King Kong

We've all heard of 1933's KING KONG.  We know the tale.  Know Faye Wray's name.  Maybe actually seen it.   As a child, I had watched clips of it and the '70s remake and loved that silly novelty tune of the same name by Bobby Pickett and Peter Ferrara.  I saw Peter Jackson's decent remake from 2005.  Kong has always been part of the culture.  Is it really the reputed classic?

Yes, this is the only Kong you'll ever need, and as with many "old" films I was again surprised at how modern it seemed.  The action scenes will most certainly remind viewers of many latter day spectacles.  Kong wrestles with fearsome prehistoric creatures on Skull Island, and even though they are all just foam rubber and latex models and miniatures, it looks amazing. Harryhausen and those who came later owe a great debt.  The stop motion animation is most excellent for its time, and the battles are surprisingly brutal.  This is also true of Kong's eventual rampage through New York City, where urbanites end up in his jaws and/or dropped from that gigantic hairy hand.  KING KONG was in fact censored a few times over some of the more violent moments.

The story is simplicity itself.  Moviemaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) seeks a leading lady for his latest opus.  He finds Ann Darrow (Wray), hungry and desperate, in the city.  She's also hungry for fame, but of course hasn't an inkling of what she's in for.  Denham charters a ship bound for some exotic locale, soon revealed to be Skull Island, a place not even on a proper map. The natives are not welcoming, and separated from the giant ape by a wall centuries old.  They regularly sacrifice women to Kong to keep the peace.

Of course Ann will eventually become Kong's fixation, and she will scream her way through the rest of the picture while Denham and the ship's crewmen, including first mate/love interest Jack Discoll (Bruce Cabot), try to rescue her.  The fracas on the island causes several casualties.  Somehow Denham convinces the surviving crew to drug and take the ape back to New York.  You know the rest.

"Beauty killed the beast" is the central theme.  Latter day viewers will also draw conclusions about the perils of machismo, greed, fame, sexism, racism, and more.  It's all there if you want it to be.  I suppose essays could be written about KING KONG's underlying subtext.  But I believe the film endures due to its emotions.  This is some sad love story.  No, not for Jack.