King Kong [Blu-ray]

Director: Merian C. Cooper

Overview

"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/20/2022
UPC:	0883929799022
Original Release:	1933
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Time:	1:40:00
Sales rank:	4,768

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Fay Wray	Ann Darrow
Robert Armstrong	Carl Denham
Bruce Cabot	John Driscoll
Sam Hardy	Charles Weston
Frank Reicher	Capt. Englehorn
Noble Johnson	Native Chief
Steve Clemente	Witch King
James Flavin	2nd Mate Briggs
Paul Porcasi	Socrates
Russ Powell	Dock Watchman,Dock Watchman
Ethan Laidlaw	Sailor
Blackie Whiteford	Sailor
Dick Curtis	Sailor
Charles Sullivan	Sailor
Harry Tenbrook	Sailor
Gil Perkins	Sailor
Vera Lewis	Theater Patron
Leroy Mason	Theater Patron
Frank Mills	Reporter
Lynton Brent	Reporter,Member of Ship's Crew
Jim Thorpe	Native Dancer
George MacQuarrie	Police Captain
Madame Sul-te-wan	Handmaiden
Etta McDaniel	Native Woman
Raymond Turner	Native
Dorothy Gulliver	Girl
Carlotta Monti	Girl
Barney Capehart	Pilot
Bob Galloway	Pilot
Eric Wood	Pilot
Dusty Mitchell	Pilot
Russ Rogers	Pilot
Reginald Barlow	Engineer
Merian C. Cooper	Flight Commander
Ernest B. Schoedsack	Chief Observer
Fay	Actor
King Kong	King Kong
Walter Ackerman	Reporter
James Adamson	Native Child
Ed Allen	Native
Roscoe Ates	Press Photographer
Jack Best	Warrior
Harry Bowen	Reporter
Russell Saunders	Actor
Jack Black	Actor
Everett Brown	Native in Ape Costume
Jack Chapin	Reporter
Edward Clark	Member of Ship's Crew
Onest Conley	Warrior
Kathryn Curry	Native
Sandra Shaw	Woman Dropped by Kong
Mme. Wan	Handmaiden
Victor Wong	Actor
Max Steiner	Composer

Technical Credits

James Ashmore Creelman

Ruth Rose

Leon Gordon

Ernest B. Schoedsack	Director,Producer
Merian C. Cooper	Director,Producer
James Ashmore Creelman	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Ruth Rose	Screenwriter
Byron L. Crabbe	Special Effects
Marcel Delgado	Special Effects
E.B. Gibson	Special Effects
Orville Goldner	Special Effects
Mario Larrinaga	Special Effects
Willis O'Brien	Special Effects
Fred Reese	Special Effects
Carroll L. Shepphird	Special Effects
David O. Selznick	Executive Producer
Murray Spivack	Sound Effects
Clem Portman	Sound Effects
Leon Gordon	Screenwriter
Harry Redmond Jr.	Special Effects
Linwood Dunn	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Of all the major monster films of the 1930s and '40s, King Kong stands alone as one of the most awe-inspiring ever made. Combining terror with the popular jungle themes sweeping movie palaces of the day, directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack used groundbreaking stop-motion animation and mechanics to create cinema's first leading primate. The story swings into gear when movie director extraordinaire Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) finds the perfect blonde bombshell actress in Ann Darrow (Fay Wray). Upon reaching ominous Skull Island, the perfect place to shoot a picture, the tribal inhabitants choose Darrow as a sacrifice to their all-powerful Kong. Rugged sea captain Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) helps rescue our heroine, and Kong is brought to New York where he becomes a star attraction for the city's elite. The startling effects of King Kong left Depression-era audiences gasping in terror as, in one of the most famous images ever to grace the screen, the two-story ape climbs atop the Empire State Building, pining for an impossible love, as most tragic heroes do. Echoing the themes of tragic outcast found in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, King Kong shows itself to be not only a classic monster thriller, but a film that beats its own chest with emotion.

Barnes & Noble - Jason Bergenfeld

Generally thought of as a monster movie (not difficult to understand when your title character is a 50-foot-tall gorilla with a habit of killing people who get in his way), King Kong is actually an old-fashioned adventure story on the grand scale, complete with fearless hunters in search of uncharted islands, angry natives appeasing their god, damsels in distress, and a dashing hero on hand to save said damsel. Much of this story probably seemed a bit cliché even when King Kong was first released in 1933, but directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack tell their tale with two-fisted gusto, leavened with a genuine sense of wonder, and the result captures the imagination from the start and never lets go. It also helps that they had a cast capable of handling the heroics in grand form while knowing how to play the abundant comic relief in appropriate style; Robert Armstrong's Carl Denham is ham at its tastiest, Bruce Cabot's Jack Driscoll is a hero with his feet planted solidly on the ground (and his tongue just entering his cheek), and has any screen heroine ever screamed more eloquently than Fay Wray? Willis H. O'Brien's stop-motion effects animation was legendary in its day, and it retains its magic today; while technology has progressed considerably since King Kong, O'Brien was able to give his great ape a personality, and Kong's moments of fear, curiosity, pain, and occasional goofiness gave him a sympathetic, ultimately tragic dimension that adds immeasurably to the picture's effectiveness. And Max Steiner's bombastic score is always there to cheer the picture along when its energy starts to flag. While the 1976 remake already seems hopelessly dated, the original King Kong remains rousing entertainment with brains, brawn, and a heart.

All Movie Guide - Mark Deming