Kongo

Plot synopsis:
"Deadlegs" Flint, an embittered paraplegic who lives in the Kongo, controls the natives by using cheap tricks that appear to be magical. Assisting him with his magic tricks are his fiance Tula, two thugs, Hogan and Cookie, and a loyal native, Fuzzy.
Flint has spent the last eighteen years planning revenge against a man named Gregg who stole his wife and took her away from the jungle. Flint has built a sixty-mile, fortified encirclement of his compound that prevents anyone from entering or leaving without Flint's consent.
Having seen to it that Gregg's daughter Ann is brought up innocently by nuns in a convent in Cape Town, Flint sends Hogan to bring her to his compound. In Cape Town, Hogan, dressed as a missionary, is able to convince Ann to go with him into the Kongo by saying that he will take her to her father.
When she arrives at Flint's compound, Ann is held as a prisoner. After spending months confined to a brothel in Zanzibar, Ann has become a hardened alcoholic, who does Flint's bidding for whiskey, and has no idea why he has brought her to his camp and degraded her.
When a cynical, drug-addicted doctor named Kingsland arrives at the camp, he and Ann fall in love. Flint, who needs Kingsland to be free from drugs in order to perform an operation on his legs, places the doctor in the swamp so that leeches can suck all of the drugs' poison out of his system. Flint also tolerates Ann's relationship with the doctor and its purifying effect, even while he ridicules her.
Some time after the operation, Gregg arrives at the camp, summoned by Flint, who has stolen a large shipment of his rival's ivory. Flint hopes to have the ultimate revenge against Gregg by showing him his now degraded daughter, then having him killed, and having Ann burned as the sacrifice in the natives' burial ceremony. Flint taunts Gregg until Gregg finally recognizes Flint for the man he once knew as Rutledge. Years before, when Gregg was known as Whitehall, he ran away with Flint's wife after kicking Flint in the back, paralyzing him, and leaving him for dead. From that time, Flint has plotted his revenge against Gregg and the girl who he thought was Gregg's daughter.
When Gregg proves, however, that Ann is actually Flint's own daughter, Flint is stunned, and begs Gregg not to leave the compound or he will be killed (Flint had earlier ordered Fuzzy to shoot Gregg if he tried to leave the compound). Gregg does not listen to his old enemy and leaves, and Fuzzy kills him.
Now desperate to save Ann from the natives' sacrificial fire, Flint arranges for her and Kingsland to escape though a tunnel in the swamp that only Fuzzy knows. Just before Flint dies trying to keep the natives at bay, he prays that Ann will get away safely with Kingsland. Some time later, Kingsland and Ann are on a boat sailing away from Africa, about to be married by the ship's captain.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
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".
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).
Walter Huston steps into Lon Chaney's wheelchair to play the evil crippled magician commanding a "juju" cult of natives who burn women alive.
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).
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.
KONGO, starring Walter Huston, is a 1932 talkie remake of Tod Browning's silent WEST OF ZANZIBAR(1928)that had starred Lon Chaney which in itself was based on the 1926 Broadway play "Kongo" that starred Walter Huston.
Sexy Virginia Bruce replaces sexy Mary Nolan from the silent WoZ as Chaney's long lost, convent protected and later jungle defiled daughter.
Conrad Nagel, is an actor I've never understood the appeal of, but he was a popular silent era leading man appearing in numerous dramas and costume films.
Both Lupe Velez and Virginia Bruce provide ample doses of 'cheesecake' which in this film seems to have been more of the intent compared to the silent version WoZ.
Superior remake of the silent film West of Zanzibar, which starred Lon Chaney.
The plot's about a crippled white man named 'Dead Legs' Flint who lives in the Kongo with his henchmen and mistress.
He keeps the restless natives at bay with some magic tricks while he plots revenge against the man who crippled him and stole his wife eighteen years prior.I can't think of a better actor from this period to step into Chaney's shoes than Walter Huston, who starred in a wide variety of exceptional movies, usually with interesting characters and daring subject matter.
Mitchell Harris and Forrester Harvey are good as Flint's dirty, sweaty underlings.It's a fascinating and disturbing Pre-Code movie with great performances all around.
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.
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.
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.
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.
***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.
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..
Kongo (1932) *** (out of 4) Remake of the 1928 Tod Browning/Lon Chaney film West of Zanzibar pretty much follows the same story.
A paralyzed madman (Walter Huston) rules a colony in Africa and plans on getting revenge on the man who crippled him by torturing his daughter (Virginia Bruce).
This is certainly a very strong film for its time but I'd recommend watching the Chaney version first.
Once the Viewer allows for the Movie to Begin there is No Going Back.Sucked into this World that is a World Away, but too Close for Comfort, the Audience is Taken into a Host of Horrors in a Primitive Land resembling Eden After the Fall, or more Accurately the Hell that Awaits Any who Stray from the Path of the Godly.The Natives Dress Up in Scary, Monstrous, Demon Masks and Perform Unspeakable Rituals Hopped Up on who knows what and the Whites are Definitely "On Something" or another too.
Walter Huston is a Crippled, Sadistic, Insane, Overlord Dishing Out Demented Punishment and Enjoying every minute as He Laughs like a Maniac.Lupe Velez Wears Nothing more than a Towel and Displays some Pre-Code Skin and Delights in Debauched Pre-Code Behavior Enjoying Ample Amounts of Sex and Drugs.
Note...This is a remake of a Silent Film, West of Zanzibar (1928), starring Lon Chaney and Directed by Tod Browning..
I'm not sure if it's a guilty pleasure, if I was mesmerized by Walter Huston's fantastic performance, or if it was just how far it pushed pre-Code boundaries; probably all of the above.
When the movie opens he's already been in a jungle camp for 18 years, slowly plotting his revenge, and in the meantime, exerting absolute control over the natives via magic tricks, a semblance of their voodoo, and understanding their language.
The original film, Tod Browning's 'West of Zanzibar' (1928) is frankly the better told tale - clean and taut, and avoiding several of the more lascivious aspects here (the drug use, tongue pulling, leech burial, at least some of the racial overtones, and Velez's character entirely) in order to give us the story from the beginning.
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.
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.
It systematically manages to remove all of the punch of the original film.Not everyone can handle silent movies, and many people will like "Kongo" better, just because it's a talkie.
It certainly couldn't have been an attempt to outdo the quality of the original.Every powerful moment or sequence in "West of Zanzibar" is either missing or ruined in "Kongo." First, while Houston tries to be abhorrent in the role of Dead Legs Flint, he doesn't arouse anywhere near the repugnance that Lon Chaney does with his Dead Legs Phroso character.
I didn't feel anything similar for Houston, or maybe the ghost of a feeling.And the sacrifice Phroso makes at the end of WOZ is also either missing or so downplayed that I failed to catch it in "Kongo," once again removing one of the major points of the movie.The only character who at least equals his counterpart in the original is Conrad Nagel, who does a fine job in all phases of his role, from deranged dope fiend to caring lover, far better than what Warner Baxter ("Crime Doctor" (1943)) does in WOZ.Lupe Velez is also a delight, although she doesn't have much on-screen time.For those who can relate to the silent movie genre, there is no point in wasting any time on the etiolated "Kongo." Watch the Real Thing: "West of Zanzibar.".
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.
That this is a Pre-Code film there is no doubt from the very start and the movie proceeds to assault us with the grubby and the disgusting; physical and sexual violence and, inevitably given the jungle setting, all manner of non-pc attitudes and behaviour.
A girl is stolen from a convent and sent to a "house" (we all know what kind of house) before being taken deep into the jungle and degraded and turned into an alcoholic (Virginia Bruce), and Lupe Velez almost has her tongue cut out, literally ...
Salinger must have seen this movie to come up with the title for his famous short story, which is nothing like this movie.This movie is the epitome of squalor.It's based on a tale of jungle revenge from a hideous white man against another hideous white man.The squalor is not just in the way the people live, which the setting does a great job of showing, but in the characters, top to bottom.The hero and heroine might be said to have originally developed the term "anti hero".
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..
Although this pre-code movie could easily play on prime time television today without any edits, you have to realize that this was hot stuff more than eighty years ago.
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.
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.
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.
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.
since Huston played the part of Dead Legs on the stage prior to Lon Chaney starring in "West of Zanzibar" in 1928.
In spite of that I think I still prefer "West of Zanzibar" for reasons that have nothing to do with either Huston or Chaney - they both did great in their respective interpretations of the role of "Dead Legs"."West of Zanzibar" was shorter and more to the point and it also did a better job of adding some scenes that were missing from "Kongo".
Nearly 20 years before John Huston took his crew to the Congo to film his masterpiece with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, his father Walter was on the MGM lot filming this terrific sound remake of Lon Chaney Sr.'s silent, "West of Zanzibar".
This is a film you won't forget, with its exotic setting, crippled leading character (quite the villain!), a drugged out ingenue, and natives involved in human sacrifice.
There's a lot in this film that will drop your jaw, but you won't turn away, even if disgusted, by the aura of this dark and creepy jungle film where revenge takes a vile turn, yet with some last minute twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.The fantastic Walter Huston had played this part on stage long before Chaney took it to the screen, so with Chaney's death in 1930, who would be better to do the sound version?
Huston plays the wheelchair bound mad man living in the jungle and stirring up trouble with the natives, vowing revenge on C.
Within a few seconds within the film, you see Bruce go from virginal beauty to drug and alcohol addicted prostitute, a far cry from the glamorous roles that Bruce (best known for being on the top of that huge cake set piece in "The Great Ziegfeld") played during her long tenure at MGM.
Conrad Nagel plays an embittered young man who sobers up long enough to attempt to rescue Bruce from the evil Huston and the eager natives, wearing hideous costumes that imply all sorts of beastly activities.
The plot tells it all--Walter Huston gets revenge on the man who crippled him by kidnapping the man's virginal daughter from a convent, shipping her to a Zanzibar brothel then caging her in his jungle hut for two years and addicting her to brandy.
The acting is out-of-this-world, including Walter Huston as "dead legs" the wheelchair bound, scar-faced revenge-seeker; Virginia Bruce as the captive; Lupe Velez as Huston (and everyone else's) jungle playmate; and Conrad Nagel as a drug-addled doctor who is "cured" of his addiction by Huston using a neat little detox technique that includes using swamp leeches to "purify" his blood.
Power, racism, prostitution, rape, murder, insanity, alcoholism, and drug addiction are all addressed as every character in the film suffers from, or suffers by, one of these things.
This is a remake of the Lon Chaney film, WEST OF ZANZIBAR--a silent film that was made just a few years earlier.
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.
He tricks Whitehall, the man who ran off with Huston's wife, into coming to this isolated kingdom in the African jungle.