It's Cinemassacre's Kongathon!
No, "Thon", not "Thong".
Let's do this! No Monkeying around!
I'm gonna review all the Kong Movies leading up to Skull Island on March 10th, so keep checkin' until then!
Here we go!
First up today we're talkin' about the classic Duology.
That's right, I said Duology, meaning the first two films from RKO, both released in 1933.
I've already covered both these films during Monster Madness over the years.
Now it's time to dust them off, so you can now see them on YouTube.
Enjoy!
It's about time King Kong gets a Monster Madness.
I'm ready to praise the everlasting shit outta his big hairy ass.
I can't possibly praise this film enough.
There's no way I can do it justice.
So what? Should I talk about the plot?!
Well, just for the hell of it, here's the gist:
Carl Denham's a filmmaker on the voyage to Skull Island,
an uncharted, mystical land, where prehistoric creatures run amok.
He brings with him a young lady named Ann Darrow who he casts as lead actress.
But the natives of the island capture her as a sacrifice to their god, the giant ape Kong.
But Kong finds a unique interest in her and carries her off into the jungle.
Denham and his crew venture in to get her back.
In the end, Kong's captured and brought to New York City, where he escapes, retrieves Ann
and climbs the Empire State Building in one of the most iconic finales of all time.
This is the stuff in which legends are born.
I saw it when I was a little kid and I was never the same after it.
I found out later that I was not alone.
It seems every filmmaker from Ray Harryhausen to Peter Jackson was inspired by it as well!
And I saw it in the 80's.
I can't even imagine how revolutionary it was back in 1933!
Everything about it is entertaining. The jungle has such a magical quality.
I love staring into the background just knowing that all that stuff was crafted by hand.
But the more times I see it and the more I analyse it
the more I fall in love with this movie!
I highly recommend getting the double DVD release.
On the second disc there's a seven part documentary detailing the making of Kong.
As you probably know, King Kong and all the dinosaurs are stop motion,
but it's hard to imagine the hard work that went into it.
To animate one minute worth of film could've taken a houndred and fifty hours.
And to combine the live actors with the stop motion footage they had to invent all these new techniques:
Sometimes the actors were performing in front of a rear projection.
Other times the two pieces of footage were composited together.
And other times, the scenes with the real actors were projected into the background frame by frame,
while the stop motion creatures were being animated around them.
Also, there were full size parts of Kong, such as the hand, the face and the feet.
For example, the scenes where Kong stomping people into the ground or putting them in his mouth.
There's also a great moment on the DVD in which Peter Jackson company
recreate one of the movie's lost sequences, the spider pit scene.
Using the same crude techniques, these modern filmmakers found it to be a huge challenge
and that really says something!
For 1933 it's just unbelievable what they accomplished.
Still to this day, a lot of it's a mystery.
It's not like now when a movie comes out - there's documentary footage and DVD bonus features up the ass!
You know every last detail of how a movie's made.
But back then, they knew better to keep a lot of it secret.
It was more for the art and not just the money.
Not to mention, we don't have the luxury of speaking to Willis O'Brien or any of the people associated with it.
And let's not forget the sound design, which is equally one of the most important parts that make a movie!
You have Kong roaring, which was a combination of different animal growls.
You have a fully orchestrated musical score and it's all blended together so well!
And don't forget:
This is a time when sound movies were still in their infancy!
I can't think of anything that even comes close to being this groundbreaking!
In film school, professors shove Citizen Kane up your ass and tell you it's the best movie ever made.
Well, that too is a very monumental film and pioneered a lot of new techniques.
But look at Kong nearly a decade before it!
Phenomenal visual effects, phenomenal soundtrack and a timeless story of beauty and beast.
It's an excellent film on every level!
Why can't THAT be the best movie ever made?!
It shows fantasy and imagination. And that's what movies are all about.
I'm bowing down and my balls are clapping.
But now, let's get to the sequel!
Yeah! The Sequel! Son of Kong!
I bet many people didn't even know this movie existed.
That's because we're always too busy talking about the original.
It's one of the first monster sequels ever made and is the first "Son of"- movie.
Following in his tradition would be Son of Frankenstein, Son of Godzilla, Son of Blob and even...
...uhm...if you wanna count that...
After King Kong opened as a smash hit in New York in March 1933,
Merian C. Cooper, who directed it alongside Ernest B. Schoedsack,
went to meet with the RKO studio executives and said he wanted to make a sequel
and that he wanted it even bigger and better than the original.
The RKO board told 'em: "That's fine, but under certain conditions..."
The film would have HALF the budget of the original
and be finished and released by DECEMBER, only ten months away!
And by the time they started filming, they had only nine months!
NINE MONTHS to finish the whole movie!
The reasons were simple:
The studio wanted to have the first movie still fresh in people's minds.
Because back then, the idea of doing a sequel was a new thing.
They didn't want people to forget about the original.
They also didn't want other competitors to come along first and make their own King Kong rip-offs.
And they also wanted it in time for the christmas holiday season.
To these knuckleheads all that was more important than making a good movie.
Luckily, the creative team did the best they could.
It's no masterpiece, but it's much better than you'd expect.
The plot feels like a natural continuation of the story.
It has many of the same actors and feels just like the first movie is still going.
It picks up almost immediately where it left off with Carl Denham suffering from his share of hardships
and paying the price for bringing King Kong to New York City.
After the giant ape made his rampage through town, everybody is sueing him for damages.
He meets up again with the ship captain Englehorn, who's partially responsible
and they both go out and try to make some money shipping cargo.
The movie continues at a leisurely pace and takes some time before the real action starts,
very much like the first movie.
My favourite standalone scene is when they stop to see a little show
and part of the performance involves real-life monkeys playing instruments.
It's a funny contrast to the giant monkey that caused all the destruction, but aside from that...it's simply hilarious!
Apparently, the show is tanking really bad, but I don't get it! This is great!
There's this one little awkward pause where the monkeys all stop for a moment:
It's just a funny unnecessary scene with an awkward tone that I can't decribe.
The show is a small production run by one man and his daughter Hilda.
Denham gets to know her
and the dialogue between them is rather charming and humorous.
-"Did you ever catch a monkey?"
-"Did I ever..? Heh heh, lady you'd be surprised..."
Her father is an alcoholic who gets drunk one night with a shady fellow named Helstrom.
After insulting him, Helstrom gets angry and in a drunken fit murders the father.
Turns out Helstrom was the man who originally gave Denham the map to Skull Island where they found Kong.
Now he's telling them that he knows of a treasure that's hidden there.
While it's the last thing they want to do, Denham and Englehorn need the money badly,
so they agree to take Helstrom with them to return to Skull Island to find the treasure.
Really, Helstrom is a crooked scoundrel who is using them.
Hilda stows away aboard the ship and is out for revenge against Helstrom for killing her dad.
It's a fairly complicated scenario,
but all this character development is crucial to what makes the film so entertaining.
Next thing, they're all thrown into another adventure, running from giant monsters
and meeting the baby Kong, who they find stuck in quicksand.
Denham helps the poor ape out and they become friends.
In return, little Kong helps fight off all the other hostile beasts.
Willis O'Brien is back doing the special effects.
This is the biggest area where the movie suffers unfortunately.
The stop motion is still very impressive, but you can tell it's being rushed
and there's some cartoony moments.
Lots of the model creatures are the same exact models recycled from the first movie,
like the brontosaurus and the styracosaurus that was cut the first time around.
Even baby Kong is made from the armature of one of the original Kong models.
Still, there's some new creatures.
Considering these special effect scenes had to be made in less than nine months, they're very good.
It's a shame this movie is so overlooked.
Any negative reception it's had is because nobody's given it a chance
or has unreasonably high hopes that it will be as good as the original.
The real shame is that had it not been rushed, it could've been.
The characters are all great, even down to Hilda's drunken father, who's only a small part.
Robert Armstrong is the real star here.
He's an excellent actor and is even better in this movie than he was in the first one.
His character is developed further. Denham's learned from his mistakes. He does things that redeem himself:
He saves the baby Kong and he's actually very likable this time.
The movie is more about the characters than it is about the monster scenes.
For the budget and time constraints it was wise they didn't try to top the first movie.
This one is more humble and has a sense of humor.
So there you have the classic Kong Duology
although you can sort of call it a trilogy if you count Mighty Joe Young from 1949.
The plot is unrelated, but it has the same creative team
with director/producers Ernest Schoedsack and Merian Cooper.
It has effects by Willis O'Brien
and stars Robert Armstrong, who is not playing Carl Denham, but is a character very similar.
It's the only film that comes close to being as awesome as the original. It's another masterpiece.
I reviewed it last year during Monster Madness X. If you wanna see that, it's already on YouTube so check it out!
And next time, we get into the Toho Duology...