Sandra Banks
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Sandra Banks is a supporting character the 1961 film Konga, in which she has ambitions of becoming a scientist and studies at Essex College in London. She is the favorite student and assistant to her professor Dr. Charles Decker, who grooms her and later gets her killed by the gigantic monster Konga.
In the Charlton Comics series of Konga comics, Decker is more sympathetic, and Sandra and her boyfriend Bob both survive the story. The two go on to get married and even recreate Decker’s experiments to create a new Konga, who goes on to star in the series.
History
- Konga (1961)
Konga
Sandra was a student in Dr. Charles Decker's botany class at Essex College in London, alongside her boyfriend Bob Kenton. Decker had been missing and presumed dead for the previous year, and spent what appears to be his first day back sharing stories about the Buganda people, with whom he had spent the year living. After class, Bob invited Sandra out for coffee, but she turned him down to stay and help the professor, who had asked her to help him prepare slides. Decker admired Sandra's growth in the past year, in both her intellect and her beauty. Sandra was flattered, but tried to impress him with her dedication to her studies, and expressed her intentions to go on to study physics and chemistry in the next term. Decker invited her to become his assistant at school for extracurricular work, which she happily accepted. Decker noted Bob's interest in her, but she proclaimed that her studies always come first.
Later on, Decker took the students to a field to study mosses and ferns. Most of the students piled into the back of Decker's van, but Sandra was asked to sit up front. Bob asked if there was room for three, and Decker claimed it would interfere with the driving, and suggested he "court her on his own time." Their classmates teased him about his love for Sandra as they went. Alone in the front seat, Decker told her that he sees her as more than a student, and hoped that the two of them could find some time alone that day.
When they got to the forest, and received their assignment, Decker went to the van to get his lunch, giving Bob an opportunity to speak to Sandra. He expressed concern about the professor's reliance on her, and missed the time before his return, when he and Sandra had had time to spend with each other. Furthermore he believed Decker had romantic interest in her that she was too blind to see, or perhaps secretly reciprocated. Sandra insisted that their relationship was strictly professional, and that Bob had been too clingy in the past, and she was not ready for that kind of relationship. They agreed to discuss their personal problems after school. Bob giddily gave her a quick kiss and left to join his classmates. Almost immediately it began to rain very hard, and Sandra put her arms around the professor and he covered her in his coat as they ran to the ranger's hut at the end of the trail, where they met up with the rest of the class. Decker dismissed them due to weather, and had Sandra lead them back to the van while he closed up the hut.
That night, just before their date, Bob was found strangled to death right in front of his family home. Soon after, Decker invited Sandra to his house for dinner, allegedly as a consolation. There he met Decker's housekeeper and personal assistant Margaret. After dinner and tea, Decker took Sandra to show her his greenhouse, and they left the premises with his arm around her waist. In the greenhouse, Sandra saw many strange and wonderful plants she had never seen before. Decker explained that his plants were of his own creation, mutated and stimulated carefully using his secret formulas to change them from insectivorous plants to carnivorous plants. Sandra is nearly snapped by a flytrap-like plant, and Decker ushers her away. He soon began to pitch the idea of her as his assistant. Sandra reminded him that Margaret was already his assistant, and very capable. Decker insisted that Margaret had outlived her usefulness to him, and that she had been a failure. He offered her adventure and discovery by his side. Sandra was not convinced, and then Decker clarified that he needed to her to be everything to him, and forced a kiss on her. Sandra broke free and insisted that she leave the stifling 90° greenhouse, but Decker refused to allow it if she did not give him an answer. Sandra rejected him because she was still just a student, and not yet ready to become an independent researcher. Decker ignored her and forced himself upon her again as she tried her best to fight him off. She continued to fight him, and screamed for help. She was finally able to break away when a gigantic gorilla reached down through the glass roofand grabbed Dr. Decker. As she fled, falling debris startled Sandra, causing her arm to stray into the mouth of one of the flytraps. It clamped down on her arm, and no matter how she struggled she could not get it free.
Books
- Konga (1961)
Comics
- Konga #1–8, 10, 12, 20 (1961–1964)
- Konga's Revenge #1 (1962)
Gallery
Promotional materials
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TV promotional still of Konga and Sandra -
Bob, Sandra, and Decker on a lobby card -
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Sandra goes to dinner at Decker's -
Decker takes Sandra to the greenhouse -
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Trivia
- Sandra features heavily in the film's advertizing, and is often seen alongside Konga despite the fact that they never meet in the film.
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