Kingu Kongu no gyakushû (1967)

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writer:

Takeshi Kimura (writer)

Release Date:

19 June 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

King Kong is brought in by an evil ruler to dig for precious gems in a mine when the robot MechaKong is unable to do the task...

Plot Keywords:

King Kong | Island | Japan | Tokyo Tower | Femme Fatale

Cast

Rhodes Reason	...	Commander Carl Nelson
Mie Hama	...	Madame Piranha (Madame X)
Linda Miller	...	Lieutenant Susan Watson
Akira Takarada	...	Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura
Eisei Amamoto	...	Dr. Who
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Frees	...	Dr. Who (voice: English version)
Shoichi Hirose	...	Henchman
Andrew Hughes	...	Reporter
Tôru Ibuki	...	Henchman
Nadao Kirino	...	Henchman
Ryuji Kita	...	SDF General
Seishiro Kuno	...	Soldier
Susumu Kurobe	...	Henchman
Haruo Nakajima	...	Kingukongu (King Kong)
Tadashi Okabe	...	Soldier
Sachio Sakai	...	Henchman
Ikio Sawamura	...	Mondo Islander
Hiroshi Sekita	...	Mekanikongu / Gorosaurusu
Kazuo Suzuki	...	Henchman
Yoshifumi Tajima	...	Henchman
Yasuhisa Tsutsumi	...	General
Osman Yusuf	...	Submariner

Also Known As:

King Kong Escapes (UK) (USA)
King Kong Strikes Again (International: English title) (literal title)
King Kong's Counterattack (International: English title) (literal title)
The Revenge of King Kong

Runtime:

104 min | USA:96 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (DVD rating) (2005) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:G

Company:

Rankin/Bass Productions

Trivia:

Two costumes of King Kong were made. The arms of the first costume were very long, so Haruo Nakajima's hands did not reach those of the costume. He had to grasp onto sticks that were attached to the hands of the costume. He wore a second costume with shorter arms whenever they were shooting footage of King Kong battling other monsters.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During some of the North Pole scenes, Dr. Hu's men cast shadows on the painting of the "distance" (mainly snow-capped mountains) on the studio set.

Quotes:

[Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura and Lt. Susan Watson are being held in a freezing cell by Dr. Who because they wouldn't help him manipulate King Kong]
Dr. Who: Why should you endure this when it's not necessary? Nelson cannot aid you any longer, he's been cancelled.
Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura: You dog!
[Dr. Who points gun at him]
Dr. Who: I am a realist and I need you, so I'm going to be generous. I'm going to let you go without a bit of trouble, and with lots of cash. You just have to do one thing for me.
[Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura and Lt. Susan Watson refuse]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in King Kong (2005)

Cheap, Silly, But Still Good Kaiju!

Kaiju fans like me always know well enough to check our desire for (a) believable dialogue and (b) completely realistic special effects at the door when we settle ourselves down to watch what Japan has specialized in for five decades now. As quality filmmaking, King Kong Escapes is of course laughably bad, especially to those who deify the 1933 original. But in the context of Japanese giant monster kaiju, King Kong Escapes is one of the better entries to be found, coming in the 1960s when the focus was less tounge in cheek, more action-oriented, and free of the kiddie thrust that REALLY made Japanese monster movies annoyingly bad in the 1970s (Gamera sequels and Godzilla vs. Gigan anyone?). In a ways, after the dark,brooding seriousness of the original "Godzilla" in 1954, the 1960s saw movies more in the Armageddon-Mummy vein of action, special effects and empty-headed scripts. And while those weaned on GCI will find this hard to believe, the work of Eiji Tsuburaya was considered top of the line for its day (when you stop to think of it, how different are the SFX of Japanese monster movies all that different from American movies, pre-2001: A Space Odyssey? Not much really). And truth be told, I find these kaiju movies of the 60s to have a lot more charm than their 90s American counterparts like "Armageddon" or the Tri-Star "Godzilla."

Eisei Ammamoto, a veteran of Japanese sci-fi, deliciously chews the scenery as the villainous "Dr. Who" while Bond girl veteran Mie Hama ("You Only Live Twice") provides lovely visual distraction as "Madame X", and is far more appealing than the bland non-actress Linda Miller (badly dubbed by cartoon voice Julie Bennett who also dubs Hama!) as the object of Kong's affection (and let's set the record straight, this is NOT the woman of the same name who is Jackie Gleason's daughter, no matter what the erroneous IMDB data base says). The most amusing part of the script is how they almost seemingly plagiarized from "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" in their basic premise (a sub commander named Nelson for goodness sake!). No matter though. Bad dubbing, lame script notwithstanding, "King Kong Escapes" is pleasantly mind-numbing fun from the peak period of kaiju cinema.

Incidentally, I'm glad to note that Rhodes Reason, who by his own admission "knew the film was lousy but couldn't pass up the trip to Japan" to make it, was able to overcome this in the long-run and earn better notices as Daddy Warbucks in numerous Broadway productions of "Annie."