King Kong (1933)

Note des utilisateurs:

8.1/10   

Writers:

James Ashmore Creelman (screenplay) and
Ruth Rose (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 avril 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Aventure | Horror

Accroche:

A Monster of Creation's Dawn Breaks Loose in Our World Today!

Plot:

A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star.

Plot Keywords:

Island | Gorilla | Love | New York | Blonde

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

Classic Extravaganza Still Greatest Movie Adventure of all time.

Ensemble

Fay Wray	...	Ann Darrow
Robert Armstrong	...	Carl Denham
Bruce Cabot	...	John Driscoll
Frank Reicher	...	Captain Englehorn
Sam Hardy	...	Charles Weston
Noble Johnson	...	Native Chief
Steve Clemente	...	Witch King (as Steve Clemento)
James Flavin	...	Second Mate Briggs
King Kong	...	The Eighth Wonder of the World

Autre(s) titre(s):

King Ape (USA) (working title)
Kong (USA) (working title)
The Ape (USA) (working title)
The Beast (USA) (working title)
The Eighth Wonder
The Eighth Wonder of the World
King Kong (France) [fr]
King Kong, la huitième merveille du monde (France) [fr]

Durée:

100 min | 104 min (restored version)

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Son:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Classification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (video rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Denmark:15 | USA:Approved (certificate not issued at release) | USA:Not Rated (video release) | Brazil:Livre | Finland:(Banned) (1933) (uncut) | Finland:K-16 (1933) (cut) | South Korea:12 (2003) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | France:U | Germany:6 | Norway:11 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Backlot, Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Anecdotes:

The native village huts were left over from RKO's Bird of Paradise (1932). The Great Wall was part of the Temple of Jerusalem set for Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic The King of Kings (1927). The Great Wall set was later reused in Selznick's The Garden of Allah (1936) and finally redressed with Civil War era building fronts, burned and pulled down by a tractor to film the burning of Atlanta munitions warehouses in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Kong escapes from his bonds in the theater in New York, he leaves the right cuff of his shackles on his wrist. During the subsequent rampage through the city, the cuff is missing in several scattered shots, and in the entirety of the sequence in which Kong destroys the elevated train. That sequence was reportedly conceived, designed, and filmed when the picture came from the editing room at thirteen reels in length, to which producer-director Merian C. Cooper objected superstitiously. It is easy to see how the cuff would be forgotten in such a situation, but the other disappearances remain a mystery.

Guillemet:

Carl Denham: Throw your arms across your eyes and scream, Ann. Scream for your life!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge: (#1.3)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

St. Louis Blues

Classic Extravaganza Still Greatest Movie Adventure of all time.

As a guy whose pushing 52, I'm proud to say that this movie has been a profound influence on my life and is largely instrumental into launching me into a career as an art director. I've seen this movie perhaps over 1,000 times. Before the advent of VHS, I would catch it anywhere in L.A. where there was a revival house. Saw it countless times before the "lost" footage was restored (which puts a competely different spin on the complex character of Kong). I have a rare tape recording of the original Steiner "prologue Music" lasting over ten minutes (dubbed for me by a collector friend) which I don't think has made it onto the excellent Turner/Rhino CD soundtrack. And still I see something new upon each screening. I first saw Kong in 1956 on the local "Million Dollar Movie" show, a weekly feature of KHJ TV-9 - an RKO-General station. I remember the scenes of Kong throwing the "wrong" woman to her death as still intact...as well as a few feet of film where a New York fire engine flips-over after going around the corner (I've never seen that bit since). I was in a film class being taught by Rudy Behlmer at Art Center in 1971 when he matter-of-factly screened the "lost" footage in class (he had gotten access to it). I've seen nitrate prints screened at the L.A. County Museum of Art, UCLA and MOMA. I have seen this film with Fay Wray in attendance. I don't think I've ever missed a screening anywhere locally to the best of my knowledge. What bothers me is that today's audiences may not be able to project themselves back into time and try to relive the thrilling film-going experience circa 1933. They cannot grasp or accept the dialogue or style of acting at face-value; many consider it corny...or over-the-top. Yet a comparison between Kong and say Jurassic Park III finds the latter's dialogue so stiltedly puerile and instantly forgettable that it cannot stand the test of time even in the present, let alone seventy years. In Kong, Bruce Cabot portrays a "natural" mug who plays his part beautifully as an uncouth mate aboard ship suddenly sharing his space with one of the prettiest women of all time (Fay Wray's looks are timeless, and she is still a "hottie" even by today's standards) . Is there any wonder that similarities between Cabot and Harrison Ford as "Indiana Jones" are not coincidental? If Cabot were alive today, he'd be the one earning millions. Robert Armstrong is perfect playing an impresario so full of energy he bursts at the seams. This is the way show people talked during the third decade of the Twentieth Century...full of what they used to call ballyhoo (check out Jimmy Cagney in "Footlight Parade made in the same year for the same kind of high-voltage enthusiasm). Frank Reicher is totally believable as the captain, lending an even greater amount of quasi-realism to the fable. Never discussed is fact that this movie is shot almost documentary-style...it has a mythical "preserved-in-amber" feel about it. It's as if what you are seeing is truly real...folklore-become-fact...and that the scenes unfolding actually happened once upon a time in 1933. Who cannot visit New York City today and NOT think of King Kong on the rampage close to 70 years ago? I urge anyone who has not seen "King Kong" on the big screen to do so. When you hear the any of the remarkable sound effects as you view the film, you will become a convert; for example, just listen to the all-too-real crunching of the Allosaurus' jawbone just before Kong ends its life (a death made all-the-more poignant by the way the carnivore is introduced to the audience-by innocently and realistically SCRATCHING ITS HEAD WITH ITS CLAW as it enters frame before the fight). Absolute Perfection in a movie made up of absolute perfections. I could yammer on and on. But I won't. All I can tell you is that for these and countless other reasons this film will always rate a 10-out-of-10. It is still the Greatest Adventure Movie Of All Time.