King Kong (1933)

Carl Denham: Whaddaya think of that wall, Skipper?
Captain Englehorn: Colossal; might almost be Egyptian.
Carl Denham: Yeah, but what's on the other side of that wall; that's what I wanna find out.

If the average Joe was asked about King Kong the majority would no doubt bring up the creature on top of the Empire State Building in New York causeit’s such an iconic image that has been imprinted into people’s minds no doubt from the great 2005 Peter Jackson version which really brought Kong to life with its fantastic CG, but he came to our screens much earlier than that.  In 1933 Hollywood introduced the world to King Kong on the silver screen in all its stop-animation glory.  Yep, believe it or not they never had green screens or CGI in those days so they had to do things the old fashioned way.  But before you get too excited let’s get something out of the way.  Yes, Kong from 2005 does indeed look better and more realistic than either the 1933 or 1976 versions however it also needs to be said that there is more to a movie than its special effects.  If looks were the most important thing in a movie, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” would be the champion, but hey…. its not.  

Essentially the movie is about nature film maker, Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) who gets access to the map of a mysterious island and charters a boat to make a movie there.  Before they set sail, a suitable actress, Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) is found and convinced to head out on this journey of a lifetime.  On the ship Ann meets up with Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), the first mate, and forms a close friendship with him but when they get to the Island, Ann is kidnapped and offered to Kong who also seems to have an interest in her.  If that sounds like a familiar story your most likely thinking again of the 2005 Peter Jackson remake which seems to be faithfully modeled off the original King Kong movie which is not a bad thing at all.

The movie itself is very surprising as the cast play their roles convincingly and the story is really quite engaging and it’s no wonder that as at June 2016 is ranked number 4 in the top 100 horror movies of all time by Rotten Tomatoes.  Kong can look a bit like a manipulated toy at times but when you keep in mind that it is stop animation and 1933, its not all that bad and to be honest it lets the imagination run a bit further too.

I held off for a long time in watching the movie thinking that a 1933 version would be a sad affair but after doing some checking around I decided to spend the hard earned $7 on the DVD and was very much surprised that it kept me in the whole time.  Even its stop animation was well done and in some scenes quite humorous as Kong makes sure some of its enemies are dead.

The film’s original runtime was 125min but sadly the only available version now is the restored 104min version so its missing about 20 minutes of footage however some dvd/bluray editions has the well-known “Spider-pit sequence” as a deleted scene which Peter Jackson re-created for the 2005 version.  Basically it features some of the sailors in a ravine being attacked by various giant spiders and insects.

So is it worth seeing?  Yes, very much so!  It certainly belongs among the top movies made of all time both taking into account how advanced it was at the time, the acting and the story.  As mentioned above, the DVD reviewed was only about $7 from JB Hifi and comes from the same restored master as the Bluray available in USA.  It’s obviously not like a new movie visually but considering the age of the film it scores a high mark for looking as good as it does for a film that old.  As a bonus, the DVD also contains a commentary which for $7 is fantastic value for a great classic.  There is a Bluray and two-disc DVD available overseas but the cost of them is somewhat higher than the local offering.   
So go for it…grab yourself some old school Kong for a Friday night!

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