Background
The
greatest and most famous classic adventure-fantasy (and part-horror)
film of all time is King Kong (1933). Co-producers and
directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (both real-life
adventurers and film documentarians) conceived of the low-budget
story of a beautiful, plucky blonde woman (Fay Wray) and a frightening,
gigantic, 50 foot ape-monster as a metaphoric re-telling of the
archetypal Beauty and the Beast fable. [Note: Fay Wray mistakenly
believed that her RKO film co-star, 'the tallest, darkest leading
man in Hollywood,' would be Cary Grant rather than the beast.
Later in her life, she titled her autobiography "On the
Other Hand" in memory of her squirming in Kong's grip.]
The major themes of the film include the struggle for
survival on the primitive, fog-enshrouded, tropical Skull Island
between the ardent and energetic filmmakers (led by Robert Armstrong),
the hero (Bruce Cabot in a part originally offered to Joel McCrea),
the voodoo natives, and the forces of nature (the unique Beast creature);
unrequited love and the frustration and repression of violent sexual
desires. However, the primitive, giant ape must also struggle against
the forces of urban civilization and technology when it is exploited
for profit and returned for display in New York City during a time
of economic oppression.
From the start of the picture, its clever screenplay
by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose (based on a story by Merian
C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace) suggested the coming terror. The film
was shot during the spring and summer of 1932 in the confines of
the studio. Due to their limited budget for sets, Cooper and Schoedsack
used the jungle locale from the latter's previous film The Most
Dangerous Game (1932) - an adventure film that also starred Fay
Wray. When released, it broke all previous box-office records. Its
massive, money-making success helped to save RKO Studios from bankruptcy.
The following scenes for the 1938 re-release (the film
was re-released four times from 1933 to 1952 - in 1938, 1942 and
1946), that were excised by censors after the Production Code took
effect in 1934, were restored in more recent editions of the film:
- the Brontosaurus' killing (biting) of three
sailor victims in the swamp (instead of five in the original)
- Kong's stripping/peeling of Fay Wray's clothing
(and sniffing) while holding her unconscious in his palm
- Kong's killing of natives on a scaffold in the village,
and the stomping of a native during the attack
- Kong's chewing-biting of a New Yorker victim and
his drop of a woman from the Empire State Building window after
mistaking her for Ann
The giant spider-pit sequence was not restored, but
lost (during the filming of Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, he recreated
the sequence using remaining stills and animations from the original
script).
This remarkable film received no Academy Awards nominations
- it would have won in the Special Effects category if there had
been such a category. The film contained many revolutionary technical
innovations for its time (rear projection, miniature models about
18 inches in height, and trick photography, etc.), and some of the
most phenomenal stop-motion animation sequences and special effects
ever filmed (by chief technician Willis O'Brien, famed for his first
feature film The Lost World (1925)).
A wildly dramatic musical score by Max Steiner enhanced
the action of the story. It was the first feature-length musical
score written specifically for a US 'talkie' film, and was the first
major Hollywood film to have a thematic score rather than background
music, recorded using a 46-piece orchestra. After the score was completed,
all of the film's sounds were recorded onto three separate tracks,
one each for sound effects, dialogue and music. For the first time
in film history, RKO's sound department head Murray Spivak made a
groundbreaking sound design decision - he pitched the effects to
match the score, so they wouldn't be overwhelming and so they would
complement each other.
The film has numerous memorable moments, including
Kong's battle with a giant snake in a misty cavern, his struggle
against a flying pterodactyl, the screaming beauty (Fay Wray, known
as the "Queen of Scream") held captive in Kong's giant
clenched palm, and the finale with the defiant Kong atop the Empire
State Building while circling aircraft shoot him down. In director
John Guillermin's inferior remake King Kong (1976), starring
Jessica Lange, the great ape takes his last stand atop one of the
towers of the World Trade Center.
Many earlier literary works echoed the giant ape or
'lost world' theme, as in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World
(1912) and Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot
(1918). Beasts in the Jungle (1913) and Tarzan of the Apes
(1918) with Elmo Lincoln as the title character undoubtedly served
as further inspiration. The fake documentary film Ingagi (1930),
a successful exploitation film set in the Congo jungle, also must
have influenced King Kong's making with its giant gorillas
and native women being sacrificied to an 'ape god'.
King Kong launched the "giant beast" or "giant
monster" (known as kaiju in Japan) subgenre of science-fiction,
inspiring the 1950's atomic mutant creature features and the Japanese
giant movie monsters like Godzilla, Gamera, Rodan, etc. Godzilla
and King Kong actually faced off in the Japanese film King Kong
Vs. Godzilla (1962, Jp.) (aka Godzilla vs. King Kong in
Japan). Various other Kong-related films are summarized in the following
list:
- Son of Kong (1933)
- Wasei Kingu Kongu (1933, Jp.) - silent, lost
- King Kong Appears in Edo (1938, Jp.) - lost
- 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)
- A*P*E (1976, Kor.)
- Queen Kong (1976, UK)
- King Kong Lives (1986)
- The Mighty Kong (1998, animated)
- Mighty Joe Young (1998)
- King Kong (2005)
[Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy
director Peter Jackson shot a remake of the classic 1933 film as King
Kong (2005), with Jack Black (as Carl Denham), Adrien Brody (as
Jack Driscoll), Naomi Watts (as Fay Wray), and Andy Serkis (and CGI)
employed for the 25-foot tall monstrous ape.]
Plot Synopsis
The film begins with the title card from an Old
Arabian Proverb:
And the Prophet said, 'And lo, the beast looked
upon the face of beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing.
And from that day, it was as one dead.'
The scene is 1932 at the Hoboken docks in New Jersey
during a Depression-era winter. A dock night watchman is approached
and asked about the nearby moored steamer: "Say, is this the
moving picture ship?" The watchman confirms that the ship is
going on a "crazy" voyage, and knows of the brash reputation
of Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), a fearless and arrogant adventure
filmmaker and movie producer, who is preparing for a film expedition: "...that
crazy fella that's a runnin' it....They say he ain't scared of nothing.
If he wants a picture of a lion, he just goes up to him and tells
him to look pleasant."
Everybody around the dock is talking about the unusually large cargo
and number of crew members - "three times more than the ship needs." The
well-dressed man, Charles Weston (Sam Hardy), a theatrical agent, is
invited on board the vessel by First Mate Jack (John) Driscoll (Bruce
Cabot) and is told: "Come on board. Denham's gettin' wild. I hope
you got some good news for him."
In the captain's cabin, trusted skipper-Captain Englehorn
(Frank Reicher) confers with Denham and suggests that he sail immediately
by the next day's light, before the fire marshal can discover his
illegal cargo of ammunition, explosives and gas bombs, one of which
is strong enough "to knock out an elephant."
They must also get to their destination to finish filming before the
monsoon season starts. Weston and Driscoll enter and Denham demands
to know if the agent has located an actress to star in his top-secret
film: "Somebody's interfered with every girl I've tried to hire.
And now all the agents in town have shut down on me. All but you, you
know I'm square." Weston believes Denham has a "reputation
for recklessness that can't be glossed over." Weston also objects
to Denham's secretiveness - not even the skipper and first mate know
where they are going. The agent hasn't found a girl because his conscience
won't let him ask a young girl to take on such an unknown project:
I can't send a young pretty girl such as you
ask on a job like this without telling her what to expect...To
go off on a trip for no one knows how long, to some spot you
don't even hint at, the only woman on the ship with the toughest
mugs I ever looked at.
No ingenue actress will commit to a long sea voyage
to an unknown destination, with an all-male crew. Denham argues that
there's more danger in New York for most women: "Listen, there
are dozens of girls in this town tonight that are in more danger
than they'll ever see with me." "Yeah, but they know that
kind of danger," thick-headed Jack pipes up. Denham complains
that he needs to have a heroine in his picture to provide romance
and a love interest:
Holy Mackerel. Do you think I want to haul a
woman around?...Because the Public, bless 'em, must have a
pretty face to look at...Well, isn't there any romance or adventure
in the world without having a flapper in it?...Makes me sore.
I go out and sweat blood to make a swell picture and then the
critics and the exhibitors all say, 'If this picture had love
interest it would gross twice as much.' All right. The Public
Wants a Girl, and this time, I'm gonna give 'em what they want.
Undaunted but frustrated, the entrepreneurial, jungle
filmmaker promises them he will 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." He
leaves to find a girl for his picture by himself, vowing:
"even if I have to marry one." A cab drops him off
outside the Woman's Home Mission where women are in a breadline, but
he doesn't see any potential prospects. Nearby, he notices a hungry,
out-of-work, and broke girl reaching for an apple from a fruit market
on the streets of New York. The street vendor catches the girl and
threatens to call the police. After paying off the irate proprietor
with a buck to rescue her, she swoons into his arms. When he takes
a good look at her, he impulsively decides that she has the kind of
beauty that he is looking for - perfect for the starring role in his
documentary movie.
Denham
takes the starving young girl by taxi to a Bowery restaurant, buys
her a meal, and over a cup of coffee asks her about herself. She
is orphaned with no family, although she says: "I'm supposed
to have an uncle someplace." She also worked as a film extra
at a studio on Long Island before it closed. She identifies herself
as Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and he enthusiastically offers the down-and-out,
destitute woman a job: "I've got a job for you. Costumes on
the ship won't fit you. Broadway shops are still open. I can get
some clothes for you there."
To encourage the beautiful girl to go along, he entices her with a
promise of lifting her out of obscurity:
It's money and adventure and fame. It's
the thrill of a lifetime and a long sea voyage that starts
at six o'clock tomorrow morning.
Ann hesitates with fear in her voice, fearing that
she will be made Denham's mistress: "No wait. I - I don't understand.
You must tell me. I do want the job so, but I can't..." Denham
chivalrously reassures her by explaining his position: "Oh,
I see. No, you've got me wrong. This is strictly business....Listen,
I'm Carl Denham. Ever hear of me?" His fearless, courageous,
daredevil reputation is even known by Ann: "Yes. Yes! You make
moving pictures in jungles and places."
Ann is told that she has been picked to be the leading lady in his
new film, and their voyage leaves at 6 am to a place "a long way
off." Ann agrees to the voyage, after Denham offers final assurances
that sex isn't involved:
"I'm on the level. No funny business...Just trust me and
keep your chin up." They shake on it.
The next day, the all-male crew sets sail on a long
six-week journey on the S. S. Venture bound for the South
Pacific. The good-looking and brawny, but disgruntled First Mate
Driscoll meets Ann on deck and unpleasantly marks her as "that
girl Denham picked up last night." The males on board are angry
and distrustful at the prospect of having such a tempting, attractive,
and charming woman along on such a dangerous voyage: "I've never
been on one with a woman before." Women are a "nuisance" on
board ships, according to him.
During the voyage, Ann prepares to practice and rehearse
a scene for the film director on the deck, "to see which side
of my face looks best and all that." Driscoll really believes
her life is in jeopardy and is feeling protective of her safety: "This
is no place for a girl," he tells her. The First Mate is chauvinistic,
but apologetic: "You're all right, but, but, but women, women
just can't help being a bother. Made that way, I guess."
Denham strolls into their company, and sees Ann fondly
petting the ship's pet monkey - a miniature foreshadowing of the
regal Beast in the film. He comments, sardonically: "Beauty
and the Beast, eh?" Ann excuses herself to put on one of her
costumes for the film test to be directed by Denham. While waiting
for Ann to reappear, Driscoll confronts Denham and asks what lies
ahead: "When do we find out where we're going?...And you going
to tell us what happens when we get there?"
Possibly feeling threatened by Driscoll's growing crush
on his actress-heroine, Denham suspects that the crew member has
been emasculated and gone "soft"
and "sappy" over Ann's Beauty. Denham equates the first mate
to the Beast in his Hollywood script - already robbed of his virile
masculinity due to his concern for Ann's vulnerable presence:
Denham: Oh, you have gone soft on her, eh? I've
got enough troubles without a love affair to complicate things.
Better cut it out, Jack.
Driscoll: Love affair! You think I'm gonna fall for any dame?
Denham: I've never known it to fail: some big, hard-boiled egg
gets a look at a pretty face and bang, he cracks up and goes
sappy.
Driscoll: Now who's goin' sappy? Listen, I haven't run out on
ya, have I?
Denham: No, you're a pretty tough guy, but if Beauty gets you,
ya...(He breaks his train of thought and turns away with a self-deprecating
smile.) Huh, I'm going right into a theme song here.
Driscoll: Say, what are you talkin' about?
Denham: It's the idea of my picture. The Beast was a tough guy
too. He could lick the world. But when he saw Beauty, she got
him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas
licked him. Think it over, Jack.
|