King Kong (1933)
Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack

Film Review

Possibly the greatest monster movie of all time, certainly one of the most celebrated, the original King Kong still manages to impress with its groundbreaking special events and unexpected degree of humanity. The gigantic gorilla standing on top of the Empire State Building, fighting off an attack of biplanes, is one of cinema's most enduring images.  The film was conceived by RKO producer Merian C. Cooper as a variant on the Beauty and the Beast story and the result was so successful that it helped save the company from going bankrupt at a critical time in its history.

The success of King Kong is almost entirely down to its use of stop-motion animation, which had been pioneered by effects technician Willis H. O'Brien.  All of the monsters which appear in the film (Kong and a wide variety of prehistoric creatures) were in fact highly detailed models (between one and two feet in height) with a flexible wire skeleton which allowed every part of their bodies to be moved.  Stop-motion animation is a painstaking process requiring the models to be moved by minute amounts between brief shots which, when edited together, create the illusion of continuous motion.   Standard matte techniques could then be used to combine live action shots with the animation shots, so that we can see humans being menaced by a giant-sized Kong.  Effects guru Ray Harryhausen would employ the same methods, with remarkable results, in several classic fantasy adventure films, notably Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

So effectively rendered is the animation of Kong that the monster is by far the most sympathetic and believable character in the film (indeed, the film only really comes to life when Kong enters the frame).  Fay Wray has often been praised for her performance but all she has to do is stand around looking scared and scream (and scream and scream).  No, this is most definitely Kong's film - he (presumably it's a he) brings pathos, horror and humour to the film, much as Boris Karloff did in his Frankenstein films.  It is one of the tragedies of cinema that the oversized ape was never allowed to progress his career in Hollywood beyond a rather disappointing sequel, The Son of Kong (1933).  (We won't mention those silly Japanese films made in the 1960s, nor the pretty but soulless 2005 remake.)

Watching King Kong today, perhaps the most striking thing about it is how relentlessly gruesome it is, particularly for a film made in the 1930s.  It has more grisly deaths than practically any film made up until this time, and the sequences where Kong is seen ripping his dinosaur chums apart are not something you would want to put in front of a five year old child, even today.   That King Kong was made before the Hollywood Production Code came into force is evidenced by the sheer visceral horror that we see in the last third of the film.  For the film's 1938 re-release, numerous cuts had to be made, so  out went all the shots where Kong is happily snacking on live human beings and the scene where the naughty ape tries to disrobe Fay Wray.   Fortunately, several decades later, the film was restored so that the version which exists today shows King Kong in all his savage glory - a sadly misunderstood creature with a penchant for screaming blondes and an irresistible urge to climb up the side of tall buildings.  Could there perhaps be a Freudian subtext here somewhere?

Film Synopsis

The illustrious filmmaker Carl Denham is preparing an expedition to a remote island where he intends to shoot his next film.  He has heard that on the island there is a fantastic beast known as Kong who is worshipped by the natives.  Having found a young woman, Ann Darrow, to play the starring role in the film, Denham and his crew set off for the island.  There, the natives kidnap Ann and offer her up as a sacrifice to Kong.  Before Denham and his men can free her, Kong appears - in the form of a giant-sized gorilla - and seizes Ann, before disappearing into the jungle.  Denham manages to rescue Ann and renders Kong unconscious with a powerful grenade, but loses a dozen of his men along the way.  Convinced that the giant ape will make him his fortune, Denham has Kong transported back to New York.  On the night when the filmmaker presents his discovery to the world, Kong manages to break free and goes on a killer rampage across the city...