For this round we’re coming back to this side of the pond. In fact we’re going all the way back to 1933. We’re going back to what may be one of the first giant monster movies ever made. In a way you could say that this is the granddaddy of them all. Not king mind you, that title belongs to somebody else, but granddaddy is very appropriate. Today we look at the eighth wonder of the world, the legendary King Kong.

 

So hit the jump to activate the way back machine.

 

Things start out with two people by a ship at the docks, with one commenting that the ship in question has three times the needed amount of crew. The other, named Weston, find the man in charge of the planned expedition, movie maker Carl Denham. He brings bad news that he can’t get an actress for the movie he’s planning on making, since he’s not releasing any details about the film and the inherent danger, such as she would be the only female on board a ship full of men. Denham searches for an actress on his own and finds the starving Ann Darrow and after buying her a meal he eventually convinces her to join his film. They arrive at the dock and the ship sets sail. Darrow and the first mate, Jack Driscoll, meet, and he’s not exactly a fan of women on ships. Although weeks into the voyage they start getting a little friendly, despite his attitude (it is the 30s after all). Denham wants to take some test shots with Ann and tells the first mate that he might be going a little soft were Ann is concerned. Finally reaching the position they agreed on Denham reveals that from here they go southwest to a previously unknown island and a local legend named Kong that requires a giant wall to keep it out of the village. This is were Denham wants to go.

 

Denham takes some test shots of Ann, which gets the attention of a couple of members of the crew. This is also where he reveals why he takes his film himself, it involved a charging rhino and a “cowardly” cameraman who didn’t trust he get the rhino first. The next day a heavy fog obscures everything as they approach the coordinates on Denham map. After a bit they hear drums in the background then get sight of Skull Island. The Captain, Denham, Ann, Jack and other head to the island. Hitting land they head for the wall, all looks deserted until they hear the native chant “Kong”. Sneaking closer they see a ceremony being performed before the in front of the giant gate, complete with the female sacrifice. The chief spots them as Denham tries to film it. The skipper, who’s fluent in the languages of the area, tries to talk to the chief who tells them that the very blond Ann will be given to Kong. The crew refuses and they leave before the tribe can surround them. That night, after Jack, canceling his membership to the He-Man Woman Haters club, and Ann confess their feelings toward one another, the tribe send men to the ship and manage to steal Ann away from the ship. Denham sees torches in the village and that’s when they discover they been on the ship and Ann is missing. They quickly mount a armed rescue party to try and get her back.

 

The natives prepare Ann for Kong as several get on top of the wall and unbar the gate and open it. Tying Ann in between two stone pillars they quickly head back toward the gate and close it again. After making the, I’m assuming, traditional speech a giant gong is hit and they wait. Soon they hear a sound of something massive approaching as a giant gorilla comes toward Ann. She naturally freaks the frack out as she tries to get free. Kong, obviously happy with his new plaything, gets Ann loose and takes her back to where he ame from. Jack, Denham and the crew arrive and force the gate open as they go after him. Following the trail Kong left, and he’s not exactly light on his feet, they come across a dinosaur, a stegosaurus or something close. It spots them and charges but they shot it dead. Denham takes a moment to marvel at it as they walk past, wishing he was able to capture one of them alive. The girl’s in trouble and he sees a way to make money, way to keep you eye on the goal Denham. Making a raft to cross a swamp they run across another dinosaur of the long neck variety and soon find their craft capsized and have to swim for the closest shore, and even being chased on land. And this thing is moving way faster than it should, again it’s the 30s so what can you do now. At least one of the search crew dies, by thinking he’s safe by climbing a tree but this puts him at a better height to get eaten, genius. The rest of them catch up with Kong after he crosses a downed tree that’s laying across a ravine. The rest but Jack and Denham lose their lives here as he shakes the log then drops it into the ravine.

 

But Kong is smart enough to realize Jack saved himself and tries to get him while Jack defends himself with a knife. Although Jack is holding his own he almost exposes himself as he sees a alligator looking thing climbing a vine to get to where he is and cuts the vine. While this particular game of cat and mouse is being played a T Rex is heading toward the tree Kong left Ann so he could deal with their pursuer. Her screams alert Kong and he fights the T Rex, and in a vicious fight kills the T Rex. The danger over Kong grabs Ann and continues on as Jack finally makes his way back to the top of the ravine. Denham reveals he survived by jumping off the log to the other side, Jack tells him to go get help while he’ll continues to follow Kong and will signal their position when he gets Ann. Although once he gets back to the gate Denham tells the men that they’re heading out in the morning if Jack signals them or not. Eventually Kong makes it back to his cave and puts Ann on a higher ledge then he’s confronted by yet another dinosaur as Jack watches. I’m not sure what the actual name is, but I’d bet money that if this was in Scotland they would be calling it Nessie. Kong takes Ann and heads outside to a cliff overseeing the jungle. Ann faints after Kong puts her down, picking her back up he starts ripping off parts of her dress. Kinky monkey. She wakes back up and tries to get out of his grip but it’s no use, especially as he playing with her. Jack causing some noise accidently makes Kong investigates. While he doing  that a pterodactyl comes in and tries to scoop up Ann. While Kong busy killing it Jack comes in and rescues Ann. Kong tries to stop their climb down the mountain but they fall into a river to get away.

 

Back at the gate a guard sees them running toward them and Denham orders the men to open the gate and the ship’s crew goes to them. Naturally Kong in hot on their tail. The ship’s crew and the villagers try to bar the gate so Kong doesn’t come through. Denham tells one of the crew to get the gas bombs. As Kong breaks through he throws the gas bombs and fighting the effects the giant ape finally loses consciousness. Jack thinks it’s over but Denham sees only dollar signs as he tells the crew to build something to take Kong home. Sometime later Denham is ready to display his newest sensation, although at least one person thinks it’s a movie. Backstage, Denham is ready to share the spotlight with the newky engaged Jack and Ann. After going on stage and speaking to the crowd he introduces Kong to the waiting world. They marvel at Kong who’s chained up with “unbreakable chains”, and I believe that term right up there with unsinkable. Denham brings out the reporters who take their pictures, although Kong doesn’t seem too pleased with the flashes. He really starts to get agitated once they start taking pictures of Ann. And despite their taunts that he’s stuck Kong, wait for it, breaks free. Jack and Denham get Ann out of there as he bust out of the theater. Going on a brief rampage he starts to look for Ann. He finds her, in an apartment in the Empire State Building and climbs to the top with her. They set planes out to stop Kong sine that was the only thing that can reach him. Jack goes to the top as well as the planes shot at Kong and he tries to swat them out of the air. But the ammunition is too much for Kong who finally succumbs to the blood loss and fall to his death. Denham makes his way through the crowd as the police offier in charge tells him the planes did him in. Then Denham utters the iconic line, “It was beauty that killed the beast.”

 

 

And that was King Kong, a classic if there ever was one. It’s a little hard to talk about the characters since the 1930s were a lot different than they are now, but I’ll give it a go. I’ll start with Denham, you’re stereotypical looking at the big money picture character. Even when he’s worried about Ann safety he’s still looking at what could be a big score. Even going so far as to go for the sensitization with his last line. Jack is your stereotypical male hero, and Ann’s the typical damsel in distress.  Outside of Jack’s women are trouble facade melting away there not really a whole lot of development here. Then again given the time period that’s not really all that surprising, especially for this type of movie.

 

Kong and the other dinosaurs are done in the stop motion technique. For those who don’t know what that is, basically take a small model of Kong that has an armature like skeleton on the inside. Then they shot a picture of it then move it just a little bit then take another shot. This is a very time consuming process, sometimes the model workers would work for a day for something that would only last maybe a minute and a half on the screen. Although I don’t think a lot was research was done on the dinosaurs Kong fought, I’m pretty sure the thing that look like a Brontosaurus wasn’t a meat eater. Then again I’m not sure how much information, well accurate information, was actually available at the time. Kong is not really all that big, maybe a couple of stories tall at most, as are most of the dinos. But his size worked for the effect people in that they could make a life size models of his foot, hand and head. And there was a lot of practical sets too, like the giant gate. Back then there was no CGI so they had to build the actual gate. It really adds to the atmosphere as you see the scale they were going for. But I also think this might be one of the earliest use of green screen that I’m currently aware of. As you can see they super imposed the actors over the stop motion footage, and sometimes vice a versa. But there was this one real interesting, and highly creative bit were you had the real actress Fay Wray, who played Ann, in the hand model and the stop motion model of Kong superimposed over that image and he starts ripping her clothes. I got a basic idea at how they did but it was a great use of practical effects.

 

Now this movie did have a sequel, Son of Kong. In it Denham, after being ruined after Kong’s rampage, goes to the island and finds a smaller giant ape that he dubs… well the Son of Kong. The was also remade twice. Once in the 70s where it was made into a more contemporary piece and the Empire state building being replaced by the World Trade Center. And Kong was made into more Godzilla like proportions, more or less. It also had a sequel, King Kong Lives, I’m sure you can guess the basic plot based on the title. It was remade again in the early 2000s. This one was back to being set in the 30s, but the story was expanded a bit going into why Denham went to find Kong and Ann having a background in vaudeville, and Jack was a play writer. It also had this strange triangle between Jack, Ann and Kong for some reason.

 

Overall it is a good movie and one you should see. Just keep in mind the time period it was made in. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.