TOR, KING OF THE BEASTS is amateur filmmaker Donald F. Glut's home-made version of KING KONG, shot in black and white by Glut and his teenage buddies. The plot follows that of KONG quite closely and begins with jungle adventures before moving into giant monster mayhem at the climax. Running at twenty minutes in length it's a little overlong and wearying at times, but as a fan-made tribute it's difficult to criticise it too much. The film features delightfully cheesy stop motion effects and some earnest overacting from the human stars.
2 Reviews
Neat Version of the King Kong Story
Michael_Elliott3 September 2011
Tor, King of Beasts (1962)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Don Glut's amateur version of KING KONG has him playing one of the three members of the Adventurers Club who end up in a jungle full of prehistoric beasts. After battling a Stegosaurus the three then run into Tor, a giant gorilla who they finally capture. They take the creature back to Chicago and sure enough the thing escapes capture and heads off to destroy the city. Obviously this is a homage to KING KONG and as long as you don't take it overly serious you should be mildly entertained. Once again the best thing the film has going for it is the imagination of its writer and director. Glut does a pretty good job at copying KING KONG and for the most part he handles the material quite well. Fans of that 1933 RKO classic will no doubt see the various comparisons in the storyline as the director really doesn't try to hide the fact. The stop motion effects are pretty good all things considered and this being a Glut film we naturally get a big battle between Tor and the dinosaurs, which was fun. At just under 20-minutes the film is a tad bit too long and the music score (added years after the film was made) really hurts the film.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Don Glut's amateur version of KING KONG has him playing one of the three members of the Adventurers Club who end up in a jungle full of prehistoric beasts. After battling a Stegosaurus the three then run into Tor, a giant gorilla who they finally capture. They take the creature back to Chicago and sure enough the thing escapes capture and heads off to destroy the city. Obviously this is a homage to KING KONG and as long as you don't take it overly serious you should be mildly entertained. Once again the best thing the film has going for it is the imagination of its writer and director. Glut does a pretty good job at copying KING KONG and for the most part he handles the material quite well. Fans of that 1933 RKO classic will no doubt see the various comparisons in the storyline as the director really doesn't try to hide the fact. The stop motion effects are pretty good all things considered and this being a Glut film we naturally get a big battle between Tor and the dinosaurs, which was fun. At just under 20-minutes the film is a tad bit too long and the music score (added years after the film was made) really hurts the film.
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