78. King Kong (1933)

Directed By Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Synopsis

KING KONG! TADA! (surely you know it, big ape falls in love with poor actress, carnage ensues).

Review

Fortunately while reviewing this film I have Peter Jackson's version of the film pretty fresh in my mind, having seen it a few months ago. And this is definitely the more enjoyable of the two films. Of course the effects are better in Jackson's version and Andy Serkis is phenomenal as the big ape. Still, just the fact that this film is about half the length makes it the better one.

Of course the premiss of the film is totally silly, and that also where this version of King Kong wins, it's very easy to forgive the sillyness in a 1930's B-Movie. The models are laughable but also surprisingly good for the time, if you have seen later films like the Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts and Clash Of The Titans for example, you know what to expect in terms of animation, of course later models are better but the animation is about the same.

This is enjoyable, there's no filler, the action moves along at a brisk pace, and in my opinion it is even better in terms of political correctness than Jackson's version. Here the natives of Skull Island are not zombie like monsters who immediately attack the film crew because they are "primitive", the first contact in the 1933 film is much more realistic, there is dialogue between the crew and the tribe who never attacks the crew. When Kong comes after Ann Darrow in the island the islanders help the crew fighting back. Of course it is all grass-skirts and war-paint, but there is no obvious black-up at least.

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Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

King Kong was influenced by the "Lost World" literary genre, in particular Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912) and Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot (1918), which depicted remote and isolated jungles teeming with dinosaur life.

In the early 20th century few zoos had monkey exhibits so there was popular demand to see them on film. William S. Campbell specialized in monkey-themed films with Monkey Stuff and Jazz Monkey in 1919, and Prohibition Monkey in 1920. Kong producer Schoedsack had earlier monkey experience directing Chang in 1927 (with Cooper) and Rango in 1931, both of which prominently featured monkeys in real jungle settings.

Capitalizing on this trend "Congo Pictures" released the hoax documentary Ingagi in 1930, advertising the film as "an authentic incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice of a living woman to mammoth gorillas!". Ingagi was an unabashed black exploitation film, immediately running afoul of the Hollywood code of ethics, as it implicitly depicted black women having sex with gorillas, and baby offspring that looked more ape than human. The film was an immediate hit, and by some estimates it was one of the highest grossing movies of the 1930s at over $4 million. Although producer Merian C. Cooper never listed Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it's long been held that RKO green-lighted Kong because of the bottom-line example of Ingagi and the formula that "gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits".

The special effects were influenced by the unfinished 1931 film Creation.


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