t's the height of the Great Depression, and Americans are hungry for escapist entertainment to distract them from their worries. Moviemaker Carl Denham (Armstrong) travels to exotic locales and films action movies, but now the studio wants a pretty girl in his new picture. No actress will sign up with Denham because he's got a reputation for recklessness. Finally, Denham finds the lovely Ann Darrow (Wray), who's down on her luck and will face any risk for a job. Armed with a rough map and a story that's little more than a legend, they set sail with a film crew to look for an uncharted island that allegedly has a gigantic wall built across it—not to keep something out, but to keep something in.
The island turns out to be real, complete with a mountain that looks like a skull, along with the gigantic wall and a host of natives engaged in a frenzied ritual that includes chanting one ominous syllable: "Kong." First contact with the natives proves to be a little touchy, especially when the witch king shows particular interest in Darrow, calling her the "golden woman." Denham resolves to spend the night on the ship and try again in the morning.
That night, natives steal aboard and kidnap Darrow. Denham and the sailors rush to rescue her but are too late. After tying Darrow to a high pedestal, the natives strike a gong and summon the big guy, Kong, a gorilla so huge he could carry Darrow in one hand. Which he does, taking her away into the jungle.
The men pursue, to their peril, because Kong's not the only big beastie on the island. Sea monsters, T-rexes, stegosauria and giant snakes abound. After many fights, escapes and bloody deaths, first mate Jack Driscoll (Cabot) saves Darrow. Kong is taken down with sleeping-gas bombs. Despite the terrors he has witnessed, Denham bundles Kong back to New York City, a choice that will lead to more terror, death and a fateful encounter atop the Empire State Building.
The first beast and still the best
King Kong was the Jurassic Park of the 1930s—a special-effects tour de force that featured vicious monsters eating people at every opportunity. As with Jurassic Park, the story is thin, establishing what would become the basic structure of monster movies for decades to come: Here are some folks, here are some monsters, run!
Yet unlike many creature-feature beasts—including the ones in Jurassic Park—Kong himself displays human emotions and needs. He's a sympathetic villain—so much so that when he meets his end, as all monsters must, the feeling isn't one of complete victory, but a bittersweet blend of triumph and tragedy.
Even with this deeper emotional resonance, is it worth three bucks to rent a 70-year-old black-and-white film without a single digital effect? It's all a question of suspension of disbelief. Sure, King Kong looks primitive, even clumsy, and anyone judging it on the basis of visual realism will find it lacking. That said, it's surprising how good the effects are, even surpassing monster flicks that came 25 years later. Through clever use of rear projection (where Kong was projected on a big screen behind the actors) and miniature projection (where the actors were projected onto a tiny screen beside the 18-inch Kong doll) there's a great deal of interaction between Kong and his human snacks.
The film excels at visual storytelling, with long stretches of pure, dialogue-free action. Kong can't speak, of course, but his facial expressions convey a great range of emotion. He's more emotional than some of the human stars of the film—specifically Bruce Cabot in his thankless role as the square-jawed, pessimistic Jack Driscoll.
King Kong proves that a good story is always enjoyable, no matter how it may look. This is an exciting, suspenseful and horrific film that still stands tall after all these years.
