"KING KONG"

• 1933 - ACTION/ADVENTURE...PG Rating...B&W/103 Minutes

• DIRECTOR: Merian C. Cooper

• CAST: Ernest P. Schoedsack, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, Noble Johnson, James Flavin

(Again I must apologize for the quality of the photo!)

• This is an incredible film for it's time. "Beauty and the Beast" has been updated to the twentieth century, and...Oh, what a BEAST! Severely dated, and unfortunately only bad prints seem to exist. Yet this parable of the power of love lives on!

• It's a familiar story, "Boy meets girl, girl meets ape..."! Fay Wray immortalized herself, as the best "screamer" in cinematic history! Several cuts were made to the film after the creation of the notorious "Hayes Office". Fortunately for us, most of those scenes have been re-integrated into modern prints. The film boasted remarkable special effects for its time. (Ray Harryhausen said the film was a major influence on his career.)

• A remake was filmed in 1976. This version has its detracters, but was not as bad as all that! The update was not as enjoyable as the original, but then most remakes aren't. What was disappointing was a myriad of sequels and team-ups! (Mostly from Japan.)

• This film also speaks to a modern audience of the problems of our animal friends. As we encroach upon their natural habitats, we are dooming them to extinction. Our pre-occupation with making the almighty dollar, has blinded us to our responsibility as a thinking, creative species. If such a creature as Kong had truly existed, we would certainly be in deep, giant-monkey "doo-doo".