King Kong - The Original on DVD - Digitally Remastered

Aspect ratio: 4:3 Full Frame
Sound: Mono
Year made: 1933
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 96 mins.
Print: Black & white
Genre: Classic, Action, Adventure,,Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
NEW

Fay Wray .... Ann Darrow
Robert Armstrong .... Carl Denham
Bruce Cabot .... John 'Jack' Driscoll
Frank Reicher .... Capt. Englehorn
Sam Hardy .... Charles Weston

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you any more, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive - a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World".

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. The gorilla is captured and brought to New York. In the middle of a show in Broadway, King Kong escapes, bringing panic to the city.


Fay Wray claimed that she personally insisted that her character be a blond, and personally chose her wig at the Max Factor shop in Los Angeles.

The project went through numerous title changes during production, including "The Beast", "The Ape", "King Ape", and "Kong". The models of King Kong were only 18 inches high.
King Kong's roar was a lion's and a tiger's roar combined and run backwards.
There was more than one model of Kong used in the film. There are considerable differences between the Kong on Skull Island and the Kong in New York. For instance, the Skull Island Kong has a longer face, which the filmmakers thought made the ape look "too human".
Kong's "official" height (from the posters) is 50 feet. He was closer to 19 feet tall in the jungle and close to 25 feet when in New York City.

Originally, there was supposed to be an overhead shot of Kong falling from the empire state building. This was accomplished by adding Kong in post-production, falling towards the ground. Real footage of the building was used, but when the producers watched scene they realized that viewers could see through Kong, especially as he passed the darker ledges, so it was cut. This clip has made its way into documentaries on the film but, more commonly, can be found in stills of the scene.

This original version was released four times between 1933 and 1952, and each release saw the cutting of additional scenes. Though many of the outtakes (including the censored sequence in which Kong peels off Fay Wray's clothes) were restored in 1971, one cut scene has never been found. It is the clip in which Kong shakes four sailors off a log bridge, causing them to fall into a ravine where they are eaten alive by giant spiders. When the movie (with spider sequence intact) was previewed in San Bernardino, California, in late January 1933, members of the audience screamed and either left the theatre or talked about the grisly sequence throughout the remainder of the film. Said the film's producer, Merian C. Cooper, "It stopped the picture cold, so the next day back at the studio, I took it out myself."

Sensing a huge hit from industry buzz, MGM offered to buy "King Kong" outright from RKO for $1.072 million (some $400,000 over its negative cost), figuring the little studio was reeling from losing $10+ million in 1932. RKO was smart to decline the offer; the film smashed attendance records nationwide and ended up grossing $1.761 million during its initial release. RKO would periodically, and extremely profitably, re-release the movie through the 1950s. The film grossed $90,000 its opening weekend - the biggest opening ever at the time.
The success of this film is often credited for saving RKO from bankruptcy.

Was voted the 47th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
The final line "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast" was voted the 84th greatest movie line by the American Film Institute.

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