Monster Movie A Day #2

King Kong (1933)

Dir. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack

In anticipation for the July 12^th release date of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, I am offering a Monster Movie a Day review.  Here is the second of the series.

No one can claim fandom over monster films without appreciating RKO’s 1933 King Kong.  Some modern audience members might look at a stop-motion film from 1993 as archaic, but the majesty of this film holds up today as much as it did in 1933.  Here’s the deal with King Kong, is was an absolute game changer.  Modern movie monsters in film would not exist without this film, but it changed the game for more than just movie monsters – King Kong revolutionized special effects work.  Kong is the prototype of big, city-destroying monsters.  Kong inspired the likes of some of the greatest filmmakers and special effects artists from Ray Harryhausen to Peter Jackson to Stan Winston to the creators of the King of Monsters, Godzilla.  This ape is the real deal.  The great Ray Harryhausen credits King Kong with instilling in him a desire to make monsters only to find himself under the tutelage of the brilliant Willis O’Brien, the special effects supervisor on King Kong.  Approach any filmmaker who created or loved special effects and they will site King Kong as a major influence. 

In the film, theatrical showman Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) travels to Skull Island and kidnaps a monstrous ape known to the natives as Kong.  Once back in Manhattan, Denham bills the monster as “The Eighth Wonder of the World.”  The rest of the film is filled with iconic scenes from Kong’s capture of Anne Darrow (Fay Wray) to the iconic scene at the top of the Empire State Building.

King Kong is such a pleasure to watch today.  The size of this film is massive. Nothing is held back from the island, the natives, Manhattan, the Tyrannosaurus Rex (!), the score...everything is huge.  Filmmakers today should look at the delicate balance between actions, effects, and well-performed human story as an example for blockbusters.  The pacing of the action and the dialogue is snappy and quick, keeping the energy going through the entire film with falling flat and dull (much like Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake).  Credit must be given to writers James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose who wrote the screenplay based on a story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace.  The screenplay keeps the tension throughout without lifting the light, brisk pace.  The performances of the human characters, especially Faye Wray, are believable and fantastic, but the best performance in the film is that of the monster himself. 

Willis O’Brien brought the puppet models to life with such nuance and precision that he was able to give Kong emotion and thus make him relatable.  This is no small task considering the two models of Kong were 18-inches and 24-inces respectively and filmed in stop motion, a method of animation that required one slight movement of the model and then a 1-frame shot from a camera repeated until the scene was complete.  Stop motion would be used for animation throughout the 20^th century and into today with by Ray Harryhausen, Stan Winston, Tim Burton, Henry Selick, and George Pal. 

King Kong is still a pleasure to watch today due to its creativity, visions, and ambition making, not only the greatest monster movie of all time but also one of the film's best fantasies.  Watch it now on DVD, Blu-Ray, or Amazon Prime Instant Video.

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