Monday, July 1, 2013

King Kong (1933)

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper
My rating: 4 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

An enthusiastic producer of "jungle movies" picks up a homeless and starving Fay Wray to be the star of his next movie. They set sail with a crew of rough sailors into unknown waters. A map leads them to a fog enshrouded island topped by a skull-shaped mountain and lined with a huge man-made wall. They find natives performing a sacrificial ceremony, who set their sights on Fay for their next offering. Kong makes off to his cliff dwelling with Fay in hand, fighting off several dinosaurs, and men, along the way. Kong is eventually captured and brought back to New York where the producer puts him on display in chains. He escapes and climbs the Empire State Building for the famous finale.  The story, too often a hokey melodrama, takes a second seat to the real star: the stop motion animation by Willis O'Brien. As primitive as it may be, it has an organic quality that is sorely lacking in today's CGI-dominated spectacles.

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