King Kong

King Kong (1933) is one of the most famous of all horror-fantasy-adventure films, combining imaginative technical wizardry with good old-fashioned thrills and an unusual and appealing "Beauty and the Beast" story. Decades before the development of computerized special effects, King Kong featured a masterfully conceived and remarkably believable title character—an ape, who during the course of the story is innocently attracted not to a fellow primate but to a pretty young woman.

King Kong is the saga of Carl Denham (played by Robert Armstrong, 1890–1973), a willful filmmaker who heads off to tiny, exotic Skull Island to shoot his latest movie. In his company are Ann Darrow (Fay Wray, 1907–), his pretty lead actress, and Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot, 1904–1972), the rugged first mate on board the ship on which the moviemakers are traveling. Upon their arrival, they encounter Kong, the king of the island, a giant ape who takes a liking to Ann. After battling various dinosaurs, Kong eventually is captured and transported to New York City, where he is billed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and put on display. Upon thinking that Ann is in danger as photographers' flashbulbs pop in her face, Kong breaks free and goes on a rampage. In the celebrated final sequence, the ape scales the then recently erected Empire State Building (see entry under 1930s—The Way We Lived in volume 2). Kong is shot at by machine guns positioned in airplanes. Finally, he falls and plunges to his death.

King Kong was directed by Merian C. Cooper (1893–1973) and Ernest B. Schoedsack (1893–1979), who first worked together as documentary filmmakers before going on to produce and direct fiction features. However, its most significant creative contribution came from Willis O'Brien (1886–1962), a model-animation and special-effects genius. O'Brien initially experimented with on-screen special effects in 1914. He developed the technique of stop-motion animation, which he first employed in The Lost World (1925), an adventure film featuring prehistoric monsters. King Kong was his next feature film and his most celebrated work. The ape actually is a small model, whose movement is achieved by manipulating it slightly, photographing it, and moving it again.

King Kong was immediately followed by an inferior sequel, The Son of Kong (1933). Decades later, a series of contrived monster movies appeared: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963), King Kong Escapes (1968), and King Kong Lives (1986). A heavily promoted remake, also titled King Kong (1976), proved disappointing. Modern-day special effects techniques, such as those employed by Steven Spielberg (1947–) in Jurassic Park (1993; see entry under 1990s—Print Culture in volume 5) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), may have made Willis O'Brien's shot-by-shot stop-motion animation obsolete, but they have not replaced the magic and wonder of King Kong.

—Rob Edelman

For More Information

Goldner, Orville and George E. Turner. The Making of King Kong: The Story Behind a Film Classic. New York: Ballantine Books, 1976.

King Kong.http://history.acusd.edu/gen/filmnotes/kingkong.html (accessed February 7, 2002).

King Kong (film). RKO Radio Pictures, 1933.

King Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World.http://www.aboyd.com/kong/index.html (accessed February 7, 2002).

Thorne, Ian. King Kong. Mankato, MN: Crestwood House, 1977.