A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal ape who takes a shine to their female blonde star. He is then captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.
Carl Denham needs to finish his movie and has the perfect location; Skull Island. But he still needs to find a leading lady. This 'soon-to-be-unfortunate' soul is Ann Darrow. No one knows what they will encounter on this island and why it is so mysterious, but once they reach it, they will soon find out. Living on this hidden island is a giant gorilla and this beast now has Ann in it's grasps. Carl and Ann's new love, Jack Driscoll must travel through the jungle looking for Kong and Ann, whilst avoiding all sorts of creatures and beasts.Written by
Film_Fan
In his review in The New York Times (March 3, 1933), film critic Mordaunt Hall incorrectly refers to Fay Wray's character as "Ann Redman." See more »
Goofs
(at around 1h 9 mins) When Kong tears Ann's dress, he leaves her left shoulder completely bare. After this, there is a string-like strap over it in all shots of her in the rest of the jungle sequence. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Charles Weston:
Say, is this the moving picture ship?
Watchman:
The Venture? Yeah. Are you going on this crazy voyage?
Charles Weston:
What's crazy about it?
See more »
Crazy Credits
Opening Card: And the prophet said: "And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day, it was as one dead." Old Arabian Proverb See more »
Alternate Versions
Other than the sequence where Kong pulls Fay Wray's clothes off, here are the other scenes that were cut in the late '30s, and not restored until the '70s:
All scenes of the Brontasourus biting sailors, including the sequence where a sailor climbs to the top of a tree, and soon, a dinosaur comes and takes him away in his mouth.
Kong biting and chewing natives when he breaks through the gate on Skull Island, and squashing one under his giant foot.
Kong biting a New Yorker when he escapes from the theater.
Kong picking a sleeping woman from her hotel room, inspecting her and upon deciding that she's not Ann throwing her to the sidewalk several stories below. Though these scenes were fully restored in 35mm to the 1972 re-release, some prints in the 1960s used 35mm blow-ups of an old uncensored 16mm print to restore the shots, creating a noticeable drop in quality. The 1972 restoration gets the censored shots that were discovered in an uncut British 35mm print from 1933.
I remember watching the 2005 King Kong movie in the theater and not thinking much of it because it wasn't anything too special. However, watching the original makes me appreciate the idea of King Kong. Not only were the effects revolutionary, but the story and characters to go along with it were stellar. It takes the classic idea of a misunderstood monster and puts a more emotional twist on it. You feel for both the damsel in distress and the monster alike.
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I remember watching the 2005 King Kong movie in the theater and not thinking much of it because it wasn't anything too special. However, watching the original makes me appreciate the idea of King Kong. Not only were the effects revolutionary, but the story and characters to go along with it were stellar. It takes the classic idea of a misunderstood monster and puts a more emotional twist on it. You feel for both the damsel in distress and the monster alike.