#King kong lives for free#
#King kong lives movie#

Even while seeing the joins it's hard not to be charmed by the characterisation of Kong, or the optical bravado of a real life Wray on the top of the Empire State being swapped out for a squirming model as Kong swipes her up, a literal sleight of hand.Ĭamera work and performances are both stiff by contemporary standards, but antiquated clunkiness collides with the artistry and affection put into the film, playful moments like Anne's silent response to Driscoll's lunkish revealing of his feelings, or Kong toying idly with the broken jaw of a defeated T-Rex. Like credulous numbskulls presuming Stonehenge was built with alien teleporters its hard now not to boggle at the fact that Schoedsack, Cooper and O'Brien brought together stop motion, model work, 2D animation and live action in ways that are crude by modern standards but spectacular considering the resources available. Re-watching it now, King Kong remains a marvel both because and in spite of its great age. The effort paid off with critical acclaim and high box office for studio RKO, with King Kong heading back to the cinema for major re-releases into the early 1950s.

The level of craft required to pull off the multiple layers of effects in the film took time, the shoot taking eight months with actors having long gaps between work as they were brought back for different scenes involving complex optical set-ups and props. King Kong was co-directed by Ernest B Schoedsack and Merian C Cooper from an outline developed by thriller writer Edgar Wallace, Schoedsack handled the live-action dialogue scenes while Cooper directed the effects side of the production, led by stop-motion animator Willis O'Brien. It's a film with moments that are genuinely iconic, burned into the collective imagination, Fay Wray forever immortalised as the ultimate damsel in distress, screaming in the grasp of a masculine beast as tall as a house. Kong escapes and kidnaps Anne again, leading to a final confrontation with some biplanes and a long fall from the Empire State Building.īut you skipped those last two paragraphs, didn't you, because you knew the plot already either via the original, the 2005 remake or cultural osmosis through references, tributes and parodies. Having saved the girl and knocked out the beast with gas, the whole gang reconvene in New York City where Denham unveils Kong to a paying audience. There's some action on the island as the crew of the Venture, including Anne's love interest Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) battle the locals, Kong and dinosaurs to rescue Anne. After a tense encounter with said locals, Anne is kidnapped by them and offered up to Kong as a sacrifice. Denham intends to film a spectacle involving Kong, a mysterious god-like presence locked behind a vast wall by the locals, and his new leading lady. Just in case anyone doesn't know the plot: film director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) charters the Venture to take a film crew and literally starving actress Anne Darrow (Fay Wray) to Skull Island, somewhere South West of Sumatra.

#King kong lives for free#

At the time of writing in the UK, it can be streamed for free on the BBC's iPlayer, having had a BBC2 afternoon screening last May. Added to the USA's National Film Registry in 1991, it made the American Film Insitute's list of 100 greatest movies of all time in 1998.

#King kong lives movie#

For a movie of its vintage it retains a contemporary visibility denied many of its peers, lauded for its position in movie history. If you've seen one Hollywood movie from that year though, chances are it's King Kong. Gold Diggers of 1933 and 42nd Street are notable musicals, Sons of the Desert is one of Laurel and Hardy's better known features (to the extent that it gave their fan club its name), and horror fans looking beyond Boris Karloff's more famous monster roles would certainly want to check out The Ghoul, in which he plays a scientist resurrected through ancient Egyptian necromancy. There are a good few Hollywood films from 1933 that are still of interest beyond the circles of academically minded film historians.