A Quick Look: KING KONG (1933)

   It really is incredible. Over 80 years old, and still one of the single finest movies ever made. It continues to inspire young men to enter the movie business, and has yet to be equaled by the various remakes and sequels (upon a recent re-screening I discovered why, as the original lacks the cynicism of the remakes). Everything about the film is just perfect, so there's no where to go but down. Much like Kong himself, actually. The plot follows he-man movie-maker Carl Denham as he plans to shoot a picture on a lost island where the natives worship some very large creature... We've all seen it, of course, and if you haven't then remedy that right away! The film was such a smash that RKO rushed out a sequel that very same year, SON OF KONG. Kong's effects man Willis O'Brien tried for years to get a third film off the ground, in which Kong would face off against a new Frankenstein monster! This idea eventually morphed into KING KONG VS GODZILLA in 1962 (the Japanese release) and '63 (Universal International's version). Of course, KING KONG has been remade under the same title twice (as well as as an animated picture titled THE MIGHTY KONG), but the original remains king. As noted, this is largely because the original film is pure escapism while the reworkings stained for relevancy. Also of note is that the original Kong is a monster, while both remakes cast Kong as a sympathetic (at least so far as the writers were concerned) beast. One can learn much by comparing the various versions of the story, to see how the first one did right what the later films did wrong. Another telling aspect of this is that the human cast of the original were likeable characters rather than politically-charged morons. Small wonder a supposed relic of an earlier age remains a much more satisfying adventure than the products of lesser hands banking on the memories of what remains one of filmdom's greatest epics.