King Kong 1933
This is the original black and white movie of King Kong and it is excellent! It is almost verbatim from the novel. If you haven’t seen it, you must! The first 10 minutes are a little slow but once the action starts, it’s ON!! It ranks number 43 of the American Film Institutes list of the Top 100 American movies. The working title was The 8th Wonder and later The Beauty and Kong. Financially speaking the budget was $670,000. When it opened at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater tickets were $3.30. They displayed Kong’s giant head in the lobby and you can still see it at the Hollywood Wax Museum. King Kong saved RKO from bankruptcy!
The prep work for the movie included 600 hand drawings and numerous puppets with different faces. There were dinosaur, King Kong, and character puppets as well as miniatures. They used stop motion filming, a very precise slow way to film every movement with painted backgrounds for scenery. The planes were real and miniature. For Kong they built a life size arm, foot, and head. Kong’s fur was made of rabbit fur and each time they touched it to move it for the stop motion, it gave the fur a rippled look throughout the movie.
So there’s the backstory, let’s get to the MOVIE! Our characters are the infamous Fay Wray as Ann Darrow (Beauty), Carl Denham (the movie director in the film), and Jack Driscoll (the first mate and Ann’s love interest).
Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYWSOzFMZjg
As they all start out on the ship headed to the mystery destination for the mystery adventure, Jack and Ann meet. He is a tough guy telling her, “Women can’t help but be a bother!” but that attitude doesn’t last long. The Scream Queen, Ann, practices her test shots with Carl and later the fog rolls in. They hear distant drums coming from Skull Mountain Island. This is a beautiful scene and as the come closer they see THE WALL and wonder why such a huge wall would be built but we know why…
On the island they come across a ceremony that the natives are having. There are 4 dancing men in gorilla costumes chanting Kong. The want to trade 6 of their woman for the Golden Woman, Ann with the blonde hair, which they have never seen before. They back away to the ship where in short order Jack says to Ann, “I guess I love you” to which she responds, “But Jack, you hate women” and they kiss. Romantic? Not. Love in 1933 ❤
When darkness falls the natives steal Ann and bring her to the island. Here we go. The action begins and never stops from this point on!
Ann is set and tied to a pedestal while the natives dance and chant for Kong to come and get his golden sacrifice. All the music stops and they bang the dinner gong for Kong to come and get his prize. LOL (And by the way, the music and timing for this film are both awesome).
All the shipmates head to the island to find Ann. As the search begins they find a HUGE footprint and right away we begin seeing the prehistoric beasts. First up is a Stegosaurus! They shoot it multiple times, give it a gas bomb, the tail keeps wagging and they give it one more shot in the head. Onward….
Take a another look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0WpKl2A_2k
They come to a water source and very quickly build a raft only to find another one, an Apatosaurus (looking like a Brontosaurus) which flings guys from its mouth and we see a man screaming! (This is not a meat eating animal but hey…) Next they come to “the log” where the men are walking across above a crevice. King Kong wiggles the log around and most of the men fall to their death. Jack and Carl cleverly hide in a crevice.
A giant lizard, Megalania, climbs a vine to get to Jack but he cuts the vine in time! Next the Tyrannosaurus Rex and King Kong engage in a nasty little fight. This is one of the scenes that I always cringe at as KK breaks and rips the jaw of the T Rex! Oh that sound!
Next up? A cave and a snake that tries to strangle KK but no! He beats it to death. KK moves on, carrying Ann this whole time, to “his cliff, his home base”. Here is the scene where KK picks her up, holds her, touches her and her clothes fall off. He sniffs her clothes (??) and then the Pteranodon flies off with Ann. Luckily KK is on it, grabs her and easily kills it. Jack swoops in and he and Ann begin to slide down a vine and eventually drop into the ocean and escape….
They reach the wall and Carl declares, “We have something he wants!” KK comes along, smashes down the gate (he’s a little pissed). He puts a native in his mouth and smashes 2 under his foot, stamping them out like little cigarettes! The gas bombs are thrown at him and they take him down.
Back in New York City Carl’s plan to put the “8th Wonder of the World” on stage doesn’t go so well. Carl wants pictures taken with Ann and Jack below KK who is on a pedestal, chained. He tells Ann not to worry because they have “knocked the fight out of him” (right) As the paparazzi takes flash photos, KK goes “ape shit” and breaks free, eating a man on his way out!
He climbs a building looking for Ann, picks up the wrong woman and drops her. He does find Ann in a hotel room. He just reaches in and takes her out. Here is where they use a made to scale 6 foot arm on a lever to pull her out.
Jack realizes he will look for something like his home, his cliff, and realizes he will take Ann to the top of the Empire State Building. He sets her down and fights off the planes, grabbing one of them. He gently touches Ann and the planes shoot him. He falls and lands on the street. The crowd gathers around and Carl says, “It wasn’t the planes, it was Beauty who killed the Beast”. It’s a little sad because he just loved her and wanted her.
What do you think?
P.S. This was filmed on a back lot in Culver City, Cali, 7 days a week until it was done!
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