King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933
fantasyFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
monster
adventure filmAdventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
co-directed by
Merian C. CooperMerian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, and film director and producer. His most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong.-Early life:...
and
Ernest B. SchoedsackErnest Beaumont Schoedsack was an American motion picture cinematographer, director, and producer.Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Schoedsack is probably best remembered for being the co-director of the 1933 film, King Kong....
, and written by
Ruth RoseRuth Rose was a writer who worked on several films in the 1930s and the 1940s, most famously the original 1933 classic King Kong.-Early life:...
and
James Ashmore CreelmanJames Ashmore Creelman was an early Hollywood film writer.Born in the hometown of his mother, Creelman lived in New York City and Washington, D.C...
after a story by Cooper and
Edgar WallaceRichard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....
. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called
KongKing Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars
Bruce CabotBruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
,
Fay WrayFay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
and
Robert ArmstrongRobert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end...
and opened in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on March 2, 1933 to good reviews.
Kong is distinguished for its stop-motion animation by
Willis O'BrienWillis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. He was affectionately known to his family and close friends as "Obie"....
and its musical score by
Max SteinerMax Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
. The film has been released to video, DVD, and Blu-ray, and has been
computer colorizedFilm colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
. In 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and selected for preservation in the
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
. It has been
remadeKing Kong is a 2005 fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It is a remake of the 1933 film of the same name and stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Andy Serkis, through performance capture, portrays Kong....
on two occasions; one in 1976 and the other in 2005.
Plot
Ann Darrow (
Fay WrayFay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
) agrees to star in a film directed by Carl Denham (
Robert ArmstrongRobert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end...
). The two set sail on the S.S.
Venture for filming on a mysterious island in the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. During the course of the voyage, Ann falls in love with First Mate
Jack DriscollJack Driscoll is a fictional character in the King Kong franchise. In the original 1933 film he was the first mate of the ship The Venture, while in its 2005 remake he was a playwright . He was played by Bruce Cabot in the original and by Adrien Brody in the remake...
(
Bruce CabotBruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
). The island is reached but the natives kidnap Ann and prepare her as a sacrifice to Kong, a huge apeman creature who dwells on the island. Kong discovers Ann tied to a native altar and carries her to his jungle lair.
Driscoll, Denham, and the crew set out to rescue Ann. They are menaced by dinosaurs along the jungle trail, first by a Stegosaurus, and then a Brontosaurus, and many crew members are killed. Driscoll finds and snatches Ann from Kong's lair but the two are pursued by Kong as they race through the jungle to safety. Kong destroys the native village in his search for Ann. He is finally subdued by hand-tossed gas bombs. Denham returns to civilization with Kong in tow. When Kong is exhibited on the New York stage, he breaks his chains, retakes Ann, and climbs to the top of the
Empire State BuildingThe Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. Here, as throughout, the beast showed feelings and protective care for the beautiful blonde girl, who was horrified by the cruel treatment of the beast as much as by the death and devastation it caused. Along the way, he destroys an elevated subway line and tosses the cars around. He gets into a battle with a squadron of military airplanes and despite taking one of them down is wounded by gunfire and falls to his death. Ann is reunited with Driscoll. Below on the street, Denham makes his way through the gathered crowd to look upon the fallen Kong. A police lieutenant says to him, "Well Denham, the airplanes got him." The film ends with Carl Denham's famous reply, "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes...it was Beauty killed the Beast."
Cast
- Robert Armstrong
Robert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end...
as Carl Denham
- Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
as Jack Driscoll
- Fay Wray
Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
as Ann Darrow
- Frank Reicher
Frank Reicher , was a German-born American stage and film actor, director and producer.-Early life:Frank Reicher was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor Emanuel Reicher and Hedwig Kindermann, a popular German prima donna who was a daughter of the famous baritone August Kindermann...
as Captain Englehorn
- James Flavin
James William Flavin, Jr. was an American character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century.-Life and career:...
as Briggs
- Victor Wong
Victor Wong was an American actor. While Wong appeared in numerous roles films through the 1930s and 1940s, they were largely small uncredited parts. His biggest role was as Charlie the Cook in the movie King Kong and Son of Kong .-External links:...
as Charlie
Creatures
- King Kong a Gorilla
- Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
- Brontosaurus
- Dimetrodon
Dimetrodon was a predatory synapsid genus that flourished during the Permian period, living between 280–265 million years ago ....
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Tanystropheus
Tanystropheus , was a 6 metre long reptile that dated from the Middle Triassic period. It is recognisable by its extremely elongated neck, which measured 3 metres long - longer than its body and tail combined. Despite this length, it had only ten neck vertebrae, each quite long...
- Pteranodon
Pteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...
Background
Before
King Kong hit the silver screen, a long tradition of jungle films existed, and, whether drama or documentary, such films generally adhered to a narrative pattern that followed an explorer or scientist into the jungle to test a theory only to discover some monstrous aberration in the undergrowth. In such films, scientific knowledge could be turned topsy-turvy at any time and it was this that provided the genre with its vitality, appeal, and endurance.
At the
turn of the centuryTurn of the century, in its broadest sense, refers to the transition from one century to another. The term is most often used to indicate a non-specific time period either before or after the beginning of a century....
, the Lumière Brothers sent film documentarians to places westerners had never seen, and
Georges MélièsGeorges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
utilized trick photography in film fantasies that prefigured that in
King Kong. Jungle films were launched in the United States in 1913 with
Beasts in the Jungle, a film that mixed live actors with lions, a tiger, and other animals. The film's popularity spawned similar pics including a few about "ape men" and gorillas. In 1918,
Elmo LincolnElmo Lincoln was an American film actor.Born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt, the barrel-chested actor is best known in his silent movie role as the first Tarzan in 1918's Tarzan of the Apes as an adult --...
starred in
Tarzan of the ApesTarzan of the Apes is a 1918 American action/adventure silent film directed by Scott Sidney starring Elmo Lincoln, Enid Markey, George B. French and Gordon Griffith. The movie was the first Tarzan movie ever made, and is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' original novel Tarzan of the Apes...
, and, in 1925,
The Lost WorldThe Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by First National Pictures, a large Hollywood studio at the time, and stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O...
made movie history with special effects by
Willis O'BrienWillis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. He was affectionately known to his family and close friends as "Obie"....
and a crew that later would work on
King Kong.
Concept
Cooper's fascination with gorillas began with his boyhood reading of
Paul du ChailluPaul Belloni du Chaillu was a French-American traveler and anthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas and the Pygmy people of central Africa. He later researched the prehistory of Scandinavia.-Early life:His date and place of...
's
Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (1861) and was furthered in 1929 by studying a tribe of
baboonBaboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...
s in Africa while filming
The Four Feathers. After reading W. Douglas Burden's
The Dragon Lizards of Komodo, he fashioned a scenario depicting African gorillas battling
Komodo dragonThe Komodo dragon , also known as the Komodo monitor, is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Gili Dasami. A member of the monitor lizard family , it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of in rare cases...
s intercut with artificial stand-ins for joint shots. He then narrowed the
dramatis personaeDramatis Personae is a poetry collection by Robert Browning. It was published in 1864.- Background :Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after his wife's death. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus...
to one ferocious, lizard-battling gorilla (rather than a group) and included a lone woman on expedition to appease those critics who belabored him for neglecting romance in his films. A remote island would be the setting and the gorilla would be dealt a spectacular death in New York City.
Cooper took his concept to Paramount Studios in the first years of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
but executives shied away from a project that sent film crews on costly shoots to Africa and Komodo. In 1931,
David O. SelznickDavid O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
brought Cooper to RKO as his executive assistant, and, to sweeten the deal, promised him he could make his own films. Cooper began immediately developing
The Most Dangerous Game"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell. It was published in Collier's Weekly on January 19, 1924....
, a story about a big game hunter, and hired his friend and former film partner Ernest Schoedsack to direct. A huge jungle stage set was built and Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray were the picture's stars. Once the film was underway, Cooper turned his attention to the studio's big-budget-out-of-control fantasy,
CreationCreation is an unfinished 1931 feature film, and a project of stop motion animator Willis O'Brien. It was about modern men encountering dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on an island. The picture was scrapped by RKO studio head David O. Selznick on the grounds of expense, and Merian C...
, a story about a group of travelers shipwrecked on an island of dinosaurs. The film had special effects wizard
Willis O'BrienWillis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. He was affectionately known to his family and close friends as "Obie"....
on board.
When Cooper screened O'Brien's stop-motion
Creation footage, he was unimpressed but realized he could economically make his gorilla picture by scrapping the Komodo dragons and costly location shoots for O'Brien's animated dinosaurs and the studio's existing jungle set. It was at this time Cooper probably cast his gorilla as a giant named Kong, and would have him die at the
Empire State BuildingThe Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. The RKO board was wary about the project but gave its approval after Cooper organized a presentation with Wray, Armstrong, and Cabot, and O'Brien's model dinosaurs. In his executive capacity, Cooper ordered the
Creation production
shelvedIn politics, the term can be used for policy drafts, that have never been officially brought into legislation.In the film industry, a film is considered shelved if it is not released for public viewing after filming has started, or even completed....
and put its crew to work on
Kong.
Merian C. Cooper wanted King Kong to be more of an ape, but Willis O'Brien wanted King Kong to be more of a human being. A compromise was met with King Kong being made into an apeman. This was Brien's third time creating an apeman, as he had previously created an apeman for his short film
The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy and The Lost World.
Script
Cooper assigned recently hired RKO screenwriter and best-selling British mystery/adventure writer
Edgar WallaceRichard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....
the job of writing a screenplay and a novel based on his gorilla fantasy. Cooper understood the commercial appeal of Wallace's name and planned to publicize the film as being "based on the novel by Edgar Wallace". Wallace conferred with Cooper and O'Brien (who contributed, among other things, the "Ann's dress" scene) and began work on January 1, 1932. He completed a rough draft called
The Beast on January 5, 1932. Cooper thought the draft needed considerable work but Wallace died on February 10, 1932 just after beginning revisions. Cooper insisted however that Wallace died having written "not one bloody word," and that he gave the writer a screen credit simply because as producer he had promised him one.
Cooper called in James A. Creelman (who was working on the script of
The Most Dangerous Game"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell. It was published in Collier's Weekly on January 19, 1924....
at the time) and the two men worked together on several drafts under the title
The Eighth Wonder. Some details from Wallace's rough draft were dropped, notably his boatload of escaped convicts. Wallace's Danby Denham character, a big game hunter, became film director Carl Denham. His Shirley became Ann Darrow and her lover-convict John became Jack Driscoll. The 'beauty and the beast' angle was first developed at this time. Kong's escape was switched from
Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
to
Yankee StadiumYankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...
and (finally) to a Broadway theater. Cute moments involving the gorilla in Wallace's draft were cut because Cooper wanted Kong hard and tough in the belief that his fall would be all the more awesome and tragic.
Time constraints forced Creelman to temporarily drop
The Eighth Wonder and devote his time to the
Game script. RKO staff writer Horace McCoy was called in to work with Cooper, and it was then that the island natives, a giant wall, and the sacrificial maidens entered the plot. When Creelman returned to the script full time, he hated these 'mythic elements', believing the script already had too many over-the-top concepts. RKO head Selznick and his executives wanted Kong introduced earlier in the film (believing the audience would grow bored waiting for his appearance), but Cooper persuaded them that a suspenseful build-up would make Kong's entrance all the more exciting.
Cooper felt Creelman's final draft was slow-paced, too full of flowery dialogue, weighted-down with long scenes of exposition, and written on a scale that would have been prohibitively expensive to film. Writer Ruth Rose (Mrs. Ernest Schoedsack) was brought in to clean things up and, although she had never written a screenplay, undertook the task with a complete understanding of Cooper's style. She streamlined the script and tightened the action. Rather than explaining how Kong would be transported to New York, for example, she simply cut from the island to the theater. She incorporated autobiographical elements into the script with Cooper mirrored in the Denham character, her husband Schoedsack in the tough but tender Driscoll character, and herself in struggling actress Ann Darrow. She rewrote the dialogue to give it some zip and created the film's entire opening chunk showing Denham plucking Ann from the streets of New York. Cooper was delighted with Rose's script, added the Arab proverb seen on the screen at the beginning, and approved the script (now called
Kong) for production. Cooper and Schoedsack decided to co-direct scenes but their styles were different (Cooper was slow and meticulous, Schoedsack brisk) and they finally agreed to work separately with Cooper directing the miniature and special effects scenes and Schoedsack directing the live-action scenes.
Fay Wray
Canadian-bornCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Vina Fay Wray played bit parts in Hollywood until cast as the lead in
Erich Von StroheimErich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
's 1928 silent film,
The Wedding March. She met
Kong co-directors Cooper and Schoedsack when cast as Ethne Eustace in
The Four FeathersThe Four Feathers is a 1929 war film directed by Merian C. Cooper and starring Fay Wray. It has the distinction of being one of the last major Hollywood pictures of the silent era, although it was also released by Paramount Pictures in a version with a Movietone soundtrack with music and sound...
in 1929. Cooper cast her in 1932 as Eve Trowbridge in
The Most Dangerous GameThe Most Dangerous Game is a 1932 Pre-Code adaptation of the 1924 short story of the same name by Richard Connell, the first film version of that story. The plot concerns a big game hunter on an island who chooses to hunt humans for sport. The film stars Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks, and King Kong...
.
After the RKO board approved the
Kong test, Cooper decided a blonde would provide contrast to the gorilla's dark pelt.
Dorothy JordanDorothy Jordan was an American movie actress who had a short but successful career beginning in talking pictures in 1929.-Early career:...
,
Jean HarlowJean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
, and
Ginger RogersGinger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
were considered, but the role finally went to Wray who wore a blonde wig in the film and was inspired more by Cooper's enthusiasm than the script to accept the role. According to her autobiography,
On the Other Hand, Wray recounts that Cooper had told her he planned to star her opposite the "tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood". She assumed he meant
Clark GableWilliam Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
until he showed her a picture of Kong climbing the Empire State Building.
Wray recorded all her screams in one afternoon session during post-production. She appeared in two other horror films released about the same time as
Kong, and, as a result, was labelled a "
scream queenA scream queen is an actress who has become associated with horror films, either through an appearance in a notable entry in the genre as a frequent victim or through constant appearances as the female protagonist...
" by critics and movie-goers. On the film's 50th anniversary in 1983, one New York theater held a Fay Wray scream-alike contest in its lobby, and, two days after her death on August 8, 2004, the lights of the
Empire State BuildingThe Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
were dimmed for 15 minutes in her memory.
Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot
MichiganMichigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
native and veteran
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and
silent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
character actor Robert Armstrong played Wray's alcoholic brother in
The Most Dangerous Game and, during filming, became a member of the Cooper-Schoedsack inner circle. He was a shoo-in as Denham when
Kong was cast. The film's romantic angle (rather than its jungle or animal angle) was played-up after animal films fared poorly at the box office in the early months of 1933. One exhibitor displayed a promotional still of Wray swooning in Armstrong's arms with the caption, "Their Hearts Stood Still...For There Stood Kong! A Love Story of Today That Spans the Ages!". Although the film's romantic subplot belongs to Cabot and Wray, established star Armstrong was chosen for the ad rather than the unknown Cabot. Months later, Armstrong again played Carl Denham in
Kongs sequel, The Son of KongThe Son of Kong is a 1933 American adventure film/monster movie produced by RKO Pictures. Directed by Ernest Schoedsack and featuring special effects by Buzz Gibson and Willis O'Brien, the film starred Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack and Frank Reicher...
(1933).
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
native Jacques De Bujac was signed by Selznick as a contract player, given the name Bruce CabotBruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
, and met Cooper when auditioning for The Most Dangerous Game
. He almost walked out of his Kong
audition (mistakenly believing he was trying out as a stunt doubleA stuntman or stunt performer is someone who performs dangerous stunts.Stuntman may also refer to:*The Stunt Man, a 1980 film starring Peter O'Toole*Stuntman , a 2002 video game**Stuntman: Ignition, its sequel...
for Joel McCreaJoel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
) but was convinced otherwise and received the role of Jack Driscoll, his first starring role. He was an inexperienced actor and described his participation in Kong
as standing in the right place, doing what he was told, and collecting a paycheck.
Other players
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born Broadway veteran and silent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
director Frank ReicherFrank Reicher , was a German-born American stage and film actor, director and producer.-Early life:Frank Reicher was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor Emanuel Reicher and Hedwig Kindermann, a popular German prima donna who was a daughter of the famous baritone August Kindermann...
was cast as Captain Englehorn of the SS Venture,
Victor WongVictor Wong was an American actor. While Wong appeared in numerous roles films through the 1930s and 1940s, they were largely small uncredited parts. His biggest role was as Charlie the Cook in the movie King Kong and Son of Kong .-External links:...
as the ship's cook Charlie,
James FlavinJames William Flavin, Jr. was an American character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century.-Life and career:...
as Second Mate Briggs, and a host of stuntmen and bit players as the ship's crew.
Noble JohnsonNoble Johnson was an African American actor and film producer.-Biography:Standing 6'2" at 215 pounds, his impressive physique and handsome features made him in demand as a character actor and bit player...
and
Steve ClementeSteve Clemente was a Mexican actor known for his many villainous roles. He began acting in his teens, signing up for his first movie, The Secret Man, in 1917. His later, numerous roles were usually bit parts...
were members of the Cooper-Schoedsack inner circle and cast as the Native Chief and the Witch Doctor respectively while Etta McDaniel played mother of a child she rescues from Kong's rampage. Sam Hardy was cast as a theatrical agent and Sandra Shaw (later Mrs. Gary Cooper) was cast as the New York woman Kong drops to the street from the hotel ledge. Cooper played the airplane pilot and Schoedsack the machine gunner in the film's final scenes.
Models
After the RKO board approved the production of a test reel, Marcel Delgado constructed Kong (or the "Giant Terror Gorilla" as he was then known) per designs and directions from Cooper and O'Brien on a one-inch-equals-one-foot scale to simulate a gorilla 18 feet tall. Four models were built: two jointed 18-inch aluminum, foam rubber, latex, and rabbit fur models (to be rotated during filming), one jointed 24-inch model of the same materials for the New York scenes, and a small model of lead and fur for the tumbling-down-the-Empire-State-Building scene. Kong's torso was streamlined to eliminate the comical appearance of the real world gorilla's prominent belly and butt. His lips, eyebrows, and nose were fashioned of rubber, his eyes of glass, and his facial expressions controlled by thin, bendable wires threaded through holes drilled in his aluminum skull. During filming, Kong's rubber skin dried out quickly under studio lights, making it necessary to replace it often and completely rebuild his facial features.
A huge bust of Kong's head, neck, and upper chest was made of wood, cloth, rubber, and bearskin by Delgado, E. B. Gibson, and Fred Reefe. Inside the structure, metal levers, hinges, and an air compressor were operated by three men to control the mouth and facial expressions. Its fangs were 10-inches in length and its eyeballs 12-inches. The bust was moved from set to set on a flatcar. Its scale matched none of the models and, if fully realized, Kong would have stood thirty to forty feet tall.
Two versions of Kong's right hand and arm were constructed of steel, sponge rubber, rubber, and bearskin. The first hand was nonarticulated, mounted on a crane, and operated by grips for the scene in which Kong grabs at Driscoll in the cave. The other hand and arm had articulated fingers, was mounted on a lever to elevate it, and was used in the several scenes in which Kong grasps Ann. A nonarticulated leg was created of materials similar to the hands, mounted on a crane, and used to stomp on Kong's victims.
The dinosaurs were made by Delgado in the same fashion as Kong and based on
Charles R. KnightCharles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
's murals in the
American Museum of Natural HistoryThe American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York City. All the armatures were manufacted in the RKO machine shop. Materials used were cotton, foam rubber, latex sheeting, and liquid latex. Football bladders were placed inside some models to simulate breathing. A scale of one-inch-equals-one-foot was employed and models ranged from 18-inches to 3-feet in length. Several of the models were originally built for Creation
and sometimes two or three models were built of individual species. Prolonged exposure to studio lights wreaked havoc with the latex skin so John Cerasoli carved wooden duplicates of each model to be used as stand-ins for test shoots and lineups. He carved wooden models of Ann, Driscoll, and other human characters. Models of the Venture
, subway cars, and fighter planes were built.
Live-action scenes
King Kong
was filmed in several stages over an eight-month period. Some actors had so much time between their Kong
periods, they worked other films. Cabot completed Road House
and Wray appeared in the horror films, Dr. XDoctor X is a First National/Warner Bros. horror and mystery film based on the play of the same name. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lee Tracy, Fay Wray, and Lionel Atwill....
and Mystery of the Wax Museum
. She estimated she worked ten weeks on Kong
over its eight-month period.
In May–June 1932, Cooper directed the first live-action Kong
scenes on the jungle set built for The Most Dangerous Game
. Some of these scenes were incorporated into the test reel later exhibited for the RKO board. The script was still in revision when the jungle scenes were shot and much of the dialogue was improvised. The jungle set was scheduled to be struck after Game was completed so Cooper filmed all the other jungle scenes at this time. The last scene shot was that of Driscoll and Ann racing through the jungle to safety following their escape from Kong's lair.
In July 1932, the native village was readied while Schoedsack and his crew filmed establishing shots in the harbor of New York City.
Curtiss O2C-1 HelldiverThe Curtiss Falcon is a family of military biplane aircraft built by the United States aircraft manufacturer Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company during the 1920s. Most saw service as part of the United States Army Air Corps as observation aircraft with the designations O-1 and O-11, or as the...
fighter planes taking off and in flight were filmed at a U.S. Naval airfield on Long Island. Views of New York City were filmed from the Empire State Building for backgrounds in the final scenes and architectural plans for the mooring mast were secured from the building's owners for a mock-up to be constructed on the Hollywood soundstage.
In August 1932, the island landing party scene and the gas bomb scene were filmed south of Los Angeles on a beach at San Pedro, California. All of the native village scenes were then filmed on the RKO-Pathé lot in Culver City with native huts recycled from
Bird of ParadiseBird of Paradise is a 1932 American film directed by King Vidor, starring Dolores del Río, Joel McCrea, and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher and released by RKO Radio Pictures.-Plot:...
(1932). The great wall in the island scenes was a hand-me-down from DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
's The King of Kings (1927) and dressed up with massive gates, a gong, and primitive carvings. The scene of Ann being led through the gates to the sacrificial altar was filmed at night with hundreds of extras and 350 lights for illumination. A camera was mounted on a crane to follow Ann to the altar. The Culver City Fire Department was on hand to do their job should the set go up in flames from the many native torches used in the scene (the wall and gate were destroyed in 1939 for
Gone With the WindThe slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
's burning of Atlanta sequence). Kong's rampage through the village was filmed (again, with hundreds of extras) and filming was completed with individual vignettes of mayhem and native panic.
Meanwhile, the scene depicting a New York woman being dropped to her apparent death from a hotel window was filmed on the soundstage using the articulated hand. At the same time, a scene depicting poker players surprised by Kong's face peering through a window was filmed using the 'big head'; the scene was eventually dropped. When filming was completed, a break was scheduled to finish the interior sets and to allow screenwriter Ruth Rose time to finish the script.
In September–October 1932, Schoedsack returned to the soundstage after completing the native village shoots in Culver City. The decks and cabins of the Venture were constructed and all the live-action shipboard scenes were then filmed. The New York scenes were filmed, including the scene of Ann being plucked from the streets by Denham and the diner scene. Following the interior scenes, Schoedsack returned to San Pedro and spent a day on a tramp steamer to film the Driscoll-slugs-Ann scene and various harbor atmosphere scenes. The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was rented for one day to film the on-stage scenes with Kong in chains and the backstage theater scenes following his escape. Principal photography wrapped at the end of October 1932 with the Driscoll-rescues-Ann scene at the top of the Empire State Building. Schoedsack's work was completed and he headed to Syria to film outdoor scenes for Arabia
, a project that eventually remained uncompleted.
In December 1932-January 1933, the actors were called back to film the optical effects shots which were mostly rear-screen projections. Technical problems inherent in the process made filming difficult and time-consuming. Wray spent most of a twenty-two hour period sitting in a fake tree to witness the battle between Kong and a T. rex. She was sore for days after. Many of the scenes featuring Wray in the articulated hand were filmed at this time. In December, Cooper reshot the New York woman falling to her death scene. Stunt doubles were filmed for the water scenes depicting Driscoll and Ann escaping from Kong. A portion of the jungle set was reconstructed to film Denham snagging his sleeve on a branch during the pursuit scene. Originally, Denham ducked behind a bush to escape danger but this was later considered cowardly and the scene reshot. The final scene was originally staged on the top of the Empire State Building but Cooper was dissatified and reshot the scene with Kong lying dead in the street and a crowd gathered about him.
Post-production
King Kong was settled upon as the title and the film cut from 125 to 100 minutes with scenes that slowed the pace or diverted attention from Kong deleted. Kong's roars and grunts were created by manipulating the recorded roars of zoo lions. For budget reasons, RKO decided not to have an original film score composed but directed composer
Max SteinerMax Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
to simply reuse music from other films. Cooper thought the film deserved an original score and paid Steiner $50,000 to compose it. Steiner completed the score in six weeks and recorded it with a 46 piece orchestra. The studio later reimbursed Cooper. The score was unlike any that came before and marks a milestone in the history of film music. Steiner experimented with a number of new film scoring techniques, such as the use of
leitmotifA leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
s.
Premieres
King Kong
opened at the 6,200-seat Radio City Music HallRadio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
in New York City and the 3,700-seat RKO Roxy across the street on Thursday, March 2, 1933. The film was preceded by a stage show called Jungle Rhythms. Crowds lined up around the block on opening day, tickets were priced at $.35 to $.75, and, in its first four days, every one of its ten-shows-a-day were sold out - setting an all-time attendance record for an indoor event. Over the four day period, the film grossed $89,931.
The film had its official world premiere on March 23, 1933 at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The 'big head bust' was placed in the theater's forecourt and a seventeen-act show preceded the film with The Dance of the Sacred Ape
performed by a troupe of African American dancers the highpoint. Kong
cast and crew attended and Wray thought her on-screen screams distracting and excessive. The film opened nationwide on April 10, 1933, and worldwide on Easter Day in London, England.
Reception
Variety
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
thought the film a powerful adventure. The New York Times
gave readers an enthusiastic account of the plot and thought the film a fascinating adventure. The film's subtextual threat to AryanAryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
womanhood got Kong
banned in Nazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
In 2002, Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
wrote that the effects are not up to modern standards, but the film remains one "that still somehow works." In 2009, King Kong
held an average score of 100% "Certified Fresh" based on 46 reviews on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Box office
The film made approximately $2 million in its initial release, with an opening weekend estimated at $90,000. As a result, RKO saw a profit for the first time in its five year existence. After the 1952 re-release, Variety
estimated the film had made $4 million in cumulative domestic rentals for that year.
Awards and honors
Kong did not receive any
Academy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nominations. Selznick wanted to nominate O'Brien and his crew for a special award in visual effects but the Academy declined. Such a category did not exist at the time and would not exist until 1938. Sidney Saunders and
Fred JackmanFred Jackman , was an American cinematographer and film director of the silent era. He worked on 58 films as a cinematographer between 1916 and 1925...
received a special achievement award for the development of the translucent acetate/cellulose rear screen — the only Kong
-related award.
The film has since received some significant honors. In 1975, Kong was named one of the 50 best American films by the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, and, in 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and selected for preservation in the United States
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
. In 1998, the AFI ranked the film #43 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time.
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - #43
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - #12
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #24
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast." - #84
- AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
- #13
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #41
- AFI's 10 Top 10
AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- #4 Fantasy film
Re-releases
King Kong
was re-released for the first time in 1938. Stiffer decency rules had been put into effect in Hollywood since Kongs 1933 premiere and several scenes were censored. The scene depicting a
Brontosaurus killing sailors in the swamp was trimmed. Scenes completely excised were the "Ann's dress" scene depicting Kong removing Ann's clothing and sniffing his fingers; Kong killing the natives on the village scaffold; and Kong dropping the New York woman to her death from a hotel window. All scenes showing Kong biting or stomping people were cut.
The film was re-released in 1942, 1946, 1952, and 1956 to great box office success. In 1956, censorship rules were relaxed (by that time, the film industry was competing with the television industry for audience numbers) and all the film's cut scenes were restored except the "Ann's dress" scene which could not be found.(Needs source, believed to be inaccurate. The spider pit scene was never found. Ann's dress made it into re-releases) After the 1956 re-release, the film was sold to television and played successfully to huge audiences. It was in the WPIX-NYC (Ch. 9) "Million Dollar Movie" 1956 or 1957 broadcast where the brief below decks scene - the one just prior to the kidnapping, where Driscoll first professes love for Anne and then attempts to stop her from going back to the island, that she speaks the phrase "I'm free, white and 21..." -- assumedly were it was last (?) seen/heard. (The original was 103 min. long and now only a 100 min. version can be found viz the 2005 DVD release which also alleges to contain "all" deleted scenes.) In 1969, a print of the "Ann's dress" scene was found in Philadelphia, restored to the film, and re-released to art houses by
Janus FilmsJanus Films is a film distribution company. It was one of the first distributors to bring what are now regarded as masterpieces of world cinema to the United States...
in 1971.
Home media
King Kong was released on Laserdisc by the Criterion Collection, and was the first movie to include an audio commentary.
After being available only on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and
bootlegA bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
DVD releases,
King Kong was officially released for the first time to DVD in November 2005, having undergone an extreme restoration process by
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
The source for the DVD material was an
internegativeAn internegative is a motion picture film duplicate. It is the color counterpart to an interpositive, in which a low-contrast color image is used as the positive between an original camera negative and a duplicate negative....
of the film found in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
; it also had all censored scenes intact, and a new master negative of the film was produced to replace the original, which had been destroyed.
Warner Home VideoWarner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and
Turner EntertainmentTurner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
have released the film in a two-disc special edition in regular DVD packaging and in a Collector's Edition featuring both discs in a collectible tin which includes a variety of other printed extras exclusive to the Collector's Edition. As of 2006, the U.S. Special Edition has not been released in the U.K., where only a single disc package is available.
The film was also part of the
film colorizationFilm colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
controversy in the early 1980s when classic black-and-white films were colorized for television. In recent years, the colorized version has become highly prized among
Kong collectors, and bootleg DVD releases have appeared on
eBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
. The colorized version is also available in a Region 2 box set containing the black-and-white version, the colorized version,
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)is a 1962 Japanese science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho Studios. Directed by Ishirō Honda with visual effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, the film starred Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, and Mie Hama. It was the third installment in the Japanese series of films featuring the monster Godzilla...
and
King Kong Escapes (1967)King Kong Escapes, released in Japan as , is a 1967 Kaiju film. A Japanese/American co-production from Toho and Rankin/Bass . Directed by Ishiro Honda and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, the film starred both American actors alongside Japanese actors...
. The Blu-ray premiered release is set for the 28 September 2010.
See also
- King Kong
King Kong is a 1976 American monster movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin. It is a remake of the 1933 classic film of the same name, about a giant ape that is captured and imported to New York City for exhibition....
(1976)
- King Kong
King Kong is a 2005 fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It is a remake of the 1933 film of the same name and stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Andy Serkis, through performance capture, portrays Kong....
(2005)
- List of giant monster films
- List of stop-motion films
- Mighty Joe Young (1949)
- Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
External links