text:
King Kong (1933 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
King Kong
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Merian C. Cooper
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Produced by
Merian C. Cooper
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Screenplay by
James Creelman
Ruth Rose
Story by
Edgar Wallace
Merian C. Cooper[1]
Starring
Fay Wray
Robert Armstrong
Bruce Cabot
Music by
Max Steiner
Cinematography
Eddie Linden
Vernon Walker
J.O. Taylor
Edited by
Ted Cheesman
Production
company
Radio Pictures
Distributed by
Radio Pictures
Release date
March 2, 1933 (1933-03-02) (New York City)
March 24, 1933 (1933-03-24) (Los Angeles)
April 7, 1933 (1933-04-07) (US)
[1]
Running time
100 minutes
104 minutes (with overture)[2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$672,000[3]
($12 million adjusted for inflation)
Box office
$5.3 million[3]
King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code monster adventure film[4] directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea conceived by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It stars Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong, and opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews. It has been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time[5] and the thirty-third greatest film of all time.[6]
The film tells of a huge, ape-like creature dubbed Kong who perishes in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman (Wray). King Kong is especially noted for its stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and a groundbreaking musical score by Max Steiner. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[7] A sequel quickly followed with Son of Kong (also released in 1933), with several more films made in the following decades.
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Background
4 Development
4.1 Concept
4.2 Script
4.3 Casting
5 Production
5.1 Models
5.2 Special effects
5.3 Live-action scenes
6 Post-production
7 Release
8 Reception
8.1 Box office
8.2 Racist allegory
9 Awards and honors
10 Re-releases, censorship and restorations
11 Home media
12 Adaptations
13 See also
14 References
14.1 Bibliography
15 External links
Plot[edit]
In New York Harbor, filmmaker Carl Denham, famous for making wildlife films in remote and exotic locations, charters Captain Englehorn's ship, the Venture, for his new project. However, he is unable to secure an actress for a female role he has been reluctant to disclose. Searching in the streets of New York City, he finds Ann Darrow and promises her the adventure of a lifetime. The crew boards the Venture and sets off, during which the ship's first mate Jack Driscoll, falls in love with Ann.
Denham reveals to the crew that their destination is in fact Skull Island, an uncharted territory. He alludes to a monstrous creature named Kong, rumored to dwell on the island. The crew arrives and anchor offshore. They encounter a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an ancient stone wall. They witness a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young woman termed the "bride of Kong". The intruders are spotted and the native chief stops the ceremony. When he sees Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the "golden woman". They rebuff him and return to the Venture.
That night, natives kidnap Ann from the ship and take her to their altar, where she is offered to Kong, an enormous gorilla-like creature. Kong carries Ann into the wilderness as Denham, Driscoll and some volunteers enter the jungle in hopes of rescuing her. They are ambushed by another giant creature, a Stegosaurus, which they manage to defeat. After facing a Brontosaurus and Kong himself, Driscoll and Denham are the only survivors.
A Tyrannosaurus attacks Ann and Kong, but he kills it in battle. Meanwhile, Driscoll continues to follow them, while Denham returns to the village for more men. Upon arriving in Kong's lair, Ann is menaced by a snake-like Elasmosaurus, which Kong also kills. While Kong is distracted killing a Pteranodon that tried to fly away with Ann, Driscoll reaches her and they climb down a vine dangling from a cliff ledge. When Kong notices and starts pulling them back up, the two fall unharmed. They run through the jungle and back to the village, where Denham, Englehorn, and the surviving crewmen are waiting. Kong, following, breaks open the gate and relentlessly rampages through the village. Onshore, Denham, now determined to bring Kong back alive, knocks him unconscious with a gas bomb.
Shackled in chains, Kong is taken to New York City and presented to a Broadway theatre audience as "Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World". Ann and Jack are brought on stage to join him, surrounded by a group of press photographers. Kong, believing that the ensuing flash photography is an attack, breaks loose. The audience flees in horror. Ann is whisked away to a hotel room on a high floor, but Kong, scaling the building, soon finds her. His hand smashes through the hotel room window, immobilizing Jack, and abducts Ann again. Kong rampages through the city. He wrecks a crowded elevated train and then climbs the Empire State Building. At its top, he is attacked by four airplanes. Kong destroys one, but finally succumbs to their gunfire. He ensures Ann's safety before falling to his death. Ann and Jack are reunited. Denham arrives and pushes through a crowd surrounding Kong's corpse in the street. When a policeman remarks that the planes got him, Denham tells him, "It was Beauty killed the Beast".
Cast[edit]
Fay Wray as Ann Darrow
Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham
Bruce Cabot as Jack Driscoll
Frank Reicher as Captain Englehorn
Sam Hardy as Charles Weston
Noble Johnson as the Native Chief
Steve Clemente as the Witch King
James Flavin as Briggs, 2nd Mate
Victor Wong as Charlie the Cook (uncredited)
Everett Brown as the Native in Ape Costume (uncredited)
Background[edit]
An articulated skeleton of the Brontosaurus used in the film.
Before King Kong entered production, a long tradition of jungle films existed, and, whether drama or documentary, such films (for example Stark Mad) generally adhered to a narrative pattern that followed an explorer or scientist into the jungle to test a theory only to discover some monstrous aberration in the undergrowth. In these films, scientific knowledge could be subverted at any time, and it was this that provided the genre with its vitality, appeal, and endurance.[8]
In the early 20th century, few zoos had primate exhibits so there was popular demand to see them on film. At the turn of the 20th century, the Lumière Brothers sent film documentarians to places westerners had never seen, and Georges Méliès utilized trick photography in film fantasies that prefigured that in King Kong. Jungle films were launched in the United States in 1913 with Beasts in the Jungle, and the film's popularity spawned similar pictures such as Tarzan of the Apes,.[8] In 1925, The Lost World made movie history with special effects by Willis O'Brien and a crew that later would work on King Kong.[9] King Kong producer Ernest B. Schoedsack had earlier monkey experience directing Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness in 1927 (also with Merian C. Cooper) and Rango in 1931, both of which prominently featured monkeys in authentic 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 is now widely recognized as a racial exploitation film as it implicitly depicted black women having sex with gorillas, and baby offspring that looked more ape than human.[10] The film was an immediate hit, and by some estimates it was one of the highest-grossing films of the 1930s at over $4 million. Although Cooper never listed Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it has long been held that RKO green-lit Kong because of the bottom-line example of Ingagi and the formula that "gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits".[11]
Development[edit]
Concept[edit]
Merian C. Cooper's fascination with gorillas began with his boyhood reading of Paul Du Chaillu's Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (1861) and was furthered in 1929 by studying a tribe of baboons in Africa while filming The Four Feathers. After reading W. Douglas Burden's The Dragon Lizards of Komodo, he fashioned a scenario depicting African gorillas battling Komodo dragons intercut with artificial stand-ins for joint shots. He then narrowed the dramatis personae to one ferocious, lizard-battling gorilla (rather than a group) and included a lone woman on expedition to appease those critics who belabored him for neglecting romance in his films. A remote island would be the setting and the gorilla would be dealt a spectacular death in New York City.[12]
Cooper took his concept to Paramount Studios in the first years of the Great Depression but executives shied away from a project that sent film crews on costly shoots to Africa and Komodo. In 1931, David O. Selznick brought Cooper to RKO as his executive assistant and promised him he could make his own films. Cooper began immediately developing The Most Dangerous Game, and hired Ernest B. Schoedsack to direct. A huge jungle stage set was built, with Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray as the stars. Once the film was underway, Cooper turned his attention to the studio's big-budget-out-of-control fantasy, Creation, a project with stop motion animator Willis O'Brien about a group of travelers shipwrecked on an island of dinosaurs.[13]
When Cooper screened O'Brien's stop-motion Creation footage, he was unimpressed, but realized he could economically make his gorilla picture by scrapping the Komodo dragons and costly location shoots for O'Brien's animated dinosaurs and the studio's existing jungle set. It was at this time Cooper probably cast his gorilla as a giant named Kong, and planned to have him die at the Empire State Building. The RKO board was wary about the project, but gave its approval after Cooper organized a presentation with Wray, Armstrong, and Cabot, and O'Brien's model dinosaurs. In his executive capacity, Cooper ordered the Creation production shelved, and put its crew to work on Kong.[14]
Script[edit]
Cooper assigned recently hired RKO screenwriter and best-selling British mystery/adventure writer Edgar Wallace the job of writing a screenplay and a novel based on his gorilla fantasy. Cooper understood the commercial appeal of Wallace's name and planned to publicize the film as being "based on the novel by Edgar Wallace". Wallace conferred with Cooper and O'Brien (who contributed, among other things, the "Ann's dress" scene) and began work on January 1, 1932. He completed a rough draft called The Beast on January 5, 1932. Cooper thought the draft needed considerable work but Wallace died on February 10, 1932, just after beginning revisions.[8][15] Despite not using any of the draft in the final production beyond the previously agreed upon plot outline, Cooper gave a screen credit to Wallace as he had promised it as a producer.
Cooper called in James Ashmore Creelman (who was working on the script of The Most Dangerous Game at the time) and the two men worked together on several drafts under the title The Eighth Wonder. Some details from Wallace's rough draft were dropped, notably his boatload of escaped convicts. Wallace's Danby Denham character, a big game hunter, became film director Carl Denham. His Shirley became Ann Darrow and her lover-convict John became Jack Driscoll. The 'beauty and the beast' angle was first developed at this time. Kong's escape was switched from Madison Square Garden to Yankee Stadium and (finally) to a Broadway theater. Cute moments involving the gorilla in Wallace's draft were cut because Cooper wanted Kong hard and tough in the belief that his fall would be all the more awesome and tragic.[15]
Time constraints forced Creelman to temporarily drop The Eighth Wonder and devote his time to the Game script. RKO staff writer Horace McCoy was called in to work with Cooper, and it was he who introduced the island natives, a giant wall, and the sacrificial maidens into the plot. Leon Gordon also contributed to the screenplay in a minimal capacity; both he and McCoy went uncredited in the completed film.[16] When Creelman returned to the script full-time, he hated McCoy's 'mythic elements', believing the script already had too many over-the-top concepts, but Cooper insisted on keeping them in. RKO head Selznick and his executives wanted Kong introduced earlier in the film (believing the audience would grow bored waiting for his appearance), but Cooper persuaded them that a suspenseful build-up would make Kong's entrance all the more exciting.[17]
Cooper felt Creelman's final draft was slow-paced, too full of flowery dialogue, weighted-down with long scenes of exposition,[17] and written on a scale that would have been prohibitively expensive to film.[18] Writer Ruth Rose (Schoedsack's wife) was brought in to for rewrites and, although she had never written a screenplay, undertook the task with a complete understanding of Cooper's style, streamlining the script and tightening the action. Rather than explaining how Kong would be transported to New York, for example, she simply cut from the island to the theater. She incorporated autobiographical elements into the script with Cooper mirrored in the Denham character, her husband Schoedsack in the tough but tender Driscoll character, and herself in struggling actress Ann Darrow. Rose also rewrote the dialogue and created the film's opening sequence, showing Denham meeting Ann on the streets of New York. Cooper was delighted with Rose's script, approving the newly re-titled Kong for production.[19] Cooper and Schoedsack decided to co-direct scenes but their styles were different (Cooper was slow and meticulous, Schoedsack brisk) and they finally agreed to work separately, with Cooper overseeing O'Brien's miniature work and directing the special effects sequences, and Schoedsack directing the dialogue scenes.[20]
Casting[edit]
Fay Wray
Fay Wray - Studio Publicity Photo
Fay Wray played bit parts in Hollywood until cast as the lead in Erich von Stroheim's 1928 silent film, The Wedding March. She met Kong co-directors Cooper and Schoedsack when cast as Ethne Eustace in The Four Feathers in 1929. Cooper cast her in 1932 as Eve Trowbridge in The Most Dangerous Game.[21] After the RKO board approved the Kong test, Cooper decided a blonde would provide contrast to the gorilla's dark pelt. Dorothy Jordan, Jean Harlow, and Ginger Rogers were considered, but the role finally went to Wray who wore a blonde wig in the film and was inspired more by Cooper's enthusiasm than the script to accept the role. According to her autobiography, On the Other Hand, Wray recounts that Cooper had told her he planned to star her opposite the "tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood". She assumed he meant Clark Gable until he showed her a picture of Kong climbing the Empire State Building.[21] On the film's 50th anniversary in 1983, one New York theater held a Fay Wray scream-alike contest in its lobby,[16] and, two days after her death on August 8, 2004, the lights of the Empire State Building were dimmed for 15 minutes in her memory.[22]
Robert Armstrong
Armstrong portrait
Michigan native and veteran Broadway and silent film character actor Robert Armstrong played Wray's alcoholic brother in The Most Dangerous Game and, during filming, became a member of the Cooper-Schoedsack inner circle. He was a shoo-in as Denham when Kong was cast.[21] The film's romantic angle (rather than its jungle or animal angle) was played-up after animal films fared poorly at the box office in the early months of 1933. One exhibitor displayed a promotional still of Wray swooning in Armstrong's arms with the caption, "Their Hearts Stood Still...For There Stood Kong! A Love Story of Today That Spans the Ages!". Although the film's romantic subplot belongs to Cabot and Wray, established star Armstrong was chosen for the ad rather than the unknown Cabot.[23] Months later, Armstrong again played Carl Denham in Kong's sequel, Son of Kong (1933).[24]
Bruce Cabot
New Mexico native Jacques De Bujac was signed by Selznick as a contract player, given the name Bruce Cabot, and met Cooper when auditioning for The Most Dangerous Game. He almost walked out of his Kong audition (mistakenly believing he was trying out as a stunt double for Joel McCrea) but was convinced otherwise and received the role of Jack Driscoll, his first starring role.[25] He was an inexperienced actor and described his participation in Kong as standing in the right place, doing what he was told, and collecting a paycheck.[26]
Carmen Nigro AKA "Ken Roady" - Under his professional stage name, he claims to have acted as Kong in some scenes, though this is widely disputed by many film scholars.[27][28]
Frank Reicher - German-born Broadway veteran and silent film director, was cast as Captain Englehorn of the SS Venture.
Victor Wong as the ship's cook Charlie.
James Flavin as Second Mate Briggs, and a host of stuntmen and bit players as the ship's crew.
Noble Johnson and Steve Clemente were members of the Cooper-Schoedsack inner circle and cast as the Native Chief and the Witch Doctor.
Etta McDaniel played a native mother of a child she rescues from Kong's rampage.
Sam Hardy was cast as a theatrical agent.
Sandra Shaw (later Mrs. Gary Cooper) was cast as the New York woman Kong drops to the street from the hotel ledge.[29]
Merian C. Cooper, who was shot down in World War I in an Airco DH.4 and made a prisoner of war by the Germans, and who later flew with the Kosciuszko Squadron, played the airplane pilot and Schoedsack the machine gunner in uncredited roles in the film's final scenes.[30]
James Dime as a member of the ship's crew[31]
Production[edit]
Models[edit]
Play media
Two Western lowland gorillas at Ueno Zoo displaying prominent belly and buttocks. Kong modelers would streamline the armature's torso to minimize the comical and awkward aspects of the gorilla's physique.
After the RKO board approved the production of a test reel, Marcel Delgado constructed Kong (or the "Giant Terror Gorilla" as he was then known) per designs and directions from Cooper and O'Brien on a one-inch-equals-one-foot scale to simulate a gorilla 18 feet tall.[citation needed] Four models were built: two jointed 18-inch aluminum, foam rubber, latex, and rabbit fur models (to be rotated during filming), one jointed 24-inch model of the same materials for the New York scenes, and a small model of lead and fur for the climactic plummeting-down-the-Empire-State-Building shot.[citation needed] At least two armatures have survived - one believed to be the original made for the test footage - and are owned by Peter Jackson and Bob Burns.[32] In 2009, one sold for £121,000 ($200,000) at Christie's in London.[33]
Kong's torso was streamlined to eliminate the comical appearance of the real world gorilla's prominent belly and buttocks. His lips, eyebrows, and nose were fashioned of rubber, his eyes of glass, and his facial expressions controlled by thin, bendable wires threaded through holes drilled in his aluminum skull. During filming, Kong's rubber skin dried out quickly under studio lights, making it necessary to replace it often and completely rebuild his facial features.[34]
The stop motion animated King Kong, battling a Curtiss F8C Helldiver airplane, on top of the Empire State Building
A huge bust of Kong's head, neck, and upper chest was made of wood, cloth, rubber, and bearskin by Delgado, E. B. Gibson, and Fred Reefe.[citation needed] Inside the structure, metal levers, hinges, and an air compressor were operated by three men to control the mouth and facial expressions. Its fangs were 10 inches in length and its eyeballs 12 inches in diameter. The bust was moved from set to set on a flatcar. Its scale matched none of the models and, if fully realized, Kong would have stood thirty to forty feet tall.[35]
Two versions of Kong's right hand and arm were constructed of steel, sponge rubber, rubber, and bearskin.[citation needed] The first hand was non articulated, mounted on a crane, and operated by grips for the scene in which Kong grabs at Driscoll in the cave. The other hand and arm had articulated fingers, was mounted on a lever to elevate it, and was used in the several scenes in which Kong grasps Ann. A non articulated leg was created of materials similar to the hands, mounted on a crane, and used to stomp on Kong's victims.[36]
Charles R. Knight's Tyrannosaurus in the American Museum of Natural History, on which the large theropod of the film was based[37]
The dinosaurs were made by Delgado in the same fashion as Kong and based on Charles R. Knight's murals in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. All the armatures were manufactured in the RKO machine shop. Materials used were cotton, foam rubber, latex sheeting, and liquid latex. Football bladders were placed inside some models to simulate breathing.[citation needed] A scale of one-inch-equals-one-foot was employed and models ranged from 18 inches to 3 feet in length. Several of the models were originally built for Creation and sometimes two or three models were built of individual species. Prolonged exposure to studio lights wreaked havoc with the latex skin so John Cerasoli carved wooden duplicates of each model to be used as stand-ins for test shoots and lineups. He carved wooden models of Ann, Driscoll, and other human characters. Models of the Venture, railway cars, and war planes were built.[38]
Special effects[edit]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Promotional image featuring Kong battling and killing the Tyrannosaurus.
King Kong is well known for its groundbreaking use of special effects, such as stop-motion animation, matte painting, rear projection and miniatures, all of which were conceived decades before the digital age.[39]
The numerous prehistoric creatures inhabiting Skull Island were brought to life through the use of stop-motion animation by Willis O’Brien and his assistant animator, Buzz Gibson.[40] The stop-motion animation scenes were painstaking and difficult to achieve and complete after the special effects crew realized that they could not stop, because it would make the movements of the creatures seem inconsistent and the lighting would not have the same intensity over the many days it took to fully animate a finished sequence. A device called the surface gauge was used in order to keep track of the stop-motion animation performance. The iconic fight between Kong and the Tyrannosaurus took seven weeks to be completed. O’Brien’s protegé, Ray Harryhausen, who would work with him on several films and become one of the most prominent stop-motion animators in Hollywood, stated that O’Brien’s second wife noticed that there was so much of her husband in Kong.
The backdrop of Skull Island seen when the Venture crew first arrive was painted on glass by matte painters Henry Hillinck, Mario Larrinaga and Byron C. Crabbé. The scene was then composted with separate bird elements and rear projected behind the ship and the actors. The background of the scenes in the jungle (a miniature set) were also painted on several layers of glass to convey the illusion of deep and dense jungle foliage.[41]
The most difficult task for the special effects artists to achieve was to make live-action footage interact with separately filmed stop-motion animation - to make the interaction between the humans and the creatures of the island seem believable. The most simple of these effects were accomplished by exposing part of the frame, then running the same piece of the film through the camera again by exposing the other part of the frame with a different image. The most complex shots, where the live-action actors interacted with the stop-motion animation, were achieved via two different techniques, the Dunning process and the Williams process, in order to produce the effect of a travelling matte.[42] The Dunning process, invented by cinematographer Carroll H. Dunning, employed the use of blue and yellow lighting, filtered and photographed into black-and-white film. Bi packing of the camera was used for these types of effects. With it, the special effects crew could combine two strips of different film at the same time, creating the final composite shot in the camera.[43] It was used in the climactic scene where one of the Curtiss Helldiver planes attacking Kong crashes from the top of the Empire State Building, and in the scene where natives are running through the foreground, while Kong is fighting other natives at the wall.
On the other hand, the Williams process, invented by cinematographer Frank D. Williams, did not require a system of colored lights and could be used for wider shots. It was used in the scene where Kong is shaking the sailors off the log, as well as the scene where Kong pushes the gates open. The Williams process did not use bipacking, but rather an optical printer, the first such device that synchronized a projector with a camera, so that several strips of film could be combined into a single composted image. Through the use of the optical printer, the special effects crew could film the foreground, the stop-motion animation, the live-action footage, and the background, and combine all of those elements into one single shot.[44] The optical printer would continue to be used for films until the late 1980s, when they were superseded by digital compositing.
Another technique that was used in combining live actors and stop-motion animation was rear-screen projection. The actor would have a translucent screen behind him where a projector would project footage onto the back of the translucent screen.[45] The translucent screen was developed by Sidney Saunders and Fred Jackman, who received a Special Achievement Oscar. It was used in the famous scene where Kong and the Tyrannosaurus fight while Ann watches from the branches of a nearby tree. The stop-motion animation was filmed first. Fay Wray then spent a twenty-two hour period sitting in a fake tree acting out her observation of the battle, which was projected onto the translucent screen while the camera filmed her witnessing the projected stop-motion battle. She was sore for days after the shoot. The same process was also used for the scene where sailors from the Venture kill a Stegosaurus.
O’Brien and his special effects crew also devised a way to use rear-projection in miniature sets. A tiny screen was built into the miniature onto which live-action footage would then be projected.[45] A fan pumped cool air to prevent the footage that was projected from melting or catching fire. This miniature rear projection was used in the scene where Kong is trying to grab Driscoll, who is hiding in a cave. The scene where Kong puts Ann in the top of a tree switched from a puppet in Kong's hand to a projected footage of Ann sitting.
The scene where Kong fights the snake-like reptile in his lair was likely the most significant special effects achievement of the film, due to the way in which all of the elements in the sequence work together at the same time. The scene was accomplished through the use of a miniature set, stop-motion animation for Kong, background matte paintings, real water, foreground rocks with bubbling mud, smoke and two miniature rear screen projections of Driscoll and Ann.
Over the years, some media reports have alleged that in certain scenes Kong was played by an actor wearing a gorilla suit.[46][47] However, film historians have generally agreed that all scenes involving Kong were achieved with animated models.[48][49]
Live-action scenes[edit]
King Kong was filmed in several stages over an eight-month period. Some actors had so much time between their Kong periods that they were able to fully complete work on other films. Cabot completed Road House and Wray appeared in the horror films Dr. X and Mystery of the Wax Museum. She estimated she worked for ten weeks on Kong over its eight-month production.[citation needed]
In May and June 1932, Cooper directed the first live-action Kong scenes on the jungle set built for The Most Dangerous Game. Some of these scenes were incorporated into the test reel later exhibited for the RKO board. The script was still in revision when the jungle scenes were shot and much of the dialogue was improvised. The jungle set was scheduled to be struck after Game was completed, so Cooper filmed all of the other jungle scenes at this time. The last scene shot was that of Driscoll and Ann racing through the jungle to safety following their escape from Kong's lair.[citation needed]
In July 1932, the native village was readied while Schoedsack and his crew filmed establishing shots in the harbor of New York City. Curtiss F8C-5/O2C-1 Helldiver war planes taking off and in flight were filmed at a U.S. Naval airfield on Long Island. Views of New York City were filmed from the Empire State Building for backgrounds in the final scenes and architectural plans for the mooring mast were secured from the building's owners for a mock-up to be constructed on the Hollywood sound stage.[50]
King Kong views Ann on the limb of a tree
In August 1932, the island landing party scene and the gas bomb scene were filmed south of Los Angeles on a beach at San Pedro, California. All of the native village scenes were then filmed on the RKO-Pathé lot in Culver City with the native huts recycled from Bird of Paradise (1932). The great wall in the island scenes was a hand-me-down from DeMille's The King of Kings (1927) and dressed up with massive gates, a gong, and primitive carvings. The scene of Ann being led through the gates to the sacrificial altar was filmed at night with hundreds of extras and 350 lights for illumination. A camera was mounted on a crane to follow Ann to the altar. The Culver City Fire Department was on hand due to concerns that the set might go up in flames from the many native torches used in the scene. The wall and gate were destroyed in 1939 for Gone With the Wind's burning of Atlanta sequence. Hundreds of extras were once again used for Kong's rampage through the native village, and filming was completed with individual vignettes of mayhem and native panic.
Meanwhile, the scene depicting a New York woman being dropped to her apparent death from a hotel window was filmed on the sound stage using the articulated hand. At the same time, a scene depicting poker players surprised by Kong's face peering through a window was filmed using the 'big head', although the scene was eventually dropped.[51] When filming was completed, a break was scheduled to finish construction of the interior sets and to allow screenwriter Ruth Rose time to finish the script.
In September–October 1932, Schoedsack returned to the sound stage after completing the native village shoots in Culver City. The decks and cabins of the Venture were constructed and all the live-action shipboard scenes were then filmed. The New York scenes were filmed, including the scene of Ann being plucked from the streets by Denham, and the diner scene. Following completion of the interior scenes, Schoedsack returned to San Pedro and spent a day on a tramp steamer to film the scene of Driscoll punching Ann, and various atmospheric harbor scenes. The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was rented for one day to film the scenes where Kong is displayed in chains and the backstage theater scenes following his escape.[52] Principal photography wrapped at the end of October 1932 with the filming of the climax wherein Driscoll rescues Ann at the top of the Empire State Building. Schoedsack's work was completed and he headed to Syria to film outdoor scenes for Arabia, a project that was never completed.[53]
In December 1932 – January 1933, the actors were called back to film a number of optical effects shots which were mostly rear-screen projections.[citation needed] Technical problems inherent in the process made filming difficult and time-consuming. Wray spent most of a twenty-two hour period sitting in a fake tree to witness the battle between Kong and a Tyrannosaurus. She was sore for days after. Many of the scenes featuring Wray in the articulated hand were filmed at this time.[citation needed] In December, Cooper re shot the scene of the female New Yorker falling to her death. Stunt doubles were filmed for the water scenes depicting Driscoll and Ann escaping from Kong. A portion of the jungle set was reconstructed to film Denham snagging his sleeve on a branch during the pursuit scene. Originally, Denham ducked behind a bush to escape danger, but this was later considered cowardly and the scene was re shot. The final scene was originally staged on the top of the Empire State Building, but Cooper was dissatisfied and re shot the scene with Kong lying dead in the street with the crowd gathered about him.[citation needed]
Post-production[edit]
Murray Spivack provided the sound effects for the film. Kong's roar was created by mixing the recorded roars of zoo lions and tigers, subsequently played backwards slowly. Spivak himself provided Kong's "love grunts" by grunting into a megaphone and playing it at a slow speed. For the huge ape's footsteps, Spivak stomped across a gravel-filled box with plungers wrapped in foam attached to his own feet, while the sounds of his chest beats were recorded by Spivak hitting his assistant (who had a microphone held to his back) on the chest with a drumstick. Spivak created the hisses and croaks of the dinosaurs with an air compressor for the former and his own vocals for the latter. The vocalizations of the Tyrannosaurus were additionally mixed in with puma screams. Bird squawks were used for the Pteranodon. Spivak also provided the numerous screams of the various sailors. Fay Wray herself provided all of her character's screams in a single recording session.[54][55]
For budget reasons, RKO decided not to have an original film score composed, instead instructing composer Max Steiner to simply reuse music from other films. Cooper thought the film deserved an original score and paid Steiner $50,000 to compose it. Steiner completed the score in six weeks and recorded it with a 46-piece orchestra. The studio later reimbursed Cooper.[56] The score was unlike any that came before and marked a significant change in the history of film music. King Kong's score was the first feature-length musical score written for an American "talkie" film, the first major Hollywood film to have a thematic score rather than background music, the first to mark the use of a 46-piece orchestra, and the first to be recorded on three separate tracks (sound effects, dialogue, and music). Steiner used a number of new film scoring techniques, such as drawing upon opera conventions for his use of leitmotifs.[57]
Release[edit]
King Kong held its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater.
King Kong opened at the 6,200-seat Radio City Music Hall in New York City and the 3,700-seat RKO Roxy across the street on Thursday, March 2, 1933. The film was preceded by a stage show called Jungle Rhythms. Crowds lined up around the block on opening day, tickets were priced at $.35 to $.75, and, in its first four days, every one of its ten-shows-a-day were sold out – setting an all-time attendance record for an indoor event. Over the four-day period, the film grossed $89,931.[58][59]
The film had its official world premiere on March 23, 1933 at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The 'big head bust' was placed in the theater's forecourt and a seventeen-act show preceded the film with The Dance of the Sacred Ape performed by a troupe of African American dancers the highpoint. Kong cast and crew attended and Wray thought her on-screen screams distracting and excessive. The film opened nationwide on April 10, 1933, and worldwide on Easter Day in London, England.[58][60]
It was re-released in 1938, 1942, 1946, 1952 and 1956.[59]
Reception[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2018)
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 56 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "King Kong explores the soul of a monster -- making audiences scream and cry throughout the film -- in large part due to Kong's breakthrough special effects."[61] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim".[62]
Variety thought the film was a powerful adventure.[63] The New York Times gave readers an enthusiastic account of the plot and thought the film a fascinating adventure.[64] John Mosher of The New Yorker called it "ridiculous", but wrote that there were "many scenes in this picture that are certainly diverting".[65] The New York World-Telegram said it was "one of the very best of all the screen thrillers, done with all the cinema's slickest camera tricks".[66] The Chicago Tribune called it "one of the most original, thrilling and mammoth novelties to emerge from a movie studio."[67]
On February 3, 2002, Roger Ebert included King Kong in his "Great Movies" list, writing that "In modern times the movie has aged, as critic James Berardinelli observes, and 'advances in technology and acting have dated aspects of the production.' Yes, but in the very artificiality of some of the special effects, there is a creepiness that isn't there in today's slick, flawless, computer-aided images.... Even allowing for its slow start, wooden acting and wall-to-wall screaming, there is something ageless and primeval about "King Kong" that still somehow works."[68]
Box office[edit]
The film was a box office success making about $2 million in worldwide rentals on its initial release, with an opening weekend estimated at $90,000. Receipts fell by up to 50% in the second week of the film's release because of the national "bank holiday" called in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first days in office.[69] During the film's first run it made a profit of $650,000.[3]
Prior to the 1952 re-release, the film is reported to have worldwide rentals of $2,847,000 including $1,070,000 from the United States and Canada and profits of $1,310,000.[3] After the 1952 re-release, Variety estimated the film had made an additional $1.6 million in the United States and Canada taking its total to $3.9 million in cumulative domestic (United States and Canada) rentals.[70] Profits from the 1952 re-release were estimated by the studio at $2.5 million.[3]
Racist allegory[edit]
In the 19th and early twentieth century, people of African descent were commonly visually represented as ape-like, a metaphor that fitted racist stereotypes, further bolstered by the emergence of scientific racism.[71] Early blockbuster films frequently mirrored racial tensions. While King Kong is often compared to the story of Beauty and the Beast, many film scholars have argued that the film was a racist cautionary tale about interracial romance, in which the film's "carrier of blackness is not a human being, but an ape".[72][73] Cooper and Schoedsack rejected any allegorical interpretations, insisting in interviews that the film's story contained no hidden meanings.[74]
Awards and honors[edit]
Kong did not receive any Academy Awards nominations. Selznick wanted to nominate O'Brien and his crew for a special award in visual effects but the Academy declined. Such a category did not exist at the time and would not exist until 1938. Sidney Saunders and Fred Jackman received a special achievement award for the development of the translucent acetate/cellulose rear screen – the only Kong-related award.[75]
The film has since received some significant honors. In 1975, Kong was named one of the 50 best American films by the American Film Institute, and, in 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.[76] In 1998, the AFI ranked the film #43 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time.[77]
American Film Institute Lists
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #43
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #12
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #24
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
"Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast." – #84
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – #13
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #41
AFI's 10 Top 10 – #4 Fantasy film
Re-releases, censorship and restorations[edit]
King Kong was re-released in 1938, 1942, 1946, 1952 and 1956; each time to great box office success.[78] Stricter decency rules had been put into effect in Hollywood since its 1933 premiere and each time it was censored further, with several scenes being either trimmed or excised altogether.
These scenes were as follows:[79]
A Brontosaurus mauling crewmen in the water, chasing one up a tree and killing him;
Kong undressing Ann Darrow and sniffing his fingers;
Kong biting and stepping on natives when he attacks the village;
Kong biting a reporter in New York;
Kong mistaking a sleeping woman for Ann and dropping her to her death, after realizing his mistake.
An additional scene portraying fiendish spider like creatures devouring the crew members shaken off the log by Kong into the floor of the canyon below was deemed too gruesome by RKO even by pre-Code standards, and thus the scene was studio self-censored prior to original release. Though searched for, the footage is now considered "lost forever" with only a few artist sketches depicting the man eating spiders surviving.[citation needed]
After the 1956 re-release, the film was sold to television (first being broadcast March 5, 1956).[80]
RKO had failed to preserve copies of film's negative or release prints with the excised footage, and the cut scenes were considered lost for years. In 1969, a 16mm print, including the censored footage, was found in Philadelphia. The cut scenes were added to the film, restoring it to its original theatrical running time of 100 minutes. This version was re-released to art houses by Janus Films in 1970.[79]
Over the next two decades, Universal Studios carried out further photochemical restoration on King Kong. This was based on a 1942 release print, with missing censor cuts taken from a 1937 print, which "contained heavy vertical scratches from projection."[81] An original release print located in the UK in the 1980s was found to contain the cut scenes in better quality.
After a 6-year worldwide search for the best surviving materials, a further, fully digital, restoration utilizing 4K resolution scanning was completed by Warner Bros. in 2005.[82] This restoration also had a 4-minute overture added, bringing the overall running time to 104 minutes. King Kong was also, somewhat controversially, colorized in the late 1980s for television.[83]
Home media[edit]
In 1984, King Kong was one of the first films to be released on LaserDisc by the Criterion Collection, and was the very first movie to have an audio commentary track included. Criterion's audio commentary was by film historian Ron Haver; in 1985 Image Entertainment released another LaserDisc, this time with a commentary by film historian and soundtrack producer Paul Mandell. Neither of these commentaries has since resurfaced on any other format.
King Kong had numerous VHS and LaserDisc releases of varying quality prior to receiving an official studio release on DVD. Those included a Turner 60th anniversary edition in 1993 featuring a front cover which had the sound effect of Kong roaring when his chest was pressed. It also included the colorized version of the film and a 25-minute documentary, It Was Beauty Killed the Beast (1992). The documentary is also available on two different UK King Kong DVDs, while the colorized version is available on DVD in the UK and Italy.[84] Warner Home Video re-released the black and white version on VHS with the 25-minute documentary included under the Warner Bros. Classics label in 1999.
In 2005 Warner Bros released their digital restoration of King Kong in a US 2-disc Special Edition DVD, coinciding with the theatrical release of Peter Jackson's remake. It had numerous extra features, including a new, third audio commentary by visual effects artists Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston, with archival excerpts from actress Fay Wray and producer/director Merian C. Cooper. Warners issued identical DVDs in 2006 in Australia and New Zealand, followed by a US digibook-packaged Blu-ray in 2010.[85] In 2014 the Blu-ray was repackaged with three unrelated films in a 4 Film Favorites: Colossal Monster Collection.
At present, Universal holds worldwide rights to Kong's home video releases outside of the US, Australia and New Zealand. All Universal's releases only contain their earlier, 100 minute, pre-2005 restoration.[82] However, in the UK, Warner Home Video released the film digitally and on Blu-Ray & DVD in early 2017. The Blu-Ray contained the same contents as the US release, but unfortunately for the DVD, that was based on the first Disc of the 2-Disc DVD release.
Adaptations[edit]
The 1933 King Kong film and character inspired imitations and installments. Son of Kong, a direct sequel to the 1933 film was released nine months after the first film's release. In the early 1960s, RKO had licensed the King Kong character to Japanese studio Toho and produced two King Kong films, King Kong vs. Godzilla (a crossover with the Godzilla series) and King Kong Escapes, both directed by Ishirō Honda.
In 1976, Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis released his version of King Kong, a modern remake of the 1933 film, which was followed by a sequel in 1986 titled King Kong Lives. In 2005, Universal Pictures released another remake of King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson. Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. released a Kong reboot film titled Kong: Skull Island in 2017 which was directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and is the second installment of a shared universe called the MonsterVerse, which started with Legendary's reboot of Godzilla.
See also[edit]
1930s portal
Film portal
Horror portal
United States portal
List of films featuring giant monsters
List of stop motion films
1933 in film
List of highest-grossing films
Skull Island
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
The Lost World (1925)
Ingagi (1930)
Stark Mad (1929)
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b King Kong at the American Film Institute Catalog
Jump up ^ King Kong (DVD). Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. 10 May 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e
Jewel, Richard (1994). "RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951". Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television. 14 (1): 39. 1933 release: $1,856,000; 1938 release: $306,000; 1944 release: $685,000
"King Kong (1933) – Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 7, 2012. 1952 release: $2,500,000; budget: $672,254.75
Jump up ^ Miller, Frank (January 5, 2015). "King Kong (1933) Awards and Honors". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
Jump up ^ "Best Horror Movies - King Kong (1933)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on April 1, 2010. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
Jump up ^ "Top 100 Movies of All Time - Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
Jump up ^ Daniel Eagan, (2010). America’s Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, New York, NY p.22
^ Jump up to: a b c Peary
Jump up ^ Morton 21
Jump up ^ Gerald Peary, 'Missing Links: The Jungle Origins of King Kong' (1976), repr. Gerald Peary: Film Reviews, Interviews, Essays and Sundry Miscellany, 2004.
Jump up ^ Erish, Andrew (January 8, 2006). "Illegitimate Dad of King Kong". Los Angeles Times.
Jump up ^ Morton 17–8
Jump up ^ Morton 18–20
Jump up ^ Morton 22–5
^ Jump up to: a b Morton 25–7
^ Jump up to: a b Erb 31
^ Jump up to: a b Morton 28
Jump up ^ Goldner (page unknown)
Jump up ^ Morton 28–9
Jump up ^ Morton 29
^ Jump up to: a b c Morton 31–3
Jump up ^ United Press International
Jump up ^ Erb 54–5
Jump up ^ Morton 31–2
Jump up ^ Morton 32
Jump up ^ Morton 49
Jump up ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=F3AQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BIwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6747%2C311727
Jump up ^ Glut, Donald F. (2001). Jurassic Classics: A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings. McFarland. p. 192. ISBN 0786462469.
Jump up ^ Goldner, Orville; Turner, George E. (1975). The Making of King Kong – The Story Behind a Film Classic. New York: Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. p. 165. ISBN 0-8109-4535-5.
Jump up ^ Morton 33
Jump up ^ Freese, Gene Scott (April 10, 2014). Hollywood Stunt Performers, 1910s-1970s: A Biographical Dictionary (2nd ed.). McFarland & Company. p. 75. ISBN 9780786476435.
Jump up ^ Peter Jackson interviewed about his film memorablia collection YouTube. Retrieved 1st February 2017
Jump up ^ Original King Kong model sells for 200k CBS News. Retrieved 1st February 2017
Jump up ^ Morton 33–5
Jump up ^ Morton 35–6
Jump up ^ Morton 36
Jump up ^ Orville Goldner, George E Turner (1975). Making of King Kong: The Story Behind a Film Classic. ISBN 0-498-01510-6. See also Spawn of Skull Island (2002). ISBN 1-887664-45-9
Jump up ^ Morton 36–8
Jump up ^ Wasko, Janet. (2003). How Hollywood Works. California: SAGE Publications Ltd. p.53.
Jump up ^ Bordwell, David, Thompson, Kristin, Smith, Jeff. (2017). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill. p.388.
Jump up ^ Harryhausen, Ray. (1983). ‘Animating the Ape’. In: Lloyd, Ann. (ed.) Movies of the Thirties. UK: Orbis Publishing Ltd. p.173.
Jump up ^ Corrigan, Timothy, White, Patricia. (2015). The Film Experience. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. pp.120-121.
Jump up ^ Harryhausen 172-173
Jump up ^ Dyson, Jeremy. (1997). Bright Darkness: The Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film. London: Cassell. p.38.
^ Jump up to: a b Harryhausen 173
Jump up ^ "Charlie Gemora, 58, had King Kong role". The New York Times. 20 August 1961. (subscription required)
Jump up ^ Greene, Bob (27 November 1990). "Saying so long to Mr. Kong". Chicago Tribune.
Jump up ^ Glut, Donald F. (2001). Jurassic Classics: A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 192. ISBN 9780786462469. Over the years, various actors have claimed to have played Kong in this [Empire State Building] scene, including a virtually unknown performer named Carmen Nigro (AKA Ken Roady), and also noted gorilla impersonator Charles Gemora... In Nigro's case, the claim seems to have been simply fraudulent; in Gemora's, the inaccurate claim was apparently based on the actor's memory of playing a giant ape in a never-completed King Kong spoof entitled The Lost Island.
Jump up ^ Glut, Donald F. (2005). "His Majesty, King Kong - IV". In Woods, Paul A. King Kong Cometh!. London: Plexus. p. 64. ISBN 9780859653626. Cooper denied any performance by an actor in a gorilla costume in King Kong... Perhaps a human actor was used in a bit of forgotten test footage before the film went into production, but thus far the matter remains a mystery.
Jump up ^ Goldner 173
Jump up ^ Goldner 165
Jump up ^ Goldner 159
Jump up ^ Goldner 185
Jump up ^ Morton 75–6
Jump up ^ Shay, Don. (1982) Cinefex issues 7-10 page 41
Jump up ^ Morton 76–7
Jump up ^ Helvering, David Allen; The University of Iowa (2007). Functions of dialogue underscoring in American feature film. ProQuest. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0-549-23504-0. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b Morton 78
^ Jump up to: a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 26, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
Jump up ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20071027120655/http://retrocrush.buzznet.com/archive2005/kong/
Jump up ^ Rotten Tomatoes
Jump up ^ "King Kong (1933) Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Metacritic. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
Jump up ^ Bigelow
Jump up ^ Hall
Jump up ^ Mosher, John (March 11, 1933). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corporation: 56.
Jump up ^ "New York Reviews". The Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles: The Wilkerson Daily Corporation: 2. March 7, 1933.
Jump up ^ "Monster Ape Packs Thrills in New Talkie". Chicago Tribune. Chicago: Tribune Publishing: Part 7, p. 8. April 23, 1933.
Jump up ^ Ebert
Jump up ^ Ahamed, Liaquat (2009). Lords of Finance. Penguin Books. p. 452. ISBN 9780143116806.
Jump up ^ "'Gone,' With $26,000,000, Still Tops All-Timers; Greatest Show Heads '52". Variety. January 21, 1953. p. 4.
Jump up ^ Grant, Elizabeth. (1996). ‘Here Comes the Bride.’ In: Grant, Barry Kieth (ed.). The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press. P.373
Jump up ^ Goff, Phillip Atiba; Eberhardt, Jennifer L.; Williams, Melissa J.; Jackson, Matthew Christian (2008). "Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 94 (2): 293. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.2.292. ISSN 1939-1315.
Jump up ^ Kuhn, Annette. (2007). ‘King Kong’. In: Cook, Pam. (ed.) The Cinema Book. London: British Film Institute. P,41. and Robinson, D. (1983). ‘King Kong’. In: Lloyd, A. (ed.) Movies of the Thirties. Orbis Publishing Ltd. p.58.
Jump up ^ Cynthia Marie Erb (2009). Tracking King Kong: A Hollywood Icon in World Culture. Wayne State University Press. p. xvii. ISBN 0-8143-3430-X.
Jump up ^ Morton 81
Jump up ^ Eagan 22
Jump up ^ Morton 85
Jump up ^ Neale, Steve. (2012). The Classical Hollywood Reader. London: Routledge. P.351.
^ Jump up to: a b Morton 83–4
Jump up ^ Rainho, Manny (March 2015). "This Month in Movie History". Classic Images (477): 26.
Jump up ^ Millimeter Magazine article, 1 January 2006 Retrieved: March 15, 2012
^ Jump up to: a b "Robert A. Harris On King Kong" Retrieved: March 15, 2012
Jump up ^ "King Kong: Miscellaneous Notes" at TCM Retrieved: March 15, 2012
Jump up ^ DVDCompare.com: King Kong (1933) Retrieved: April 8, 2012
Jump up ^ DVDBeaver.com King Kong comparison Retrieved: June 14, 2015
Bibliography[edit]
American Film Institute (June 17, 2008). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". Retrieved February 20, 2010.
Annette, Kuhn. (2007). ‘King Kong’. In: Cook, Pam. (ed.) The Cinema Book. London: British Film Institute. P,41. and Robinson, D. (1983). ‘King Kong’. In: Lloyd, A. (ed.) Movies of the Thirties. Orbis Publishing Ltd.
Bigelow, Joe (1933). "King Kong review". Variety. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
Doherty, Thomas Patrick (1999). Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930–1934. Columbia University Press. p. 293. ISBN 0-231-11094-4.
Eagan, Daniel (2010). America’s Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, New York, NY p. 22. ISBN 978-0-8264-2977-3
Ebert, Roger (3 February 2002). "King Kong Movie Review & Film Summary (1933)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
Erb, Cynthia Marie (2009). Tracking King Kong: a Hollywood Icon in World Culture. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. pp. 54–5. ISBN 978-0-8143-3430-0.
Erish, Andrew (January 8, 2006). "Illegitimate Dad of King Kong". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
Grant, Elizabeth. (1996). ‘Here Comes the Bride.’ In: Grant, Barry Kieth (ed.), The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Goldner, Orville and George E. Turner (1975). The Making of King Kong: The Story Behind a Film Classic. A.S. Barnes. ISBN 0-498-01510-6.
Gottesman, Ronald and Harry Geduld, ed. (1976). The Girl in the Hairy Paw: King Kong as Myth, Movie, and Monster. Avon. ISBN 0-380-00610-3.
Hall, Mordaunt (March 3, 1933). "King Kong". New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
Haver, Ronald (1987). David O. Selznick's Hollywood. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-517-47665-9.
"King Kong Collection". Amazon.com UK. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
Lloyd, Ann, ed. (1983). Movies of the Thirties. UK: Orbis Publishing Ltd.
Maltin, Leonard, ed. (2007). Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide. New York: Signet. ISBN 978-0-451-22186-5.
Morton, Ray (2005). King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson. New York, NY: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. ISBN 1-55783-669-8.
Peary, Gerald (2004). "Missing Links: The Jungle Origins of King Kong". Retrieved February 20, 2010.
"King Kong (1933)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on December 30, 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
United Press International. "Empire State Building to Dim Lights in Remembrance of Actress Fay Wray". United Press International, Inc. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to King Kong (1933 film).
Wikiquote has quotations related to: King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong on IMDb
King Kong at the TCM Movie Database
King Kong at the American Film Institute Catalog
King Kong at AllMovie
King Kong at Box Office Mojo
King Kong at Rotten Tomatoes
show
v
t
e
King Kong
Films
King Kong (1933)
Son of Kong (1933)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
King Kong Escapes (1967)
King Kong (1976)
King Kong Lives (1986)
King Kong (2005)
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Related films
Creation (unfinished)
Wasei Kingu Kongu (1933)
King Kong Appears in Edo (1938)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Queen Kong (1976)
Bye Bye Monkey (1978)
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
Stage
King Kong (2013)
Characters
King Kong
Carl Denham
Jack Driscoll
Mechani-Kong
Gorosaurus
Godzilla
Animation
The King Kong Show (1966–1969)
The Mighty Kong (1998)
Kong: The Animated Series (2000-2001)
Kong: King of the Apes (2016)
Video games
King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch (1986)
King Kong 2: Yomigaeru Densetsu (1986)
Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005)
Attractions
King Kong Encounter (1986)
Kongfrontation (1990)
King Kong: 360 3-D (2010)
Skull Island: Reign of Kong (2016)
Miscellaneous
Comics
Popular culture
Skull Island
Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Kaiju
Godzilla
MonsterVerse
Monsterland and Monster Island
Category
show
v
t
e
Films directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack
Grass (1925)
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)
The Four Feathers (1929)
Rango (1931)
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
The Monkey's Paw (1933)
King Kong (1933)
Blind Adventure (1933)
Son of Kong (1933)
Long Lost Father (1934)
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
Trouble in Morocco (1937)
Outlaws of the Orient (1937)
Dr. Cyclops (1940)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
show
v
t
e
Edgar Wallace
Novels
The Four Just Men (1905)
Kate Plus Ten (1919)
The Crimson Circle (1922)
The Valley of Ghosts (1922)
The Clue of the New Pin (1923)
The Dark Eyes of London (1924)
The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder (1925)
The Terrible People (1926)
The Big Foot (1927)
The Traitor's Gate (1927)
The Squeaker (1927)
The Forger (1927)
The Calendar (1930)
The Lady of Ascot (1930)
The Guv'nor and Other Short Stories (1932)
Plays
The Man Who Changed His Name (1928)
Screenplays
The Valley of Ghosts (1928)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932)
King Kong (1933)
Adaptations
J. G. Reeder
Mr. Reeder in Room 13 (1938)
The Mind of Mr. Reeder (1939)
The Missing People (1940)
The Four Just Men
The Four Just Men (1921 film)
The Four Just Men (1939 film)
The Four Just Men (1959 TV series)
Edgar Wallace Mysteries
Urge to Kill
The Clue of the New Pin
Never Back Losers
The Sinister Man
Solo for Sparrow
Incident at Midnight
We Shall See
Rialto Films
Der Frosch mit der Maske (1959)
Der rote Kreis (1960)
The Terrible People (1960)
The Green Archer (1961)
The Dead Eyes of London (1961)
The Devil's Daffodil (1961)
The Forger of London (1961)
The Strange Countess (1961)
The Puzzle of the Red Orchid (1962)
The Door with Seven Locks (1962)
The Inn on the River (1962)
The Squeaker (1963)
The Black Abbot (1963)
The Indian Scarf (1963)
The Curse of the Hidden Vault (1964)
Der Hexer (1964)
The Traitor's Gate (1964)
Neues vom Hexer (1965)
The Sinister Monk (1965)
The Hunchback of Soho (1966)
The Trygon Factor (1966)
Creature with the Blue Hand (1967)
Im Banne des Unheimlichen (1968)
The Gorilla of Soho (1968)
Other
The Man Who Bought London (1916)
The Green Terror (1919)
Pallard the Punter (1919)
Angel Esquire (1919)
The River of Stars (1921)
The Crimson Circle (1922)
The Diamond Man (1924)
The Green Archer (1925 serial)
The Terror (1928)
Mark of the Frog (1928 serial)
Chick (1928)
The Forger (1928)
The Terrible People (1928 serial)
The Ringer (1928)
The Man Who Changed His Name (1928)
The Flying Squad (1929)
The Crimson Circle (1929)
The Clue of the New Pin (1929)
Red Aces (1930)
The Squeaker (1930)
The Yellow Mask (1930)
The Ringer (1931)
To Oblige a Lady (1931)
The Calendar (1931)
The Old Man (1931)
The Squeaker (1931)
The Flying Squad (1932)
The Frightened Lady (1932)
The Ringer (1932)
The Menace (1932)
White Face (1932)
The Jewel (1933)
Before Dawn (1933)
The Double (1934)
Mystery Liner (1934)
The Green Pack (1934)
The Feathered Serpent (1934)
The Lad (1935)
Sanders of the River (1935)
Born to Gamble (1935)
Chick (1936)
Educated Evans (1936)
The Crimson Circle (1936)
Prison Breaker (1936)
Strangers on Honeymoon (1936)
The Frog (1937)
The Sqeaker (1937)
The Gaunt Stranger (1938)
Dangerous to Know (1938)
Kate Plus Ten (1938)
Thank Evans (1938)
The Terror (1938)
The Return of the Frog (1938)
Flying Fifty-Five (1939)
The Dark Eyes of London (1939)
The Case of the Frightened Lady (1940)
The Door with Seven Locks (1940)
The Flying Squad (1940)
The Green Archer (1940 serial)
The Missing Million (1942)
The Calendar (1948)
The Ringer (1952)
The Avenger (1960)
Death Drums Along the River (1963)
Coast of Skeletons (1964)
Circus of Fear (1966)
Five Golden Dragons (1967)
The Devil Came from Akasava (1970)
The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971)
What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)
Seven Bloodstained Orchids (1972)
Family
Marriott Edgar (half-brother)
Bryan Edgar Wallace (son)
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
GND: 4536625-1
LCCN: n95030682
VIAF: 189372510
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_Kong_(1933_film)&oldid=856962743"
Categories:
1933 films
English-language films
1930s horror films
1930s adventure films
1930s fantasy films
American films
American black-and-white films
American fantasy adventure films
American monster movies
Dinosaur films
Empire State Building in fiction
Films scored by Max Steiner
Films directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack
Films directed by Merian C. Cooper
Films about filmmaking
Films adapted into comics
Films adapted into novels
Films adapted into plays
Films adapted into video games
Films made before the MPAA Production Code
Films produced by David O. Selznick
Films set in 1932
Films set in New York City
Films set in the Indian Ocean
Films set on fictional islands
Films using stop-motion animation
Horror adventure films
King Kong films
Lost world films
United States National Film Registry films
RKO Pictures films
Screenplays by Edgar Wallace
Animals in media
Hidden categories:
Pages containing links to subscription-only content
Use mdy dates from January 2015
Articles needing additional references from June 2018
All articles needing additional references
All articles with unsourced statements
Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016
Articles needing additional references from November 2016
Articles to be expanded from June 2018
All articles to be expanded
Articles using small message boxes
Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018
Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers
Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers
Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers
Articles containing video clips
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Wikiquote
Languages
Afrikaans
العربية
বাংলা
Català
Čeština
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
ქართული
Lëtzebuergesch
La .lojban.
Magyar
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
Simple English
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Українська
吴语
粵語
中文
33 more
Edit links
This page was last edited on 28 August 2018, at 17:15 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

attrs: class href

values: mw-jump-link #mw-head

values: mw-jump-link #p-search

value: p

values: Help:Introduction to referencing with Wiki Markup/1

value: span

value: small

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove

values:
/wiki/Vernon_Walker
mw-redirect
Vernon Walker

values:
/wiki/Adjusted_for_inflation
mw-redirect
Adjusted for inflation

values:
/wiki/Willis_O%27Brien
mw-redirect
Willis O'Brien

values: checkbox button toctogglecheckbox toctogglecheckbox display:none

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em;

values:
/wiki/Lumi%C3%A8re_Brothers
mw-redirect
Lumière Brothers

values:
/wiki/Trick_photography
mw-redirect
Trick photography

values:
/wiki/Tarzan_of_the_Apes_(film)
mw-redirect
Tarzan of the Apes (film)

values:
/wiki/W._Douglas_Burden
mw-redirect
W. Douglas Burden

values:
/wiki/Dramatis_personae
mw-redirect
Dramatis personae

values:
/wiki/Paramount_Studios
mw-redirect
Paramount Studios

values:
/wiki/Creation_(1931_film)
mw-redirect
Creation (1931 film)

values:
/wiki/Dorothy_Jordan_(film_actress)
mw-redirect
Dorothy Jordan (film actress)

values:
/wiki/Sandra_Shaw
mw-redirect
Sandra Shaw

values: <video id="mwe_player_1" poster="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv/854px--Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv.jpg" controls="" preload="none" autoplay="" style="width:854px;height:480px" class="kskin" data-durationhint="10.844166666667" data-startoffset="0" data-mwtitle="Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv" data-mwprovider="wikimediacommons"><source src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv.480p.webm" type="video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"" data-title="SD WebM (480P)" data-shorttitle="WebM 480P" data-transcodekey="480p.webm" data-width="854" data-height="480" data-bandwidth="998280" data-framerate="29.97002997003"/><source src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv.720p.webm" type="video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"" data-title="HD WebM (720P)" data-shorttitle="WebM 720P" data-transcodekey="720p.webm" data-width="1280" data-height="720" data-bandwidth="4892920" data-framerate="29.97002997003"/><source src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv" type="video/ogg; codecs="theora"" data-title="Original Ogg file, 1,280 × 720 (15.2 Mbps)" data-shorttitle="Ogg source" data-width="1280" data-height="720" data-bandwidth="15203555" data-framerate="29.97002997003"/><source src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv.160p.webm" type="video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"" data-title="Low bandwidth WebM (160P)" data-shorttitle="WebM 160P" data-transcodekey="160p.webm" data-width="284" data-height="160" data-bandwidth="127304" data-framerate="29.97002997003"/><source src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv.240p.webm" type="video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"" data-title="Small WebM (240P)" data-shorttitle="WebM 240P" data-transcodekey="240p.webm" data-width="426" data-height="240" data-bandwidth="248088" data-framerate="29.97002997003"/><source src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv/Westernlowlandgorilla-ueno2009.ogv.360p.webm" type="video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"" data-title="WebM (360P)" data-shorttitle="WebM 360P" data-transcodekey="360p.webm" data-width="640" data-height="360" data-bandwidth="496528" data-framerate="29.97002997003"/></video>

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (June 2016)

values:
noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact
white-space:nowrap;

values:
/wiki/Curtiss_F8C_Helldiver
mw-redirect
Curtiss F8C Helldiver

values:
/wiki/Rear_projection
mw-redirect
Rear projection

values:
/wiki/Dunning_process
mw-redirect
Dunning process

values:
/wiki/San_Pedro,_California
mw-redirect
San Pedro, California

values:
/wiki/Culver_City
mw-redirect
Culver City

values:
/wiki/Grauman%27s_Chinese_Theater
mw-redirect
Grauman's Chinese Theater

values:
/wiki/London,_England
mw-redirect
London, England

values: plainlinks metadata ambox mbox-small-left ambox-content

values:
/wiki/Weighted_average
mw-redirect
Weighted average

values: Edit section: Re-releases, censorship and restorations

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (July 2018)

values:
/wiki/Universal_Studios
mw-redirect
Universal Studios

values:
/wiki/Criterion_Collection
mw-redirect
Criterion Collection

values:
/wiki/Image_Entertainment
mw-redirect
Image Entertainment

values:
/wiki/Turner_Home_Entertainment
mw-redirect
Turner Home Entertainment

values:
/wiki/Legendary_Pictures
mw-redirect
Legendary Pictures

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values:
/wiki/Warner_Bros._Home_Entertainment
mw-redirect
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

values:
nofollow
http://retrocrush.buzznet.com/kong/
external text

values:
/wiki/Tribune_Publishing
mw-redirect
Tribune Publishing

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/issn/1939-1315

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000BA8EAW

values:
/wiki/Fandango_Media
mw-redirect
Fandango Media

values:
nofollow
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v27391

values: Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible collapsed navbox-inner mw-collapsible mw-collapsed mw-made-collapsible

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner mw-collapsible mw-made-collapsible mw-collapsed

values: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932 film)

values: The Man Who Changed His Name (1928 film)

values:
/wiki/The_Bloodstained_Butterfly
mw-redirect
The Bloodstained Butterfly

values:
/wiki/Seven_Bloodstained_Orchids
mw-redirect
Seven Bloodstained Orchids

attrs: alt src width height style srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
nofollow
external text
https://d-nb.info/gnd/4536625-1

values:
nofollow
external text
https://viaf.org/viaf/189372510

values: Category:American fantasy adventure films

values: Category:Empire State Building in fiction

values: Category:Films directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack

values: Category:Films directed by Merian C. Cooper

values: Category:Films made before the MPAA Production Code

values: Category:Films produced by David O. Selznick

values: Category:Films using stop-motion animation

values: Category:United States National Film Registry films

values: Category:Pages containing links to subscription-only content

values: Category:Use mdy dates from January 2015

values: Category:Articles needing additional references from June 2018

values: Category:All articles needing additional references

values: Category:All articles with unsourced statements

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016

values: Category:Articles needing additional references from November 2016

values: Category:Articles to be expanded from June 2018

values: Category:Articles using small message boxes

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers

values: Category:Articles containing video clips

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/King_Kong_(1933_film)
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong
King Kong – Afrikaans
af
af
interlanguage-link-target

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-af
display: none;

values: كينغ كونغ (فيلم 1933) – Arabic

values: কিং কং (১৯৩৩-এর চলচ্চিত্র) – Bangla

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-bn
display: none;

values: King Kong (pel·lícula de 1933) – Catalan

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ca
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cs
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cy
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-da
display: none;

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-es badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eo
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eu
display: none;

values: کینگ کونگ (فیلم ۱۹۳۳) – Persian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fa
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-gl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ko
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hy
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-it
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-he
display: none;

values: კინგ კონგი (1933 წლის ფილმი) – Georgian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ka
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lb
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-jbo
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hu
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ja
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-no
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-pl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ro
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sq
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-simple
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sh
display: none;

values: King Kong (vuoden 1933 elokuva) – Finnish

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fi
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sv
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-tr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-uk
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-wuu
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-yue
display: none;

values: All languages (initial selection from common choices by you and others)

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-King_Kong_1933_film rootpage-King_Kong_1933_film skin-vector action-view