Though this movie has been remade and imitated, nothing has ever and nothing will ever stand up to this masterpiece. Few films define the term movie magic like
King Kong.
The story is the stuff of legends. A filmmaker (Robert Armstrong) is famous for making jungle pictures that are high on action but low on romance. Still noting that the public seems to want romance, he decides for the first time, he will make a movie with a woman in it. When he meets the beautiful Ann (Fay Wray), he knows that this woman should be the star of his next picture. So she joins the cast and crew on a perilous trip. No one but the director seems to know where they are heading, but knowing his reputation all of them except it to be dangerous. The place turns out to be more dangerous than any of them could have ever excepted. It is an island that was only believed to be a myth called Skull Island, which is ruled by a monstrous ape named Kong. The natives are holding a ceremony where they sacrifice a woman to the massive creature, and when they see Ann, they want her to be that sacrifice, so they kidnap her and chain her up for Kong. When Kong lays eyes upon Ann, he has a bit of a crush on her. Though Ann manages to barely escape with her life, the director decides that he wants to capture Kong for himself, so he can make a fortune. This proves not to be a good idea.
One thing that makes this movie stand apart from many similar films (especially Peter Jackson's remake) is the perfect use of pacing. This movie does not start off at a fast pace, but rather takes its time to introduce us to the characters and world. We get to know and care about each person making this journey and what brought them to this place. Yet this beginning never feels slow or uninteresting. Much of this is due to how cleverly written and involving the dialogue is. This is the kind of smart fast paced dialogue that simply does not exist in many movies today and is a huge part of why these old films still have major fan bases. When we get to Skull Island, the pace does not pick up immediately, but the atmosphere and the story telling completely change. There is a mystery and suspense to this island that completely captivates us. This is pure edge of your seat entertainment. Though we don't yet see Kong every moment is leading up to his reveal (another great thing about this movie is that there is never a wasted moment), and with each moment the suspense grows until he appears. Once we see Kong the pace picks up immediately. The movie then moves at a breakneck speed never letting up on the action and excitement audiences want when they watch a monster movie. Everything is perfectly set up and the film has you right where it wants to when the big reveal happens, with such there is nothing left for the movie to do but lead you on the thrill ride of your life and it does. This is simply filmmaking at its finest.
What makes the character of Kong stick in our minds is that he is not merely a prop or something to be afraid of. He is instead a living and breathing creature and it is hard to buy for even a second that this character is not real. He is to us. Much this comes from the masterful stop motion animation done by Willis O'Brien (who had previously created the incredible special effects for
The Lost World (1925)) and his crew. This is character animation at its best. The character emotes perfectly with no need for the dialogue that his human costars are given. The emotions are all not only on his face but in the way he moves. Just like any living creature this is shown in both broad and subtle ways. While the Peter Jackson remake would have Kong looking more realistic due to more technically advanced special effects, Kong feels more real in this movie, because the visual acting here is left unmatched. It is interesting to note that this film's director originally thought the movie could be done using real apes and trick photography to make them look giant. However when he saw O'Brien's test footage and models for an abandoned film called
Creation, he decided that this stop motion animation would be the perfect way to make the movie work. We can all be thankful it happened this way.
A visually stunning movie like this needs a very impressive musical score. Luckily providing the score here was the one and only Max Steiner, who provides some of his finest work here. If you want to see how important this score is try watching some of the action scenes without sound and you will be surprised by how much is lost.
Watching this movie again I was amazed at just how much of a pre-code film this is. The violence of Kong killing many natives is startling and disturbing to this day. Even more shocking is a scene where Kong actually breaks a dinosaur's jaw and blood comes out. Though gore-wise these scenes are very tame compared to what comes out today, they have lost little of their unsettling effect. These scenes were cut for later showings, but luckily today we can watch them as intended.
This film was a project of passion for director, producer and writer Merian C. Cooper. When making the movie,
The Four Feathers (1929), Cooper had done some shooting in Africa. This trip left him fascinated with gorillas and he soon wanted to make a movie about one. Cooper and his codirector Ernest B. Schoedsack can see in the plane (spoilers) that shoots Kong off the Empire State Building at the end.
Due to this film Fay Wray has become known as the "scream queen of the movies." This title is apt as she has perhaps the finest scream in movie history. However what is often overlooked is that there was more to her than a scream and a beautiful body. She was a talented actress and no one else could have played the role of Ann better. When Cooper offered the part to Fay, he told her "You'll have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood." This lead Fay to automatically think of Cary Grant. At the time this movie began production she was already working with Cooper and co-stars Robert Armstrong and Noble Johnson on a great and often overlooked movie called
The Most Dangerous Game (1932). It was also planned for Fay's costar in
The Most Dangerous Game Joel McCrea to play the love interest in
King Kong, but his agent asked for too much money and the role instead went to Bruce Cabot, who had mostly been playing bit parts up to that time.
The film was a sensation when released. The following advertisement from Variety puts this movie's success into historical context.
A 1933 issue of Movie Classic magazine gave an article describing how this film was made. If you have any trouble reading click on one of the pages and use your touch screen to zoom in. (Note: This seems to be working for all the pages except for the first one. Until I figure out a solution feel free to read the other pages, they are very fascinating on their own.)
Also I love the below advertisement from Photoplay magazine.
In 1945
King Kong was rereleased on a double bill with its sequel
Son of Kong (1933). The below page of The Motion Picture Herald showed how one theatre advertised this.
When
King Kong returned to theatres in 1938, one theatre had a particularly great way of advertising this event. Again if you can't read the writing, click on the page and use your touch screen to zoom in.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2690/King-Kong/articles.htmlThe Essentials: 52 Must See Movies and Why They Matter by Jeremy Arnold
Michael's Movie Grade: A+
