A classic, monster movie reaches its 90th-anniversary on March 2: King Kong!
Everyone knows the fable. It's part of Americana and global folklore, and its juxtaposing parts are far too amazing, far too thrilling to fade from the pop-cultural consciousness.
Kong's grab of Ann Darrow is both surreal and sensual; his fight with the T-Rex, thrilling beyond belief; and his ascent to the top of the Empire State Building (where he swats at a squadron of biplanes with his wee lady nearby), one of the most imaginative moments ever to kiss celluloid.
The movie is also a unique retelling of Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast, injected with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, though wrought with enough harrowing suspense to set one's hair on edge from beginning to end, thanks in no small part to Max Steiner's pulse-pounding score, and jammed with allegorical insinuations that prompt discussion to this day.
King Kong is the brainchild of directors/producers Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper. Cooper conceived the story with Edgar Wallace, James Ashmore Creeland and Leon Gordon, though Schoedscak's spouse, Ruth Rose (an Ann Darrow prototype in her own right) is said to have had the most influence on the tale's construction. (She went on to script Son of Kong, released later the same year, and in 1949, Mighty Joe Young.)
The cast is as perfect as one could hope, with the drop-dead gorgeous Fay Wray as the curvy, fair-haired Ann Darrow; Robert Armstrong as ambitious-to-a-fault moviemaker, Carl Denham; Bruce Cabot as heroic first mate, Jack Driscoll; Frank Reicher as practical Captain Englehorn; Nobel Johnson as an adamant Skull Island chief; Sam Hardy as Denham's concerned, business buddy, Charles Weston; and Victor Wong as the affable ship's cook, Charlie.
Willis O'Brien brought Kong to life through stop-motion animation, from models sculpted by Marcel Delgado. Unlike the fast-as-hell CGI characterizations that often populate movies today, Kong is nuanced, from his facial twitches to his bodily sways and punches: a credible, multilayered entity with tons of personality to spare. If one should ever have the good fortune to see the enormous ape on the big screen (as I have), one will understand why he holds no equal. (But even in small-screen samplings, the proof in the pudding can't be denied.)
I love Kong with all my savage heart and soul. Though his 90th mark isn't as significant as his 100th will be, any cause to celebrate him, and the movie that made him a cinematic legend, is enough for me to say, "Happy Anniversary, my big, hairy pal!" You've aged well, Kong, and without any question, like vintage wine, you'll continue to grow ever greater with the progression of time.
