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Overview
User Rating:
Writers:
James Ashmore Creelman (screenplay) and
Ruth Rose (screenplay) ...
more
Release Date:
7 April 1933 (USA) more
Tagline:
A Monster of Creation's Dawn Breaks Loose in Our World Today! more
Plot:
A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
2 wins & 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(17 articles)
Top Five Movie Screamers
(From Alternative Film Guide. 30 October 2009, 7:09 PM, PDT)
Producers Guild of America to Honor John Lasseter with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award; Up’s Oscar Chances Go Up
(From Collider.com. 21 October 2009, 9:42 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
They'll have to think up a lot of new adjectives... more (299 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| Fay Wray | ... | Ann Darrow | |
| Robert Armstrong | ... | Carl Denham | |
| Bruce Cabot | ... | John Driscoll | |
| Frank Reicher | ... | Captain Englehorn | |
| Sam Hardy | ... | Charles Weston | |
| Noble Johnson | ... | Native Chief | |
| Steve Clemente | ... | Witch King (as Steve Clemento) | |
| James Flavin | ... | Second Mate Briggs | |
| King Kong | ... | The Eighth Wonder of the World |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
King Ape (USA) (working title)
Kong (USA) (working title)
The Ape (USA) (working title)
The Beast (USA) (working title)
The Eighth Wonder
The Eighth Wonder of the World
more
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
100 min | 104 min (restored version)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Certification:
Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (video rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Denmark:15 | USA:Approved (certificate not issued at release) | USA:Not Rated (video release) | Brazil:Livre | Finland:(Banned) (1933) (uncut) | Finland:K-16 (1933) (cut) | South Korea:12 (2003) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | France:U | Germany:6 | Norway:11 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG
Filming Locations:
Backlot, Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA more
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Grossed $90,000 its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever at the time. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Jack lowers Ann down a rope off the cliff, Ann is wearing shoes during one shot when she has been continuously barefoot. more
Quotes:
Carl Denham: [observing the natives dancing] Holy mackerel! What a show! more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Curse II: The Bite (1989) more
Soundtrack:
St. Louis Blues more
FAQ
On what island was Kong living?How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is "King Kong" based on a book?
more
more (299 total)
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There's little new I can probably add here, judging by the amount of comments, but here goes. King Kong is still one of the greatest fantasy films. It has inspired generations of filmmakers, writers, and other artists, all of whom have been awed and thrilled by the level of craftsmanship involved in its creation. The film haunted my nightmares as a child; there was something absolutely frightening about Kong's glaring eyes looming in the windows of the wrecked elevated train. Thanks to television and repeated showings every Thanksgiving for years (thanks WOR) I became smitten with this film. Nearly 30 years later- post the 1976 remake, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, etc, I still sit down every few months to watch Kong. EVERY time, I see something new. The detail they put into this film is phenomenal, considering it was released long before television or VCRs could give viewers a chance to watch it enough to notice the more subtle details. Volumes have been written about this movie's production, but one effect still has me puzzled. When Kong is in his cave, just before he sets Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) in a small opening in the rocks, the head of the elasmosaurus can be seen surfacing and submerging in the pool behind him. If it was done in stop motion, it's the smoothest work in the film; even the pool's water actually appears to ripple around the head.
Willis O'Brien is the man primarily credited with bringing King Kong to the screen, but in truth, Kong was the brainchild of Merian Cooper, a truly larger-than-life film producer, on whom the character of Carl Denham was modeled. Cooper had been a fighter pilot in World War I, a POW after he was shot down behind enemy lines, and- with his partner Ernest Schoedsack- had traveled to the wilds of Asia and Africa to film documentaries. Cooper imagined King Kong as the logical extension of his true life exploits; exaggerated but a recognizable caricature of his experiences. Originally he had wanted a real gorilla to portray Kong, and even wanted to have it fight a Komodo dragon! (Call the Humane Society!) We can all be grateful he encountered Willis O'Brien (who was working on his own dinosaur film- Creation) and decided to produce Kong and the monsters of Skull Island using stop-motion. I doubt anyone in 1933 could have tolerated the spectacle of a live gorilla in real combat with a Komodo dragon. I suspect the film would have either been banned outright or been little more than a grisly footnote in motion picture history. The idea was Cooper's, but the majesty and spectacle of the film belong to O'Brien. The miniature jungle settings created by O'Brien's crew with multiple glass paintings created an otherworldly quality to Skull Island that could not be duplicated by shooting on location- as Cooper had originally envisioned.
To be sure, the film is very much a product of a simpler time. However, if the acting in Kong is compared to its early 1930's contemporaries in the horror/fantasy genre, it holds up quite well. Cooper and Schoedsack understood the necessity of establishing the characters before Kong's entrance, but kept dialog to a minimum. The story is told visually, with camera-work furthering plot points that may have seemed didactic otherwise. The film is carried by not only its visual imagery, but by one of the first feature length music scores. This was an innovation that put King Kong ahead its sound contemporaries, which relied quite heavily on the spoken word and direction alone. There is a ten minute sequence in the center of the film- after the death of the tyrannosaurus until the escape of Ann and Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) from Kong's lair- that is told entirely with visuals, music, and sound effects. It is in large part due to the score that much of Kong's emotional impact is conveyed, particularly in its finale atop the Empire State Building. Steiner was able to suggest Kong's emotional state, assisting O'Brien in providing empathy to a creature who in reality was only an 18 inch high puppet.
It is a mistake to compare Kong technically or artistically with films from later decades. Consider the cultural context in which King Kong was produced. America was in the darkest days of the Depression. World War II was seven years away, and nobody outside of a few physicists knew what 'atomic bomb' meant. Kong truly was the 'Eighth Wonder of the World' just as the Empire State Building was at the time considered the greatest technological marvel. As Cooper envisioned it, Kong was an adventure escapist film, offering Depression-Era audiences something that at the time would be considered the 'ultimate in adventure.' Whether or not Peter Jackson's proposed remake of Kong can maintain these qualities of showmanship and adventure is a matter of wait and see: to today's audiences Kong no longer represents something 'all powerful' or able to 'lick the world' as Carl Denham described him back in 1933. Even setting the remake in 1933 will have its difficulties, since the film will then be a period piece rather than a contemporary story, as both the original film and the 1976 remake were, and audience involvement may be more limited.
Like Star Wars, King Kong was a made for the movies myth, not based directly on any previous source other than Cooper and O'Brien's imagination. It spawned one of the first monster movie sequels, one remake, (so far) and countless imitations, parodies, and merchandise. Among fantasy films, only the Wizard of Oz can rival King Kong for the sheer longevity of popularity, but while Oz provided escapist entertainment, it did so in a lighter fashion. Kong provided escapism but of a more disturbing and haunting kind.
Here's to ya, Obie, and Coop!
Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.