Director Merian C. Cooper (uncredited), Ernest B. Schoedsack (uncredited)
Starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot
Rated PG
Score 5/6

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. He is then captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.

Given that I have been wading in the shallows of Legendary Entertainment’s Monsterverse and that I have recently reviewed the rebooted King Kong movie, Kong: Skull Island I thought that it was only right that I watched the movie that gave us the original gorilla back in 1933, King Kong. Given King Kong’s status as an iconic movie I had a fair idea of the direction that the plot was going to go given the amount of times that the movie has been referenced or parodied without having actually watched the movie. It should also be noted that with the recent reboot there a total of 3 remakes that where released in 1976, 2005 and 2017. It should also be noted that the 2017 has practically nothing to do with the plot of the original movie.
Personally I thought that it was interesting that the movie started with an overture, it’s an example of the things that modern cinema audiences are missing out on. It was also kind of interesting that given the movie’s runtime the iconic sequence of Kong running amuck in New York was done in twenty minutes. Also, some of the moments on the island where not as epic as I thought that they would have been, though I suppose back in 1933 they probably would have been.
I loved how Robert Armstrong delivered his lines as Carl Denham. Armstrong’s rapid-fire delivery was like listening to early recordings of the Australian accent from before world war 2. Fay Wray as Ann Darrow was clearly the damsel in distress for the movie though it was good to see that she was more than just the screamer and it was good to see that she had a moment or two where she stood up to the male characters.

A small piece of trivia for all of the Australians out there King Kong was released in Australia on 6 January 1953, 20 years after is theatrical release in the USA.