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King Kong Overview:

King Kong (1933) was a Adventure - Fantasy Film directed by Merian C. Cooper (uncredited) and Ernest B. Schoedsack (uncredited) and produced by David O. Selznick, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack.

SYNOPSIS

A masterpiece of movie exotica and one of the top moneymakers of the '30s. Fortune hunters travel to Skull Island in search of the fabled giant ape "King Kong." Enticing him with the lovely Wray, they capture Kong and bring him back to New York to become a sideshow attraction. The rampaging ape escapes and ransacks the city searching for Wray, ending his quest swatting biplanes as he dangles from the Empire State Building in one of the most famous images in movie history. Directors Cooper and Schoedsack met as fliers in WWI Poland. They specialized in exotic documentaries and then adventure films with far-flung locations. Cooper later became a producer for David O. Selznick, and then produced John Ford masterpieces such as Fort Apache (1948) and The Quiet Man (1952), and one of the biggest hits of the '50s, This Is Cinerama (1952). Followed by Son of Kong (1934), a 1976 remake, and the related monkeyshines of Mighty Joe Young (1949). The special edition video includes archival footage, such as the scene in which Kong peels Wray like a banana and the excised giant spider scene. The laserdisc includes a second audio track with historical commentary from film historian Ronald Haver.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

King Kong was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1991.

King Kong BlogHub Articles:

Win Tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: King Kong” (Giveaway runs now through Feb 22)

By Annmarie Gatti on Feb 2, 2020 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Win tickets to see “King Kong” on the Big Screen!In Select Cinemas NationwideSun March 15 CMH continues into our 5h year of our partnership with Fathom Events – with the 4th of our 15 movie ticket giveaways for 2020, courtesy of Fathom Events! That said, we’ll be giving away FOUR PAIRS... Read full article

Classic Movie Tourism: King Kong on Broadway

By Jennifer Garlen on Jan 16, 2019 From Virtual Virago

Some 85 years after the great ape's original screen debut, King Kong has made a triumphant return to New York City, this time as the star of his own Broadway musical. There have been plenty of sequels, reboots, revisions, and reincarnations featuring the oversized cinema gorilla, but I've never seen... Read full article

King Kong Escapes (1967, Honda Ishirô)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 10, 2017 From The Stop Button

Despite lacking special effects and a phoned in score from Ifukube Akira (reusing his previous Godzilla themes to various effect), King Kong Escapes has quite a bit of charm to it. The film opens with Kong enthusiasts–really, they’re sitting around drawing pictures of him–Rhodes Reason and Tak... Read full article

Classic Films in Focus: KING KONG (1933)

By Jennifer Garlen on Jun 23, 2015 From Virtual Virago

King Kong rules as the alpha ape among a crowd of cinematic simians, and the original 1933 movie that bears his name has influenced countless other films. Many of our modern blockbusters can trace their roots to King Kong; its special effects work and emphasis on big action sequences showed later fi... Read full article

[Stopped Button Favorites] Episode 1 | King Kong ’76

By Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 20, 2015 From The Stop Button

Synced to the R1 Paramount DVD release. iTunes link coming soon MP3 Download... Read full article

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King Kong Quotes:

Carl Denham: Whaddaya think of that wall, Skipper?
Captain Englehorn: Colossal; might almost be Egyptian.
Carl Denham: Yeah, but what's on the other side of that wall; that's what I wanna find out.
Carl Denham: Listen - I'm going out and make the greatest picture in the world. Something that nobody's ever seen or heard of. They'll have to think up a lot of new adjectives when I come back.
Jack Driscoll: One thing we haven't thought of...
Police Lieutenant: What?
Jack Driscoll: Airplanes. If he should put Ann down, and they can get close enough to pick him off without hitting her...
Police Lieutenant: You're right! Planes! Call the field!
Ann Darrow: Do you always take the pictures you sell?
Carl Denham: Ever since a trip I made to Africa. I'd have got a swell picture of a charging rhino, but the cameraman got scared. The darn fool, I was right there with a rifle! Seems he didn't trust me to get the rhino before it got him. I haven't fooled with a cameraman since; I do it myself.
Carl Denham: [chasing after sailor] Hey, come back with those bombs, you s...
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King Kong Facts
King Kong does not appear until nearly 47 minutes into the running time.
The 2005 DVD restoration further details the risqué liberties of a 1933 pre-code film release in two scenes. The first is when Ann is on the ship's deck while Charlie is peeling potatoes, and the second is where Denham is shooting some test footage of Ann ("Scream for your life, Ann, Scream!"). The thin material used for Ann's dress and gown in both scenes makes it obvious that Fay Wray is not wearing a bra; a wardrobe decision that may not have made it past the Breen Code the following year.
One of the characters in line to see Kong complains to his lady companion, "These tickets cost me twenty bucks." At presumably $10 per ticket, this would have been a tremendous cost in Depression-wracked 1933. In contrast, a ticket to see the 1933 New York Yankees, which featured Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, or to this movie itself, would have been about thirty-five cents.
Merian C. Cooper was partially inspired by W. Douglas Burden, who brought the world's first captive Komodo dragons to the Bronx Zoo in 1926. Cooper was intrigued how the once mythic, massive predators quickly perished once caged and displayed for the public.
Merian C. Cooper's first vision for the film was of a giant ape on top of the world's tallest building fighting airplanes. He worked backward from there to develop the rest of the story.
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