King Kong (1933)

One of the greatest and influential films of the 1930's was the adventure-fantasy film King Kong (1933). Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack co-produced and directed this epic film for RKO, starring blonde-bombshell (and the "Queen of Scream") Fay Wray as Ann--the beauty.

At its core is the archetypal Beauty and the Beast archetype. It is a quest and a love story too!

The film takes place mostly in the exotic and fictional setting of Skull Island, and then later in New York City. It is one of the first city-destruction films as well.

Other characters include a filmmaker (Carl Denham) played by Robert Armstrong, and our typical hero-adventurer guy (Jack Driscoll), played by Bruce Cabot. Various victims, sailors, and natives round out the cast. The biggest star, however, is the little clay model of Kong himself.

The screenplay was written by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose, based on a story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It is further influenced by the works of Arthur Conan Doyle & Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The film was shot in 1932, using set pieces from the film The Most Dangerous Game (1932)--which also starred Fay Wray.

Unlike Metropolis, this film broke all previous box-office records in Hollywood and helped save RKO from bankruptcy. The film was re-released 4 times (1933, 1938, 1942, and 1946). Parts of the film were cut, censored, and then restored, or lost. One scene was the gruesome spider pit scene--that is shown in its glory by Peter Jackson's recent remake of the film. Here you go, brave-hearts.

The film received no awards at its time of release. Special Effects awards were not yet invented. The use of rear projection, miniature models, trick photography, stop-motion animation were superbly done by chief technician Willis O'Brien, famed for his feature film The Lost World (1925).

Musical score is by Max Steiner, who also composed the score for Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. and was the first feature length musical score written specifically for a talking film--it actually has a thematic score rather than background music, and a recorded 45-piece orchestra. All sound effects were recorded on 3 separate tracks, so one for dialogue, one for music, and one for sound effects. This becomes standard in most films of the decade.

Consider the Japanese kaiju (giant monster) films that come after this one to see how it was influential. Stop-motion models inspire filmmakers like Ray Harryhausen to make their own epics, and was the typical style used in monster movies until Star Wars (1977)--the last major use of the form being The Clash of the Titans (1981).

King Kong (1933) inspired the following sequels:

• Son of Kong (1933)
• Mighty Joe Young (1949)
• Godzilla (1954, Jp.)
• Konga (1961)
• King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962, Jp.)
• King Kong Escapes (1967, Jp.)
• King of Kong Island (1968)
• King Kong (1976)
• Queen Kong (1976, UK)
• King Kong Lives (1986)
• The Mighty Kong (1998, animated)
• Mighty Joe Young (1998)
• King Kong (2005), dir. Peter Jackson with Jack Black (as Carl Denham), Adrien Brody (as Jack Driscoll), Naomi Watts (as Fay Wray's character Ann), and a CGI 25-foot tall monstrous ape.

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