I was extremely disappointed with Peter Jackson’s 2005 version of King Kong, but for some strange reason it did make me want to watch the other versions to see how they compared. Naturally the first version I wanted to check out was the original, made way back in 1933. Happily it was possible to borrow it from someone just a couple of days after thinking it would be interesting to watch it…

The storyline is familiar to everyone I guess, but I’ll outline it anyway. Maverick film producer Carl Denham wants to find an island few people believe exist in order to find the perfect setting for his film. His leading lady isn’t too keen, so he has to talk a young woman he meets in the street – and saves of being caught stealing – into taking on the role. On the ship is First Mate Jack Driscoll, who soon develops a romantic interest in the young woman, whose name is Ann Darrow. They set off for the island, on which is rumoured to be the mighty Kong - though what Kong actually is, whether it’s a person, a beast, something else, or merely a myth – they have no idea. No prizes for guessing whether the island is found or not, or what Kong actually turns out to be!

There are major differences between this and the 2005 version, one of the most notable being that it’s about half the length! Jack Driscoll here is an officer on the ship instead of the poet, and a real rugged man he is too, who thinks women shouldn’t be aboard the ship – or any ship, in actual fact. Bruce Cabot (veteran of nearly 100 movies, including several Westerns with John Wayne, his last appearance of all being in “Diamonds are Forever” in 1971) plays the role with just the right air of rugged determination. Carl Denham (played by Robert Armstrong, veteran of well over 100 movies, including Paleface) is a much more convincing straight actor than Jack Black (who is obviously much more at home in comedies), and portrays Denham as a man of single-utter single-mindedness. The heroine here is Fay Wray (who also managed almost 100 movies in her career), who is pretty much a totally traditional damsel in distress, i.e. falling into Jack’s arms at every possibly opportunity, screaming a lot and fainting even more. The script seemed far more coherent than the 2005 effort – despite considerably less runtime, key plot elements were far more satisfactorily explained The action is usually quite fast and furious, and the scenes with the natives on Skull Island were well done. I did have some problems with the plot generally – the same problems that I’d have with all versions, I guess – such as “why all these prehistoric beasts yet only one big gorilla thing?”, but that isn’t a huge problem here with all of the action happening so fast. Some of the dialogue was admittedly corny, but some of it was very snappy and witty, too. The music by Max Steiner (who incredible career spans hundreds of movies – see http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000070/ for more information) is wonderful and really adds to the film.

I have to admit though that one of the reasons I enjoyed this was for sort of the wrong reason… Kong himself was sometimes hilarious – he seemed to have an extremely toothy grin half the time (including when he was meant to be looking fierce!), and some of the close-ups had me in fits of laughter. Bearing in mind that this was done in 1933, of course, they did an amazing job, and one of the battle scenes (between Kong and a T-Rex) was like nothing ever seen before and left the RKO bosses absolutely stunned. The man behind these effects was Willis H. O’Brien, whose work on King Kong inspired a certain 13 year-old named Ray Harryhausen to learn all he could about the stop-motion techniques that O’Brien had used… It is agreat credit to O’Brien that, despite the age of this movie, some of the effects still actually look pretty good.

There was no sympathy towards poor old Kong evident in this version, but then again he was portrayed as being rather wantonly destructive. He also had a real tendency to strut following his victories, which made you think that perhaps he did deserve to be humbled a bit. I still don’t feel he deserved what eventually happened to him though, and I still found Carl Denham to be a thoroughly dislikeable character. It’s all a bit straightforward with none of the moral complexities that films today like to have, but again you have to consider how long ago it was made. Oh, and while the final line "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast" was voted the 84th greatest movie line by the American Film Institute, I still think it’s a stupid line!!

I don’t think any version of King Kong will ever be one of my all-time favourite films, but this original version was certainly entertaining and funny in places (some intentional, others not). For pure entertainment value I’m giving it 4 stars.

Quotes:

Crew member: What do you call that thing?
Carl Denham: Something from the dinosaur family.

Theatre Patron: Hey, what's this show about, anyway?
Theatre Patron: I don't know - they say it's some big gorilla.
Theatre Patron: Oh, geez - ain't we got enough of them in New York?

[Captain translates Native Chief's comments on Ann Darrow]
Captain Englehorn: He says, "Look at the golden woman."
Carl Denham: Yeah, blondes are scarce around here.



See also:

King Kong – 2005 Version

The Maltese Falcon - the only other black & white film I’ve reviewed so far. (I know – shame on me!)



Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day