"... it was beauty killed the beast..."

Hi, friends and neighbors! Today, we are gonna talk about scary movies. No, no, nothing zombie-related or ultra-gore… at least, not yet, anyway…. Spoiler alert…

Rather, we are gonna go back to the roots of scary movies and talk about the true Golden Era of scary movies. Most people know the basics of the Universal Monsters – Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Phantom of the Opera, The Wolf Man, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Mummy – and there’s absolutely no denying their greatness, but a lot of people forget about one monster who completely flipped the whole “monster” idea on it’s head.

I am talking about “the eighth wonder of the world,” King Kong.

Once upon a time, a wildcat film producer and director named Merian C. Cooper built a reputation for making movies out in the jungle. He and his partner, Ernest B. Schoedsack, were well-known for going into places they had barely even heard of, setting up cameras, and filming whatever they could find. Schoedsack in particular built a reputation for grabbing the camera and aiming it back over his shoulder if lions, tigers, or bears (oh my) charged them. He once filmed a tiger jumping up a tree towards the camera he held, catching said tiger swiping the sole off one of his boots. Yeah, he was a little nuts…

But, on one of those trips, Cooper had an even wilder idea. He had a dream of a giant ape climbing the highest building in the world, fighting airplanes. From there, he worked backwards, trying to put a story together to make that happen. He tried experiments using chimps and model buildings, but they never looked “right.” He took the idea to the various “big studios,” and each one turned him down. When the second-tier studio, R.K.O Radio Pictures, decided to give him some money to flesh out his idea, they had no idea what they were getting into.

Cooper worked with several writers, most notably Edgar Wallace and Shoedsack’s wife, Ruth Rose, to get the story worked, but he could not figure out how to make the giant ape become a reality. Finally, he happened on some early footage of dinosaurs done by Willis O’Brien, a filmmaker who specialized in a technique few others had even heard of – stop-motion animation. He immediately invited O’Brien to his office and explained what he was trying to do. Legend has it that O’Brien sat back in his chair, lit a cigarette, blew some smoke rings, and said, “Yeah, hell, I can do that,” all the while not having a clue how he was going to make it work.

The result was nothing short of a masterpiece, one that, in many ways, redefined the relatively new world of filmmaking.

If you don’t know the story, it revolves around three people and a big ol’ ape. Movie director Carl Denham, played to the utmost by Robert Armstrong, is in dire need of a hit film. He has built a reputation for getting the most dangerous wild animals and jungle natives on film (sound a bit familiar?). He is all set to head out on his next adventure, but he lacks one important thing – a leading lady. He runs into Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), a down-on-her-luck actress, outside a diner, and convinces her this movie of his will make her a star. He cons her into getting on the ship, where she meets Jack Driscoll, a sailor on the ship. Jack watches Denham as he rehearses a scene with Ann, where Denham forces her to scream, “scream like you’ve never screamed before,” and wonders aloud, “What does he expect her to see on this island?”

The island Denham is taking everyone to is uncharted, known to only a slight few as an island full of mythical creatures. When they arrive, they come up on a tribe of natives who seem to worship some huge creature, one that forces the village to build huge walls and blocked gates to keep it at bay. They notice the lovely blonde woman with Denham’s party and decide she needs to be the next sacrifice to whatever beast lies beyond those gates. The natives get aboard the ship and kidnap Ann, and take her back to the village, where she is tied to wooden posts as their sacrifice.

And, then, the big guy himself, King Kong, shows up to take his sacrifice. But, rather than throw her into his mouth and chow down, he takes her in one huge hand, and heads back into the jungle. Driscoll, Denham, and the crew take off after Kong, with no real idea how they will rescue her. I will let you see the wonders the island holds for yourself, but, let’s just say, the rescue crew damn near ends up needing rescuing themselves. Driscoll manages to get Ann away from Kong, who chases the two back to the village, where Denham and what’s left of the crew manage to subdue Kong with gas bombs. Denham decides Kong is what he needs to take back to New York, and somehow, they do so.

When we next see Kong, he is in massive chains and harnesses on a Broadway stage, billed as “Kong – THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD!!!” Denham brings Ann out on stage and invites the press to take photos. The press crowds in, pressing and pushing Ann in their zeal. Kong witnesses this, and, trying to save his “bride” from these monsters with flashbulbs, breaks loose and lays waste to New York City in his quest to find Ann. He does locate her, and takes her to the top of the Empire State Building, the highest point he can find. Planes are called in to end the mess, and, eventually, they shoot Kong enough times to weaken him, and he falls to his death from the Empire State Building.

I know, it sounds so ridiculous in this day and age, but in 1933, when it was released, King Kong took the world by storm. Nobody has ever seen anything like this! People thought the ape was somehow played by a man in a suit, but that didn’t explain how he could hold a grown woman in his hand, fight off T-Rexes and pterodactyls, wipe out trains and buildings, not to mention climb the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING! Kong had to be real! You could see the muscles in his body rippling with every move!

The thing that Cooper and Shoedsack, and Willis O’Brien more than anyone else did, though, that made King Kong stand out against the norm, though? They made the world feel for this giant beast. When you watch Kong, you find yourself rooting FOR the giant ape. And why not? Kong didn’t ask to be kidnapped! He was just biding his days on the island, fighting the monsters he KNEW, living day to day in the wild. He was taken from his home and thrown into this new island of New York, a jungle of skyscrapers and cars and flying “beasts” with guns. And why? Because he wanted to find this beautiful creature he had come to have feelings for. There are several scenes when Kong is incredibly gentle with Ann, placing her safely (he thinks) in a tree before he battles a T-Rex, hiding her in a cave when another dinosaur attacks, softly touching her dress (and removing part of her clothes, which in and of itself was scandalous in 1933). You truly believe Kong has found love for Ann, especially when he realizes she could die on top of the Empire State Building, so he places her gently on the ledge and blocks the airplane’s guns from shooting her, taking barrage after barrage of bullets so she won’t be hurt.

Viewers in 1933 found themselves weeping at the end of this “horror” movie, and they couldn’t quite understand why. And they went back time and time again to see this movie, deep in the heart of the Great Depression, a time when spending money on movies was almost a decision of whether or not you had a meal that day.

I know I have skipped over MANY details, but, honestly, if you have never sat down and actually watched King Kong, I don’t want to spoil anything. Yes, the movie has been remade time and time again, and Kong himself has been pushed into crappy movies where he fought Godzilla, become a Saturday morning cartoon, and countless other efforts that just made him into a joke. But, this original version has so much heart. Forrest J. Ackerman, the founder of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine, once said that, “somehow, Willis O’Brien managed to sew a soul into that three-foot tall puppet.” Ackerman also became the owner of the original puppet, a testament to how much he thought about the movie.

Most people have seen parts of the original movie. It was a staple of the “Million Dollar Movie” packages that showed up on television in the mid-fifties, often shown three or four times a day on the weekends. But to truly appreciate the movie, watch it uncut, with no commercials for foot cream and hair conditioner shoveled into it every nine minutes. Let yourself be drawn into the story, see things through Kong’s eyes. Watch how his fingers touch Ann’s golden-blonde hair, how he delicately sniffs her ragged clothing to catch a whiff of her perfume. It is a stunning piece of work, one that still holds up today.

King Kong can be found on Amazon Prime for $2.99, but several DVD and BluRay “special editions” are out there that contain many documentaries about the making of the movie.

P.S. Once you have seen the original, allow yourself to see Peter Jackson’s remake from a few years back. Jackson is a devout fan of the original, and takes great care of the story, the ape, and the mythos. There are scenes in it that will truly rip your heart out with the underlying emotion shared between Ann and Kong. You won’t be sorry!