Movies - King Kong

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	Movies - King Kong

King Kong is a landmark 1933 Hollywood horror-adventure film in black-and-white about a gigantic prehistoric gorilla named Kong.

The film was made by RKO and was written originally for the screen by Edgar Wallace, Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman from a concept by Merian C. Cooper. A novelization of the screenplay actually appeared before the film, in 1932 adapted by Delos Lovelace, and contains descriptions of scenes not in the movie.

The film was directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and starred Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong. It is notable for Willis O'Brien's ground breaking stop-motion animation work, Max Steiner's musical score, and actress Fay Wray's performance as the ape's improbable love interest. King Kong premiered in New York City on March 2, 1933.

Influences

King Kong was influenced by the "Lost World" literary genre, in particular Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot (1918) and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World
(1912), which depicted remote and isolated jungles teeming with dinosaur life.

In the early 20th century few zoos had monkey exhibits so there was popular demand to see them on film. William S. Campbell specialized in monkey-themed films with Monkey Stuff and Jazz Monkey in 1919, and Prohibition Monkey in 1920. Kong producer Schoedsack had earlier monkey experience directing Chang in 1927 (with Cooper) and Rango in 1931, both of which prominently featured monkeys in real jungle settings.

Capitalizing on this trend "Congo Pictures" released Ingagi in 1930, advertising the film as "an authentic incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice of a living woman to mammoth gorillas!". Ingagi was an unabashed black exploitation film, immediately running afoul of the Hollywood code of ethics - it depicted black women having sex with monkeys and baby off-spring that looked more monkey than human, some of the most despicable scenes in American movie history. The movie was an immediate hit, and by some estimates it was one of the highest grossing movies of the 1930s at over $4 million. Although producer Merian C. Cooper never listed Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it's long been held that RKO green-lighted Kong because of the bottom-line example of Ingagi and the formula that Gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits.

The special effects were influenced by the unfinished 1931 film Creation
.

Plot

The film starts off in New York City during the depths of the Great Depression. Carl Denham, a film director famous for shooting 'animal pictures' in remote and exotic locations is unable to find an actress to star in his newest project and so is forced to wander the streets searching for a suitable woman. He chances upon a poor girl, Ann Darrow, who has been caught by a greengrocer after trying to steal an apple. Saying "Here's a buck, now scram" to the proprietor, Denham makes her acquaintance and when the starving Ann faints in his arms (at which moment her great beauty strikes him) he buys her a cup of coffee and offers her a job starring in his new film. Although Ann is apprehensive and appears to question Denham's exact intentions, she has nothing to lose and, after assurances that Denham is "on the level", agrees. They set sail the following morning on the frieghter Venture, getting out of New York harbor just ahead of the authorities.

Whilst on the ship with its all-male crew, first mate Jack Driscoll complains Ann is constantly getting in the way. Denham, after maintaining secrecy for much of the trip, tells the Venture's captain, Englehorn, they're searching for an island uncharted on any normal map. He says that three years earlier a skipper gave him the one map on which it is charted, having received it from a native of Kong's island who had been swept out to sea. Denham then asks Engelhorn and Driscoll "Have you ever heard of... Kong?", describing it as something monstrous, a legend of vague fear.

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Movies - King Kong

Influences

Plot

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