King Kong (1933)

Directors:

Merian C. Cooper
Ernest B. Schoedsack

Writers:

James Ashmore Creelman (screenplay) and
Ruth Rose (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 April 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Thriller

Tagline:

A Monster of Creation's Dawn Breaks Loose in Our World Today!

Plot:

A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star.

Plot Keywords:

Leitmotif | Partially Lost Film | Symphonic Music Score | Rifle | Animal Death

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Fay Wray	...	Ann Darrow
Robert Armstrong	...	Carl Denham
Bruce Cabot	...	John 'Jack' Driscoll
Frank Reicher	...	Capt. Englehorn
Sam Hardy	...	Charles Weston
Noble Johnson	...	Skull Island nation leader
Steve Clemente	...	Witch King (as Steve Clemento)
James Flavin	...	Second Mate Briggs

Also Known As:

King Ape (USA) (working title)
Kong (USA) (working title)
The Ape (USA) (working title)
The Beast (USA) (working title)
The Eighth Wonder
The Eighth Wonder of the World

Runtime:

100 min | 104 min (restored version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1933) (cut) | South Korea:12 (2003) | Finland:(Banned) (1933) (uncut) | Brazil:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (video rating) | USA:Approved (certificate not issued at release) | USA:Not Rated (video release) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Denmark:15 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | France:U | Germany:6 | Norway:11 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

It has been said that "King Kong" was the first Hollywood film to use a fully symphonic musical score. As memorable and effective as the musical score was, some have made the same claim about RKO's Bird of Paradise (1932), released earlier. (Perhaps that claim should be revised to "the first memorable film...”) Regardless, Max Steiner, composer for both films (and many later classics, including Gone with the Wind (1939) and Casablanca (1942)) was a visionary, forward thinking man.

Goofs:

Continuity: The apparent size of Kong changes from 6m to 20m. This was a conscious decision of director Merian C. Cooper, who felt that Kong's size wasn't impressive enough in New York.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Police Lieutenant: Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.
Carl Denham: Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grindhouse (2007)

Gods and monsters

Forty years before Raquel Welsh, and a whole era before 'Jurassic Park', 'King Kong' was the world's first dinosaur movie. But it wasn't the dinosaurs it featured, but rather the eponymous giant ape, who became perhaps cinema's most enduring icon. The recent death of Fay Wray, the film's star, provides a good opportunity to re-evaluate this classic movie. The most remarkable thing is how exactly this film, made when talkies themselves were less than a decade old, defines the blockbuster to this day. All the elements are there: a ludicrous plot (among the many improbables we have to swallow is the fact that the discovery of living tyranousauri is regarded unremarkable by all); bad acting; a quasi-racist world-view, non-stop action tempered by a little love interest; and stunning special effects. The plot has a surprisingly mature structure, though, and unlike most of its successors, thankfully does not see the need for pyrotechnics right at the start, instead allowing the tension to build before the monster's first appearance. The scene composition is also frequently truly brilliant, especially the scenes of Kong in New York, and also the scene where he bursts through the gates. It's also interesting to catch certain cinematic conventions in an early state of evolution: one is that if characters are shot from a distance, we hear their voices more quietly. Also of note is the very static camera, pre-dating Orson Welles, of course, but additionally constrained by the need to accommodate the special effects: the scenes with the monster do feel more like a silent movie, or a primitive video game (indeed, the first computer game I ever owned was inspired by this movie, which, owing to a surreal Japanese spelling error, was known as 'Donkey Kong'!). 'King Kong' is certainly no donkey of a film; but in some ways it's a little disappointing to see how little the action adventure movie has advanced from its template in 71 years.