40 Feet of Testosterone (King Kong [1933] (DVD))

Name: gerb

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	King Kong [1933] (DVD)
Date:	23/07/02 (230 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Innovative special effects

Disadvantages: It spawned a monster

If you have never seen this film, be prepared for one of the greatest classic adventure stories of all time. This film has everything you need: uncharted island, mysterious superstitions, angry natives, brave adventurers, screaming heroine, monsters, and best of all a big monkey.
This has, for the time it was made, innovative special effects designed by Willis O'Brien who had been experimenting with stop motion animation techniques for nearly twenty years, "King Kong" proving to be the highpoint of his career. As well as stop motion, used for Kong, the T.Rex, giant snake, and various other dinosaurs, glass painting and back projection have been used to good effect to create a three dimensional and realistic jungle for the actors and monsters to move about in.

Looked at simplistically this is your standard love story that is doomed from the start, with the two love rivals played off against each other, one misguided, the other sincere. There is a twist though, one of the potential suitors being a 40 foot ape. If it had worked out for the ape, it is hard to imagine the heroine waiting patiently back at the cave whilst he went out to wrestle a T. Rex or giant snake. This is a film with unrequited love and repressed sexual desires in a love affair that is destined never to be consummated. Scenes of Kong peeling back the heroines clothes whilst she lies unconscious in his hand were considered too racy for 1933 audiences and were cut. These have since been restored. There is also the battle against changing environments; in the jungle, Kong is all powerful, with nothing to fear, but take him out of that situation and put him in New York, he becomes the hunted, dwarfed by the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

The story begins in a New Jersey dockyard, where a ship chartered by the famous adventure filmmaker, Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) sets sail on a mysterious voyage to discover a lost land and to make his latest film. Also on board i
s Denham's newest discovery, Anne Darrow (Fay Wray, who could out-scream Jamie Lee Curtis in a "scream queen" contest) the heroine for his film, the first mate, Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), soon to become a giant ape's rival in love, and the assorted crew members, a more swarthy bunch of reprobates was never seen on the high seas. Denham is keeping quiet about their destination, he is also reticent about revealing the reason for the large amount of explosives and gas bombs he has bought on board.

The voyage itself is uneventful, being used to establish the main characters: Denham as a brash, courageous filmmaker, Anne as the naive "weak" heroine (remember this is 1933), Jack as the brooding hero, and soon to fall in love with Anne, and the crew as fodder for Kong. There are references to what is to come later in the film. Denham wants to make a modern version of Beauty and the Beast and has bought Anne along to add the love interest to his hitherto masculine films. At one point she also plays with the ship's monkey, a precursor of her soon to be fate.

Their destination, known only by Denham, is Skull Island, supposedly somewhere west of Sumatra, legendary and uncharted and never visited by a white man. The only evidence of its existence is through an old map now in Denham's possession. This is the stuff of which legends are made, the ships' skipper, Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher), has heard of the island, of a giant ancient wall and the superstition of something known as Kong. The sense of adventure carries on from the earlier films of producer Merian Cooper, which were documentary based concerning the lives of the indigenous peoples of Iran and Africa.

And there it is, rising out of the mist, Skull Island, the black and white photography adding to the mystery. They can clearly see the great wall (the wall took the place of Atlanta as it burned in "Gone With the Wind") and above the soun
d of the sea they can hear drums and chanting. Loaded with guns, ammo, gas bombs and movie camera, Denham leads a party ashore. There they watch a tribal ceremony in progress, a young girl is dressed as a bride, whilst natives dressed as apes dance round her chanting "Kong, Kong". Seventy years on, this is not one of cinemas more pc moments, the natives depicted as savages, actors blacked up, stereotyped black imagery, and just how comfortable is a coconut bra? But would you believe, they are spotted, but luckily (remember, no white man has been there) the Captain knows their language, and ascertains they wish to "buy" Anne, but believing the worst they beat a hasty retreat.

But the natives are not about to give up. Back on board, we are witness to an excruciatingly painful scene as Jack professes his love for Anne (he's only known her five minutes!). As he is called to the bridge, and she stands looking out to sea wistfully (it is love for her also), the natives snatch her and carry her back to the island to be used in their sacrificial ritual. So, bound hand and foot to an alter outside she waits, a look of terror on her face, as the sound of giant footsteps and growling comes nearer and nearer. And then, crashing through the trees is Kong. I was ten when I first saw this, and it scared me then-but not as much as the sea devils in Dr Who! It certainly scared Anne, who screams, and does not stop, thankfully she does faint, cue Kong pulling at her clothes, a lustful leer on his face.

What follows is a chase by Jack and the crew to rescue Anne, taken to Kong's mountain lair. As Jack achieves this we are treated to some great special effects as Kong battles it out with a T. Rex killing it, gets entangled with a giant snake and crushes a pterodactyl. The crew themselves nonchalantly shoot a triceratops that would have done them no harm, Denham remarking that it was "one of those dinosaurs". No time for preservin
g ecology then? This is also evident in Denham's plan, and explains why he has bought the gas bombs. His intention is to gas Kong and take him back to New York and exhibit him as the "Eight Wonder of the World".

You have to feel sorry for Kong. One minute, he is happy eating the odd native girl at the tribal ritual, the next, he is in chains, being exhibited to a crowd of sensation seeking New York socialites for $20 a throw. No wonder he gets annoyed. When the photographers close in on Anne, he believes they are attacking her and rips off his chains and goes on the rampage, destroying buildings, the elevated railway, dropping people from great heights in search of Anne, the love of his life. And so the scene is set for the final denouement, Anne clasped in his paw, Kong climbs the Empire State Building to confront his destiny, an ancient civilisation battling against modern society and modern fears.

At nearly seventy years old, this film is beginning to show its age somewhat. Some of the camera work is basic - I was conscious of the camera remaining stationary in most of the dialogue scenes, pointing towards the infancy of sound recording. Some of the dialogue comes across as very old-fashioned and stilted- the scene where Jack professes his love for Anne for instance. This is all made up for by the great effects and the storyline. If you are lucky enough to get the chance of seeing it on the big screen (I did recently, one of the joys of living near the National Film Theatre) take it, it is worth it. Seventy years on this still excites.

Summary: