I just bought the new DVD of the remastered 1933 original version of KING KONG. Are there any other fans of the original out there? It would be fun to discuss this wonderful classic!
Ray Harryhausen did the SFX.
Willis O'Brien did the stop-motion animation for this one.
One of the alleged nitpicks is that Kong's relative size differs from scene to scene. I understand that was done deliberately, to maintain the fantasy element.
The Empire State Building was brand new when the film was made. Did Merian Cooper originally want to have Kong climb the Chrysler Building?
I watched this one again the week of Halloween this year. (I've videotaped it.) The one thing that stood out to me as a nit occurred when Kong was on display in New York. Several photographers are gathered onstage, near the base of Kong's stand. They're ostensibly taking pictures of Ann, Jack Driscoll and Kong. Trouble is, from where the photogs are standing, I don't think they're gonna get much - if anything - of Kong in their pictures. They're too close and they're shooting from the wrong angle to get the three of them in the same shot.
"Beauty killed the beast."
I did read somewhere that the end was originally going to be a showdown with the army in the Yankee Stadium, but someone came up with the idea of Kong climbing the Empire State Buliding.
I think Peter Jackson tries to replicate the famous "lost" sequence from the original Kong where the men who are shaken off a log by Kong end up being attacked by giant spiders. In the remake, I think it might be giant millipedes or something (I can't exactly tell from the previews I've seen).
Willis O'Brien did some wonderful animation in the little seen "The Black Scorpion" from the fifties. In that, giant scorpions and spiders are found in a pit in Mexico. The animation of the scorpions was very smoothly done.
I read that the giant spiders scene was shown at test screening but was dropped because of negative responses. Most watching felt it was took shocking at that stage of the film. Does anyone know if the footage still survives?
The story I had read (in The Book Of Lists) is that at a preview screening, the audience talked about that spider scene throughout the film. Merian Cooper cut the scene himself the next day, and the footage did not survive.
Apparently, King Kong inspired several generations of filmmakers. Ray Harryhausen mentions the film as having sparked his interest in animation. Peter Jackson was interviewed on DateLine NBC last night. He said he holds "King Kong closer to his heart than "Lord Of the Rings". He states that seeing Kong at nine ignited his desire to make films. As with Harryhausen, he made his own home-movie animated adventure after seeing the original Kong. In the NBC interview, Jackson showed off some original models from the 1933 version. The winged Pyteradon (from Kong's clifftop battle) survives only as a metal armature. The five inch Kong model which fell from the Empire State Building at the climax is in better shape.
Jackson also mentioned some other relevant facts. He said that many of today's younger fans won't watch black-and-white films. That fact can definately be seen on the sci-fi channnel- b/w classic films have almost completely disappeared from the channel. AMC is showing fewer b/w classics too (they stated that they have less appeal to youth). One channel remains devoted to showing the classics. This month TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is showing the original King Kong several times. On Dec, 13, after the film they are also running a new documentary , "I'm King Kong", that explores the career of Hollywood producer Merian C. Cooper.
That's sadly very true regarding how some people refuse to watch black & white films.Incredible to me that they would ever consider themselves film fans,yet won't watch Citizen Kane or Casablanca or Red River,to name but a few of the great,classic movies of yesteryear.My neighbor(late 30's)& I were talking one Halloween night a few years ago about how much fun it is that on that night they have lots of horror films airing on tv.I told him that one of my all time favs was on that night & that it was called "The Uninvited." He asked me about it as he'd never heard of it before,when I told him that it was made back in the early 1940's he said that he never watches any movies that are black & white,ever. Sad,people are missing out on such wonderful,wonderful films because of that.
Ed Harris over at "The Agony Booth" focuses on the three versions of King Kong, and touches on some of the side projects, in this chapter of his "Franchise Evolution" series. You can read it here. (Personally, I don't have as much scorn for the 1976 version that Harris has, but he does make some valid points, particularly about Charles Grodin's overacting in it.)
Why no entry for the 1976 version?
Why no entry for the 1976 version?
It's a steaming pile of gorilla dung?
Because you didn’t go to the title page of this board and write “King Kong (1976)”.
Sheesh, don’t you remember how we do things around here? ;)
Actually I like the 1976 version. At least it didn't need three smegging hours to tell its story.
Came across an article in Modern Mechanix And Inventions v6 #6 (April 1933) about the making of this movie before it opened.
Amazing how much of the story they spoiled for viewers. (Warning for those of you haven't seen the movie yet. ;-) )
I think 89 years is enough for spoilers...
No need to give spoilers to a decades old movie, IMO.
I mean would anyone have a problem if I said that "Rosebud" was Charles Foster Kane's childhood sled, or that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father?
Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father!!??
KAM put a winky smiley after the spoiler warning. It was pretty clearly a joke.
Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father!!??
Just call me Ralph Malph.*
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Malph