent girl forced into prostitution in Zanzibar, but now a hopeless alcoholic. Enter Conrad Nagel, a doctor who is now a hopeless drug addict [his cure involves being covered with leeches and buried up to his neck in a swamp]. Don't worry: there's still MORE plot! Everyone sweats a lot, on leftover sets from RED DUST, but the direction is rudimentary and lacks the courage of the plot's kinkiness. Still, it's some kind of must-see since they sure don't make them like this anymore!

Time is a great healer

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 8 April 2006]

***SPOILERS*** Living among the natives in the jungles of Zanzibar Big Boss-man Flint, Walter Huston,has taken over the leadership of the Voodoo worshiping people. Using a combination of cheap carnival tricks and sugar cubes, Flint got the natives addicted too and had them create a kingdom for himself in the most remote part of darkest Africa.

Having his underling native Chief Fuzzy,Curtis Nero, create a 80 mile impregnable JuJu circle no one can come in or out of Flint's kingdom without him knowing about it and that's exactly how he want's it. For some 18 years Flint has been planning his revenge against Gregg Whitehall,C. Henry Gordon. Whitehall not only caused him to lose his ability to walk, by breaking Flint's spine, but stole his wife who he later had a daughter with Ann, Virginia Bruce. Now the time has come for the Boss-man to get even with him for past dues.

Having destroyed his slave and Ivory trade business by having Fuzzy and his warriors knock off Whitehall's safari's in the jungle along the notorious JuJu circle Flint also had one of his flunkies Hogan, Mitchell Lewis, impersonate a white jungle preacher, Babcock. Hogan went to fetch Ann from a convent in Capetown and bring back to Flint in his jungle kingdom to be used as a human sacrifice together with her father Gregg Whitehall.

Sick and demented the crippled Flint has Ann addicted to cheap brandy which causes her to come down with black fever that's slowly killing her. It's then when Fuzzy and his men find Dr. Kingsland ,Corad Nagel, lost and staggering around in the jungle and bring him back to the Boss-Man's place where things starts to unravel for him. It turns out that Kingsland's involvement with Ann who turns out to be not what Flint thought she was: It turns out that he's actually Ann's father!

Kingsland addicted to the Bhang Root kicked that monkey off his back only to later have Flint's live-in maid and sex-slave Tula, Lupe Lopez,get him hooked back on it in order to bed down the handsome and sexy young doctor. Capturing Whitehall and about to do him in for what he did to him 18 years ago Flint is stunned to find out, with Kingsland confirming it with Ann's birth certificate, that he not Gregg Whitehall is her father.

With the natives now whipped up into a frenzy screaming for blood, after Chief Fuzzy shot and killed Whitehall, and with no modern means of communications Flint couldn't get the word back to Fuzzy to call off Whitehalls assassination. Now Flint is desperate in preventing his "daughter" Ann to be immolated along with him which is an ancient native custom. Flint plays his last trick by holding off the angry and rampaging natives as Ann Dr. Kingsland and the rest of his crew Tula Hogan & Cookie, Forrester Harvey, make their way out of the jungle by a secret underground tunnel.

It took Boss-Man Flint all these years to find out that the revenge that he was planning for Whitehall's daughter would in the end not only boomerang and bring him back to sanity; It would also give him the humanity and courage that he lost so long ago in the madness of the steaming and disease infested African jungle.

"There's Something Monstrous About All This"

[davidcarniglia · 7/10 · 15 August 2018]

Certainly an intense movie, but not quite as horrifying as I expected. The worst barbarities are implied, not shown. In some respects Huston's megalomaniac character reminded me of Brando's in Apocalypse Now. Both carve out jungle colonies for themselves, ruling as demi-gods.

The magic and elaborate use of ritual works well, establishing authenticity as well as the source of Ruledge's (Huston's) power over the natives. The masks are frightening--especially the double-decker mask with the skull ears. Rutledge slithering around with the elephant mask was a creepy bit too.

The mystery of Ann's origins adds an interesting twist. Rutledge realizes that he has only hurt himself, and not Whitehall, by subjugating Ann. That she never learns that he is her father hurts him more deeply. His change of heart is believable perhaps because he's been so monstrous. The terror he's nurtured by using the natives ultimately becomes so powerful that they're uncontrollable.

The atmosphere in Kongo was amazingly palpable. The natives bring the setting to life; the whites all seem to be slowly dying. It did seem a little suspect that Ann and Kingsland can shift so abruptly from being zoned-out on drugs to a normal state of mind. It is established though, that time has become meaningless here; maybe there's weeks that go by between scenes.

The scenes involving Whitehall's death, the imminent threat to Ann, and her escape with Kingsland build to a superb climax. Kongo is fascinating, creepy, and well-acted. Rutledge's character could have been strictly two-dimensional, but even this completely evil person has some nuance. Well-worth watching, especially for the rituals. 7/10.

Inferior Remake of West of Zanzibar

[a_chinn · 6/10 · 7 May 2017]

While watching this film, I kept asking myself if I'd seen it before, but then it struck me that this was a talkie remake of Tod Browning's outrageous "West of Zanzibar," which had been made only four years before. Walter Huston plays a conniving wheelchair bound magician in the jungles of Africa who frightens and manipulates the natives with his carnie magic tricks, though most of the film is spent on Huston cruelly treating the daughter of the man he holds responsible for crippling him. The film does manage to be just about as over-the-top as Browning's original film, although it unfortunately also retains the racist portals of native people, but overall I still prefer Browning's silent version that featured the great Lon Chaney in the Huston role.

Disappointing

[januszlvii · 6/10 · 20 March 2022]

Kongo was a disappointing movie. I really preferred the original West of Zanzibar ( proving once again 99% ( or more) originals are superior to remakes. What is wrong? Let's start with Lupe Vélez ( Tula). She disappeared half way through the movie and does not pop up again until the final five minutes and you never find out what happens to her. Virginia Bruce ( Ann) really does nothing except be a "Damsel In Distress" She is not even pretty until the end. Walter Huston ( "Deadlegs" Flint) is by far the best one in the film and he cannot top Lon Chaney Senior in the original. While Kongo is listed as a horror film ( more so then West of Zanzibar ( despite the presence of Chaney and Director Tod Browning)), it really is not. Finally last but certainly not least, the natives are not nearly as menacing as those in Black Moon ( wanting to kill a small child). I say 5/10 stars. All for Huston who spoilers ahead: Goes from the villain to the hero, sacrificing himself for Ann Tula and Ann's eventual husband Doc Kingsland ( Conrad Nagel) when he finds out Ann is his daughter.

As gruesome and gritty as it gets!

[howdymax · 10/10 · 13 October 2000]

A white witch doctor rules his personal kingdom without mercy. He terrifies the natives and controls his small group of lost souls with an iron hand. All with one burning goal in mind. This picture has so many stomach churning, heart wrenching elements to it, they are too many to count. Walter Huston plays one of the most sadistic brutes ever portrayed on film. Yet, we find, after all, the brute has a heart. Virginia Bruce, in easily the best role of her career, plays a thoroughly debased victim. Kidnapped by Huston in a twisted plot to punish the man he thinks is her father, she proves that inherent goodness is impossible to destroy. Watching him desperately try is what makes this film so worthwhile. If you get the chance - don't miss it.

jungle exploitation movie

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 30 May 2023]

A white evil wheelchair-bound man named Flint Rutledge (Walter Huston) rules over African villagers by scaring them with his second-rate magic tricks. He uses liquor and sugar to entice them. Ann Whitehall (Virginia Bruce) has been tricked and trapped at the compound.

This was degraded to B-movie status due to its disturbing nature. Today, it has issues with its racism and general ugliness. At least, the white people are drunken corrupt rulers. Flint is an interesting villain, but I still need a better protagonist. A modern movie would have the blonde girl take revenge and burn the whole place down by herself. This is a jungle exploitation movie when nobody would call it that.

The Road After You Get Through Zanzibar.

[rmax304823 · 3/10 · 28 April 2011]

This black and white, psychological horror flick has got to be in contention for one of the slimiest movies ever made. Everything about it -- from the studio-bound setting to the characters -- is depressingly filthy. You want the plot? Okay. You have your surgical gloves on? Walter Huston is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His spine was broken eighteen years ago by a miscreant named Whitehall, who then ran off with Huston's wife and impregnated her.

Huston makes a living by pretending to be a chief shaman of a tribe in the Congo. The, er, "natives" bring him ivory tusks. In return Huston dons a mask and performs parlor tricks for them, swallowing a bit of fire, releasing birds from an empty tea pot, that sort of thing. He must do pretty well in the ivory business because he's managed to put Whitehall's daughter through a convent school. We see Virginia Bruce all virginal, naive, pristine, and dolled up in white. And when she graduates, Huston has her kidnapped, brought to him, and thoroughly debauched. She's now dressed in rags, her hair is a stringy mess, she's a lush, and she appears to have been the victim of a Hell's Angel's gang bang. She crawls around on her knees, begging for booze, and the snarling, scarred, skanky Huston is enjoying every second of his revenge. He chomps his cigar, sneers, rubs his revolting palms together with glee. What a performance.

Enter the young doctor, but not the heroic young doctor one might expect, in an immaculate white suit and panama hat. No, this is Conrad Nagel, and his life is as fetid as anyone else's. He drinks a lot too, but his chief problem is his addiction to something that sounds like BingBang root. Nagel can't walk. He shambles and slithers from side to side. At one point, as he's passing out, he splays his fingers across his chin, sticks out his tongue, rolls his eyes roofward, and for a moment, you think you're watching one of the Three Stooges.

He eventually sobers up and assesses the situation, recovering his moral bearings, and begins to resemble the heroic jungle doctor we've come to expect in movies like this. His attraction for Virginia Bruce grows, and as it does, it seems to improve her appearance. It washes her face, removes the dark shadows from around her eyes, and even combs her hair. Nagel operates on Huston's spine, too, just to relieve the pain. And what an operation it is. The doc prepares for the procedure by wiping his hands with an oily rag and rolling up his shirt sleeves. Forget the surgical scrub, the sterile field. Forget the anesthetic too. Huston endures the cutting without even a belt of booze or a nibble of BingBang.

Only one thing is missing to make Huston's plans for revenge complete. He tricks Whitehall, the man who ran off with Huston's wife, into coming to this isolated kingdom in the African jungle. Once Huston has the man in his grips, he introduces him to Virginia Bruce, delighting in her "debasement" and "degradation." Ha ha.

But Whitehall, unsympathetic character to be sure, tells Huston something that causes him to realize what a rude lump of foul deformity he's become. I kind of lost the narrative thread for a few minutes but it's clear that Whitehall is shot to death by a native on Huston's orders, and that Huston then sacrifices his own life to give the doc and his girl friend a chance to escape. A good magician never reveals his tricks.

That last-minute epiphany of Huston's cannot save the movie from being a caricature of the worst in human nature for 95 percent of its running time. It's a movie about sadists, weaklings, morons, mysophiliacs, barbarians, and victims, living in a sea of unspeakable filth. See it. You might enjoy it. But wear safety goggles.

Potent Pre-Code Entertainment

[mrb1980 · 9/10 · 14 February 2006]

If anyone believes that 1930s movies are just fluff pieces with lots of inane musical numbers, this film will dispel that opinion. The great Walter Huston plays Flint, a crippled and borderline insane ruler of a remote African kingdom. When Ann (Virginia Bruce) comes by, Flint keeps her captive and repeatedly tortures her, believing that she is the daughter of the man who paralyzed him. Along comes Kingsland (Conrad Nagel), a doctor who is addicted to some kind of jungle root. Flint torments Kingsland by withholding the root and insisting that Kingsland cure him of his paraplegia. Lupe Velez as Flint's love-hungry mistress livens up the picture, until Ann's father (C. Henry Gordon) arrives with a shocking secret that provides the twist ending of the film.

I suppose the movie isn't for all tastes, but I certainly like it. The plot includes murders, drug addiction, torture, jealousy, a decapitation, bizarre native rituals, and a strong theme of sadism which runs throughout. This little gem could not have been made just two years later. A must for pre-Code fans.

"Your mind's more twisted and warped than your body!"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 9 February 2022]

Coming along in the same year as Tod Browning's classic cult film "Freaks", this one is almost as bizarre with Walter Huston in the role of a paraplegic, self-appointed god to a tribe of Chulla natives in the fictional African district of Laplunga. I was somewhat apprehensive about the story's mention of voodoo in the picture, but just now learned that Africa was the original source of the religion that most people associate with the island of Haiti. With a combination of magician's parlor tricks and an iron hand to enforce his will, Flint Rutledge (Huston) lives for the day he can exact revenge on a man who years ago stole his wife and kicked him so hard it left him paralyzed below the waist.

No amount of describing this film can do it any justice, you just have to see it for yourself. Actress Virginia Bruce transforms from a fresh faced, teenage convent girl into a shabby and forlorn creature under Flint's roof. Rutledge had her brought to him under false pretenses by his henchman Hogan (Mitchell Lewis), while planning to have her offered up in a fiery sacrifice after having her father, the man who crippled him, killed by the Chulla's. For some unknown reason, the Chulla's believe that if they kill someone, that person's daughter must be burned alive in some sort of cleansing ritual. If it all sounds too grim, that's because it is.

Lupe Velez adds to the dour proceedings as Flint's gal Friday Tula, who he treats as badly as all the rest of his hangers-on. She must have dabbed on a lot of baby oil because she glistens in every scene she's in, almost looking like she just stepped out of the shower. You could chalk it up to sweat in the African heat, but if that's the case, no one else was affected in the same way.

The tables turn in the final act when Flint's adversary finally arrives on the scene; Gregg Whitehall reveals that Ann (Bruce) is not his daughter; the wife he stole from Rutledge was already pregnant when she ran off with him. Learning this leaves Flint remorseful toward his own daughter, while revealing an escape tunnel that all of his attendants can use while he fends off the distressed natives. Faking out the Chulla's with the old skeleton switcheroo, Rutledge only manages to hang on long enough for Ann and her lover Kingsland (Conrad Nagel) to make a safe getaway.

Before I forget, I do have to mention Flint's chimp pal Kong, who gets a little feisty with Ann in one scene in which she and Flint are arguing; the monkey keeps swatting at her and successfully grabs the front of her shirt before she manages to pull away. I couldn't help thinking that in just one year, that little chimp would conceivably grow up to such a huge size he'd become known as King.

Not the pre-code eye-opener I was hoping for.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 27 November 2017]

A remake of West of Zanzibar (1928), Kongo stars Walter Huston as reprehensible, crippled ivory trader Flint Rutledge, who seeks revenge on Gregg Whitehall (C. Henry Gordon), the man who stole his wife and put him in a wheelchair; this he does by kidnapping, degrading and humiliating Whitehall's daughter Ann (Virginia Bruce).

I decided to watch Kongo based on the reviews here on IMDb, which made it sound like an unmissable piece of 'anything goes' pre-code Hollywood depravity; but while it certainly deals with some very sordid subject matters—drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism, murder, prostitution, and rape—I found the film as a whole far less exploitative than I had imagined.

The violence is suggested rather than shown, and barring a brief nip slip from Lupe Velez as jungle tramp Tula and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it flash of boob from Virginia Bruce there was no nudity. Flint's persecution of Ann is undeniably very cruel, but it isn't anything to get your knickers in a twist over: by today's standards, it's fairly tame stuff, and after what I had read, could only come as something of a disappointment.