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Godzilla may be the King of the Monsters, but 1933's King Kong shall forever remain the king of monster movies with its groundbreaking special effects, involving story and poignant climax. The quintessential precursor to "event" blockbusters and one of the first productions to blur the line between fantasy and reality, the picture is a thrilling filmmaking relic from the Golden Age of Hollywood. With a screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose, King Kong conveys a message amid the spectacle, making it more than a simplistic creature feature. In the decades following King Kong's release, the picture inspired several rip-offs and remakes, while Toho even pitted the titular ape against Godzilla in a 1962 picture, and Warner Bros. incorporated Kong into their MonsterVerse. Due to advances in filmmaking and special effects, aspects of 1933's King Kong have admittedly aged, but the picture remains an awe-inspiring classic and arguably cinema's greatest monster movie. It is easy to understand why King Kong succeeded in 1933 and why many still hail the feature as a timeless masterpiece: it has lost little of its power to astound and astonish.
In New York City during the 1930s, filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) hopes to film his new project in an uncharted part of the world: a mysterious location known as Skull Island, where a ferocious creature, Kong, is rumoured to live. Chartering a ship commanded by Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher), Denham hires a crew but cannot secure a beautiful female lead for the picture due to the production's secrecy. While searching on the streets of New York the night before the voyage, Denham meets the destitute Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) when she tries to steal an apple in desperation. Denham is struck by Ann's beauty, buying her a meal and convincing her to join the film crew as the project's lead actress. During the voyage to Skull Island, Ann falls for the ship's tough-but-likable first mate, Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot). However, after they arrive at the mysterious island, the natives kidnap Ann and sacrifice her to Kong, a giant gorilla. Kong is immediately infatuated with the fragile Ann, and he carries her away to his mountain lair while an armed search party ventures into Skull Island's perilous jungles to rescue her.
The seemingly simple story leads to a succession of set pieces showcasing thrilling conflicts and chases, all set at a breakneck pace by directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. With the movie fleshing out the relationship between Ann and Driscoll before Kong's introduction, tension permeates the various set pieces as prehistoric creatures decimate Denham's crew and threaten the proverbial damsel in distress. Despite stringent 1930s censorship rules, the content throughout King Kong is surprisingly shocking at times, with a sizeable body count. Kong tramples people, chomps on his victims, shakes several of Denham's men into a ravine, and even drops a woman off a tall building. In one scene, a Brontosaurus also brutally kills several members of Denham's crew. Additionally, the directors filmed a sequence involving spider-like creatures attacking the surviving men who fell into the ravine. This scene - known as the legendary "Spider Pit Sequence" - was excised from the final cut because it was deemed too shocking and, according to Cooper, it "stopped the story." In the years following King Kong's release, several violent scenes were trimmed or removed for rereleases, prompting a worldwide search for surviving materials to digitally restore the full version in 2005. However, the Spider Pit Sequence remains lost.
Directors Cooper and Schoedsack and their three credited cinematographers demonstrate an excellent eye for visuals, making Skull Island feel like an actual location instead of a generic studio set. The crew first approaching the eerie island aboard a lifeboat still looks incredibly convincing and impressive, with superb use of shadows, fog, and birds flying across the foreground, all of which give the shot genuine dimension. Indeed, the picture's special effects extend beyond the monsters, as the film features several techniques to generate an authentic sense of scope. In the pre-digital age, intricate matte paintings and miniatures were used to create the vast expanse of Skull Island and New York City, with optical printers combining different elements into a single shot. The directors also used rear-screen projection techniques to place the live actors alongside the animated monsters, including one impressive shot when the characters walk along the body of a Stegosaurus. The compositing remains believable even in the 21st Century, even if the contrast between the rear-projected footage and the live-action footage slightly differs. Further contributing to the film's immense magic is Max Steiner's atmospheric accompanying score, which remains memorable and haunting. Steiner's soundtrack was also highly influential, as King Kong was the first Hollywood production to feature a scene-specific score instead of simple background music. (See, for example, a native descending the stairs with a beat underscoring each footstep.)
The performances admittedly reflect their place in cinema history with grandiose gestures and theatrical expressions, which is unsurprising considering that several actors began their careers starring in stage productions. Nevertheless, the three lead actors remain impressive. Robert Armstrong is strong and authoritative in the role of the excitable Carl Denham. With a booming voice, he actually feels like a film director, making him an ideal choice to play this crucial character. Bruce Cabot is a tad wooden by contemporary standards, but he is nonetheless a convincing Jack Driscoll, and the performer absolutely nails the dashing hero persona. Rounding out the central trio is Fay Wray, the film's longest-surviving principal cast member, who passed away in late 2004 while Peter Jackson was in production for his King Kong remake. Wray shrieked her way into the history books as Ann Darrow, and it is her most recognisable role. Her innate beauty and innocence make her perfect for the character, and her screaming is iconic.
The real star of King Kong is the titular ape. Special effects pioneer Willis H. O'Brien and his assistant, Buzz Gibson, were responsible for the state-of-the-art stop-motion animation on display throughout King Kong, refining the techniques the animator previously used for 1925's The Lost World. Cooper and Schoedsack also use a mechanical model of Kong's head and shoulders for the close-ups, which look noticeably smoother. Although Kong is a special effect and does not speak, O'Brien gives the character an honest-to-goodness personality in his movements to make him seem more lifelike, including playing with the broken jaw of a deceased Tyrannosaurus Rex. Kong's struggles, capture, and eventual death are heart-wrenching, and his love for Ann is so convincing that it is easy to overlook his waxy eyes and puppet fur. During the iconic climactic moments atop the Empire State Building, when Kong sniffs Ann's clothes, touches his own blood in shock, desperately swings at the attacking biplanes and takes one last longing look at his beloved bride, he appears intrinsically human and real. Kong is not a mere maquette but an actual character with tangible emotions. Skull Island's other creatures are equally impressive, with the fight between Kong and a Tyrannosaurus Rex representing one spectacular highlight. Although the Kong vs. Rex battle is a scant three minutes in length, it took seven weeks to animate. The stop-motion effects lack the precise movement of digitally-created monsters, but the painstaking art form deserves respect and admiration, especially considering its influence on contemporary cinema. Furthermore, the astute sound design helps make the creatures seem more authentic, with the audio engineer Murray Spivack creating Kong's roar by combining lions and tigers.
While watching 1933's King Kong in the 21st Century, one question springs to mind: if you put aside the film's reputation in cinematic history and treat it as entertainment, does it still work? In this reviewer's humble opinion, it does, as many of the key set pieces remain incredibly thrilling, and the storytelling is masterful, with the directors maintaining a captivating pace. Viewers who are accustomed to the slick digital effects of modern blockbusters might struggle to adjust to the film's black-and-white photography and primitive special effects, but this does not diminish the astonishing achievement that the picture represents. Cinematic special effects significantly improved over subsequent decades, but filmmakers rarely complement the polished visuals with the emotion or humanity that characterises King Kong. After the film's immense commercial success in 1933, the studio - RKO Radio Pictures - rushed out a hastily assembled sequel, The Son of King, which hit cinemas just nine months after its predecessor.
10/10
