|
Variety,
March 7, 1933
King Kong
(1933)
Merian C. Cooper-Ernest,
B. Schoedsack production for RKO-Radio release. Adapted by James
Creelman and Ruth Rose from idea conceived by Edgar Wallace and
Merian Cooper, Willis O’Brien, chief technician. Caroll Clark
and Al Herman, art directors. Edward Linden, photog. Fay Wray, Robert
Armstrong, Bruce Cabot featured. At Music Hall and RKO Roxy, N.Y.,
date and date starting March 2. Running time, 96 mins.
| Ann
Redman |
Fay Wray |
 |
| Depham |
Robert
Armstrong |
| Driscoll |
Bruce Cabot |
| Englehorn |
Frank Reicher |
| Weston |
Sam Hardy |
| Native
Chief |
Noble Johnson |
| Second
Mate |
James Flavin |
| Witch
King |
Steve Clemento |
| Lumpy |
Victor
Long |
That it lends
itself so freely and readily to 12-cylinder exploiting is ‘King
Kong’s’ ace in the hole. If properly handled the picture
should gather good grosses in a walk. Film appears to the imagination,
and the exploitation should follow the same trend.
Highly imaginative
and super-goofy, yarn is mostly about a 50-foot ape who goes for
a five-foot blonde. According to the billing the story is ‘from
an idea conceived’ by Merian C. Cooper (who produced and directed
with Ernest B. Schoedsack) and Edgar Wallace. For their ‘idea’
they will have to take a bend in the direction of the late Conan
Doyle and his ‘Lost World’, which is the only picture
to which ‘Kong’ can be compared. Doyle visualized the
existence of prehistoric monsters in some far corner of the modern
world. Cooper and Wallace ‘conceived’ an identical hunch.
The two plots develop in a basically similar manner, although slightly
different as to detail.
But ‘Kong’
is the better picture. It has the added advantage of sound, which
‘Lost World’ missed in 1925. It also has the additional
technical knowledge and experience gained since then by Willis O’Brien
and other offscreen manipulators. O’Brien served as chief technician
for both films.
So purely an
exhibition of studio and camera technology — and it isn’t
much more than that — ‘Kong’ surpasses anything of
its type which has gone before it in commercial film-making., The
work has many flaws, but they’re overcome by the general results.
The errors probably will be overlooked.
It takes a couple
of reels for ‘Kong’ to be believed, and until then it
doesn’t grip. But after the audience becomes used to the machine-like
movements and other mechanical flaws in the gigantic animals on
view, and become accustomed to the phony atmosphere, they may commence
to feel the power. As the story background is constantly implausible,
the mechanical end must fight its own battle for audience confidence.
Once won, it reaches a high pitch of excitement and builds up to
a thrill finish in which the ape almost wrecks little ol’ New
York. Brute is finally picked off by airplanes while doing a balancing
act on the mooring mast of the Empire State.
There are times
when the plot takes advantage of its imaginative status and goes
too far. On these occasions the customers are liable to laugh in
the wrong way. A most tolerant audience at the Music Hall broke
down now and then, but on the whole was exceedingly kind. It seemed
that while a few details were too strong to swallow the picture,
as a whole, got them.
Neither the
story nor the cast gains more than secondary importance, and not
even close. Technical aspects are always on top. The technicians’
two big moments arrive in the island jungle, where King and other
prehistoric creatures reign, and in new York where Kong goes on
a bender.
Besides Kong
in the jungle among other freaks to appear are a triceratops, a
brontosaurus, a tyrannosaurus, a pterodactyl and a 60-foot snake.
Kong battles three of them, including the snake. His first scrimmage
with the tyrannosaurus, which looks like the better known dinosaurs,
and it’s a wrestling match the likes of which is never seen
at the Garden. As an illusion it beats anything that follows, and
there is plenty following. After Kong breaks them apart he picks
up the pieces for a hasty examination and then beats his breast
in token of victory. All he does with the serpent is slap it up
the rock a few times.
In New York,
where he’s on exhibition, the giant ape breaks his bonds, bursts
through the theatre wall and climbs the side of a hotel to recapture
the blonde. He rips up the rest of the town, including an elevated
track and plenty of the citizens with one hand. The girls is held
in the other. He’s careful with the gal, and she’s never
apparently hurt, but always frightened.
When Kong reaches
the top of the empire State he’s stuck. Airplanes snipe at
him and finally get him, but not before he picks one out of the
air like a mosquito and dashes it to earth.
 In
adhering to the proper perspectives the technical crew has never
missed. The illusion of comparative size Is splendid. The errors
arrive when mechanical figures are obviously used in place of the
ape impersonator.
As for a story,
in place of Conan Doyle’s museum expedition, this one concerns
an animal picture specialist, who downs and captures the huge Kong
with gas bombs. But how the ape is shackled and brought to this
country isn’t shown.
Fay Wray is
the blonde who’s chased by Kong, grabbed twice, but finally
saved. It’s a 96-minute screaming session for her, too much
for any actress and any audience. With the blonde still screaming
while in Kong’s palm atop the Empire state, after having screamed
all the way from the first reel, another of the unbelievable facts
is that Kong shouldn’t drop her and look for a non-screamer
— even if he has to settle for a brunet. The light hair is
a change for Miss Wray. Robert Armstrong, as the explorer and Bruce
Cabot, as the blonde’s other boy friend who doesn’t make
her scream, are the remaining principal characters and snowed under
by the technical end.
A gripping and
fitting musical score and some impressive sound effects rate with
the scenery and mechanism in providing ‘Kong’ with its
technical excellence.
While not believing
it, audiences will wonder how it’s done. If they wonder they’ll
talk, and that talk plus the curiosity the advertising should incite
ought to draw business all over. ‘Kong’ mystifies as well
as it horrifies, and may open up a new medium for scaring babies
via the screen.
copyright
© 1933 Variety
|
