KING KONG

I'm reviewing King Kong produced and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, staring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot from 1933 so I am sure they are all dead by now. The three main characters in the story are Carl Denham, Jack Driscoll, and Ann Darrow. Carl Denham (played by Robert Armstrong) is a movie directer who is inspired to capture real settings in his films. Jack Driscoll (played by Bruce Cabot) is a young film crew member who falls in love with Ann Darrow. Ann Darrow (played by Fay Wray) is found by Carl Denham on the street, where he takes one look at her and is convinced that must be in his next film. The plot is that the movie crew sets out to an exotic island for their shoot, where they learn is home to a danger named Kong. Once at the island the crew angers natives by disrupting a ritual they are performing for kong, the natives capture Ann and tie her up and leave her as a gift for kong. Then the crew sets out into the jungle in hope to save Ann from Kong the gargantuan Gorilla, the crew comes across many other enormous dinosaurs on there way to Ann. The crew eventually is able to get Ann, and they also knock out Kong with their gas bombs. They bring Kong back home, and let the public come and see him as the eighth wonder of the world, but Kong breaks free to terrorize the city, until he is gunned down by airplanes.

King Kong was a pretty unrealistic story to begin with, but it didn't help that Kong looked like he was made out of clay, and never appeared to be the same size. The setting of the jungle was unconvincable with some tress and branches, and then a painting of a jungle in the background. There wasn't much acting in the movie because most scenes were of Kong fighting dinosaurs, but what acting there was, was very convincing, and believable. The dialogue was also appropriate which helped the unrealistic story of Kong seem more believable, however there was one line in the movie that brought it down, it was after the whole crew had been looking at a giant foot print in the mud for about 10 seconds and Carl Says "Yeah thats a track alright".

I am guessing that at this time when the film was made (1933) that there were not many cinematic techniques used, at least you would get that impression from watching this. You could find a few scenes where the camera would pan the jungle as it followed a character, or some low angle shots looking up at Kong to make him appear powerful, and a couple times where deep focus was used to show more than one important thing going on. All of the scenes had high key lighting , except for one, which was a scene taking place at night when the crew was watching the mysterious natives, whose fires stood out as the only light in the black of the night. The final scene faded out, but other than that there were only cuts between shots. The movie also had energetic movie played when ever Kong was on the loose, which made it more exciting to watch.