King Kong (Dir: Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933).
RKO Radio Pictures’ modern day Beauty and the Beast is the daddy of all monster movies; chronicling the tale of the Eighth Wonder of the World, King Kong.
Maverick filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) travel to the exotic Skull Island to shoot Denham's latest movie, there encountering the 20 foot tall ape King Kong. Kong falls for Darrow and is used by Denham as bait for the primate's capture. They return to New York with the intention of parading the mammoth beast before a paying public. The plan fails when Kong goes ape, resulting in a climax both thrilling and surprisingly touching and featuring one of the greatest last lines of any movie.
Maverick filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) travel to the exotic Skull Island to shoot Denham's latest movie, there encountering the 20 foot tall ape King Kong. Kong falls for Darrow and is used by Denham as bait for the primate's capture. They return to New York with the intention of parading the mammoth beast before a paying public. The plan fails when Kong goes ape, resulting in a climax both thrilling and surprisingly touching and featuring one of the greatest last lines of any movie.
The term 'movie magic' might easily have been coined to describe King Kong. Co-producer and directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack's epic fantasy was the most ambitious and groundbreaking feature of the early sound era; a predecessor of the modern special effects blockbuster.
With a cast relatively unknown to modern audiences the real star of the picture is, of course, the gorilla. We are roughly halfway through the movie before we meet Kong. He is mesmerising. Provoking terror and eliciting sympathy from the audience, Kong is completely believable as a living, breathing creature. The animated ape has more personality than most leading men!
Willis O’Brien’s stop motion special effects are astonishing. From fighting dinosaurs in his Skull Island jungle home to derailing an elevated railway train in New York, King Kong is full of breathtaking special effects set pieces. A scene where an animated Kong shakes real life actors from a log bridge must have seemed miraculous in 1933, while the sight of Kong atop the Empire State Building is one of cinema’s most iconic and enduring images. Of course the effects do not look as slick as modern day computer graphics but they do have a tactile quality missing from CGI. They are certainly more impressive than the man in the monkey suit of some later Kong movies and for an 85+ year old movie look pretty darn fine to me.
The enormous impact of King Kong cannot be overestimated. A sequel Son of Kong (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) was rushed into production and released within a year of the original. Kong would inspire countless imitations and spawn further sequels, remakes and reboots including the forthcoming Godzilla vs Kong (Adam Wingard, 2020). While, admittedly, many of the Kong spin-offs have had their merits, the original has never really been equalled.
With a cast relatively unknown to modern audiences the real star of the picture is, of course, the gorilla. We are roughly halfway through the movie before we meet Kong. He is mesmerising. Provoking terror and eliciting sympathy from the audience, Kong is completely believable as a living, breathing creature. The animated ape has more personality than most leading men!
Willis O’Brien’s stop motion special effects are astonishing. From fighting dinosaurs in his Skull Island jungle home to derailing an elevated railway train in New York, King Kong is full of breathtaking special effects set pieces. A scene where an animated Kong shakes real life actors from a log bridge must have seemed miraculous in 1933, while the sight of Kong atop the Empire State Building is one of cinema’s most iconic and enduring images. Of course the effects do not look as slick as modern day computer graphics but they do have a tactile quality missing from CGI. They are certainly more impressive than the man in the monkey suit of some later Kong movies and for an 85+ year old movie look pretty darn fine to me.
The enormous impact of King Kong cannot be overestimated. A sequel Son of Kong (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) was rushed into production and released within a year of the original. Kong would inspire countless imitations and spawn further sequels, remakes and reboots including the forthcoming Godzilla vs Kong (Adam Wingard, 2020). While, admittedly, many of the Kong spin-offs have had their merits, the original has never really been equalled.
A truly astounding piece of filmmaking, King Kong is a work of art that is rightly regarded a masterpiece.
NOTE: King Kong is also available in a computer colorized version. I would recommend avoiding this. This classic is best enjoyed in beautiful black and white.
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