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King Kong (1933 film)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Films

                         King Kong
     Directed by   Merian C. Cooper
                   Ernest B. Schoedsack
     Produced by   Merian C. Cooper
                   Ernest B. Schoedsack
                   David O. Selznick (executive producer)
     Written by    Merian C. Cooper (story)
                   Edgar Wallace (story)
                   James Ashmore Creelman (screenplay)
                   Ruth Rose (screenplay)
      Starring     Fay Wray,
                   Robert Armstrong,
                   Bruce Cabot
      Music by     Max Steiner
   Cinematography  Eddie Linden
                   J.O. Taylor
                   Vernon Walker
   Distributed by  RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
   Release date(s) March 2, 1933 (U.S. release)
    Running time   104 minutes
      Language     English
     Followed by   The Son of Kong
                  All Movie Guide profile
                       IMDb profile

   King Kong is a landmark 1933 Hollywood horror- adventure film in
   black-and-white about a gigantic prehistoric gorilla named Kong.

   The film was made by RKO and was written originally for the screen by
   Edgar Wallace, Ruth Rose, and James Ashmore Creelman from a concept by
   Merian C. Cooper. A novelization of the screenplay actually appeared
   before the film, in 1932, adapted by Delos W. Lovelace, and contains
   descriptions of scenes not in the movie.

   The film was directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and
   starred Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong. It is notable for Willis
   O'Brien's ground breaking stop-motion animation work, Max Steiner's
   musical score, and actress Fay Wray's performance as the ape's
   improbable love interest. King Kong premiered in New York City on March
   2, 1933.

Influences

   King Kong was influenced by the " Lost World" literary genre, in
   particular Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912) and Edgar Rice
   Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot (1918), which depicted remote and
   isolated jungles teeming with dinosaur life.

   In the early 20th century few zoos had monkey exhibits so there was
   popular demand to see them on film. William S. Campbell specialized in
   monkey-themed films with Monkey Stuff and Jazz Monkey in 1919, and
   Prohibition Monkey in 1920. Kong producer Schoedsack had earlier monkey
   experience directing Chang in 1927 (with Cooper) and Rango in 1931,
   both of which prominently featured monkeys in real jungle settings.

   Capitalizing on this trend "Congo Pictures" released the hoax
   documentary Ingagi in 1930, advertising the film as "an authentic
   incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice of a living
   woman to mammoth gorillas!". Ingagi was an unabashed black exploitation
   film, immediately running afoul of the Hollywood code of ethics, as it
   implicitly depicted black women having sex with gorillas, and baby
   offspring that looked more ape than human. The film was an immediate
   hit, and by some estimates it was one of the highest grossing movies of
   the 1930s at over $4 million. Although producer Merian C. Cooper never
   listed Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it's long been held
   that RKO green-lighted Kong because of the bottom-line example of
   Ingagi and the formula that "gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals
   enormous profits".

   The special effects were influenced by the unfinished 1931 film
   Creation.

Plot

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The film starts off in New York City during the depths of the Great
   Depression (early 1930s). Carl Denham, a film director famous for
   shooting 'animal pictures' in remote and exotic locations is unable to
   find an actress to star in his newest project and so is forced to
   wander the streets searching for a suitable woman. He chances upon a
   poor girl, Ann Darrow, who has been caught trying to steal an apple by
   a greengrocer. Saying "Here's a buck, now scram" to the proprietor,
   Denham makes Ann's acquaintance and when she, through extreme hunger,
   faints into his arms (at which moment her great beauty strikes him) he
   buys her a sandwich and cup of coffee and offers her a job starring in
   his new film. Although Ann is apprehensive and seems to question
   Denham's exact intentions, she has nothing to lose and, after
   assurances that Denham is "on the level", agrees. They set sail the
   following morning on the freighter Venture, getting out of New York
   harbour just ahead of the authorities.

   Whilst on the ship with its all-male crew, first mate Jack Driscoll
   complains Ann is constantly getting in the way. Denham, after
   maintaining secrecy for much of the trip, tells the Venture's captain,
   Englehorn, they're searching for an island uncharted on any normal map.
   He says that two years earlier a skipper gave him the one map on which
   it is charted, having received it from a native of Kong's island who
   had been swept out to sea. Denham then asks Englehorn and Driscoll,
   "Have you ever heard of... Kong?", describing it as something
   monstrous, a legend of vague fear. The two exchange looks making it
   clear they are wondering if Denham is of completely sound mind.

   Despite his declarations that women have no place on board ships, Jack
   is obviously becoming attracted to Ann. Denham takes note and informs
   Driscoll he has enough troubles without the complications of a seagoing
   love affair. "Love affair! You think I'm gonna fall for any dame?",
   asks Driscoll, who then reminds Denham of his toughness in past
   adventures. Denham replies "...you're a pretty tough guy, but if Beauty
   gets you...". Pressed for elaboration, Denham hints at the movie's
   major theme by saying, "It's the idea of my picture. The Beast was a
   tough guy too. He could lick the world. But when he saw Beauty, she got
   him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked
   him. Think it over, Jack."

   As the Venture moves through the fog surrounding Kong's island the crew
   hear drums in the distance. They finally arrive at the island's shore
   and see the native village, which is located on a peninsula, cut off
   from the bulk of the island by an enormous and ancient wall. Going
   ashore, the crew encounters the natives, who are about to hand over a
   girl to Kong as a ritual sacrifice. Although Denham, Englehorn, Jack,
   Ann and a number of crewmen are hiding behind foliage, the native chief
   spots them and approaches threateningly. Captain Englehorn has already
   noticed that the natives speak a language similar to the Nias
   islanders, a tongue he has some familiarity with. At Denham's urging,
   the Captain makes friendly overtures to the chief and to the leading
   "medicine man". When these two get a clear look at Ann the chief begins
   speaking and gesticulating with great energy. According to Englehorn
   they are saying "Look at the golden woman!". In keeping with the
   coarseness of the time, Denham quips "Yeah, blondes are kind of scarce
   around here." (Oddly, the islanders are plainly of sub-Saharan African
   origin despite the island's location in Indonesia). The chief proposes
   to swap six native women for Ann, an offer Denham delicately declines
   as he and his party edge away from the scene, assuring the chief
   through Englehorn that they will "be back tomorrow to make friends".

   Back on the Venture, Jack and Ann openly express their love for one
   another. When Jack is called to the captain's quarters, Ann is captured
   by a stealthy contingent of natives in an outrigger canoe, held
   captive, and handed over to Kong in a ceremony; when Kong emerges from
   the jungle, he is revealed to be a giant gorilla. The Venture crew
   returns to the village and takes control of the wall from the natives;
   a portion of the crew then goes after Kong, encountering an aggressive
   stegosaurus and a carnivorous brontosaurus (in real life, both species
   were relatively inoffensive herbivores).

   Up ahead in the jungle, Kong places Ann in the cleft of a dead tree. He
   then doubles back and confronts the pursuing crewmembers while they are
   crossing a ravine by way of an enormous moss covered log and shakes
   them off, killing all except for Driscoll and Denham. Meanwhile, a
   Tyrannosaurus rex is about to attack Ann; Kong rushes back and a long
   struggle between the two titans ends when Kong snaps the T. rex's jaw,
   including the muscles attaching it to the skull.Then a snake attacks
   and Kong kills it. He takes Ann up to his mountaintop cave. During this
   time, Kong inspects his blonde prize and begins to caress her, and
   slowly tears off pieces of her dress. Just as he strips Ann down to her
   slip, Jack interrupts the proceedings by knocking over a boulder. The
   gorilla leaves her alone and investigates the cause of the noise. Then,
   a pterodactyl comes swooping from the sky and clutches Ann in its
   talons. Another fight ensues and the pterodactyl is defeated. While
   Kong is thus distracted, Jack rescues Ann and takes her back to the
   wall. Denham declares that they can make a fortune if they can get Kong
   back to New York; since they've got something the gorilla wants, the
   men can lure him. But Jack insists Ann is something Kong won't get
   again. Kong then breaks through the large door in the wall and rampages
   through the native village, killing many of the inhabitants. Denham
   hurls a gas bomb, knocking Kong unconscious, whereupon he exults in the
   opportunity to take the giant back to New York as an exhibit: "He's
   always been King of his world. But we'll teach him fear! We're
   millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you. Why, in a few
   months, it'll be up in lights on Broadway: 'Kong — the Eighth Wonder of
   the World!'"

   The next scene begins with those very words in lights on a theater
   marquee. Along with hundreds of curious New Yorkers, Denham, Driscoll
   and Ann are in evening wear for the gala event. As the curtain lifts we
   see a manacled, much subdued Kong displayed on the stage. Yet his sheer
   size and power sets many in the audience on edge, including an elderly
   gentleman who must be restrained back into his seat. Denham assures
   them they are safe, "Don't be alarmed ladies and gentlemen. Those
   chains are made of chrome steel". All goes well until photographers,
   using the blinding flashbulbs of the era, begin snapping shots of Ann
   and Jack, who are by now engaged to marry. Under the impression that
   the flashbulbs are attacking Ann, Kong breaks his chains and escapes
   from the theatre. He rampages through the city streets, destroying an
   elevated train and killing a number of citizens.

   He then manages to find and abduct Ann from a hotel room and carries
   her up the Empire State Building. By this time, the authorities have
   summoned four Navy biplanes to shoot Kong down. The ape gently sets Ann
   down on the observation deck and climbs atop the dirigible mooring mast
   (which was later replaced with an antenna), trying to fight off the
   planes. Despite being able to destroy one of them, Kong is no match for
   modern technology; gunned down, he crashes to his death in the street
   below. Denham rushes up, and a New York City cop remarks, "Well Mr.
   Denham, the airplanes got him," whereupon Denham muses, "Oh, no, it
   wasn't the airplanes; it was beauty killed the beast."

Cast

     * Fay Wray as Ann Darrow
     * Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham
     * Bruce Cabot as John 'Jack' Driscoll
     * Frank Reicher as Capt. Englehorn
     * Sam Hardy as Charles Weston
     * Noble Johnson as Native Chief
     * Steve Clemento as Witch King (as Steve Clemento)
     * James Flavin as Second Mate Briggs

Significance

   King Kong was the first important Hollywood film to have a thematic
   music score, rather than background music, courtesy of a promising
   young composer, Max Steiner.

   It was also the first hit film to offer a life-like animated central
   character in any form. Much of what is done today with CGI animation
   has its conceptual roots in the stop motion model animation that was
   pioneered in Kong. Willis O'Brien, credited as "Chief Technician" on
   the film, has been lauded by later generations of film special effects
   artists as an outstanding original genius of founder status.

Censorship

   The first version of the film was apparently screened to a sample
   audience in San Bernardino, California, in late January, 1933, before
   the official release. The film at that time contained a scene in which
   Kong shakes four men off a log into a crevasse where they are eaten
   alive by a giant spider, a giant crab, a giant lizard, and an octopoid.
   The spider-pit scene caused members of the audiences to scream and some
   left the theatre. After the preview, the film's producer, Merian C.
   Cooper, cut the scene. However, a memo written by Merian C. Cooper,
   recently revealed on a King Kong documentary, indicates that the scene
   was cut because it slowed the film down, not because it was too
   horrific. According to King Kong cometh, the scene did not get past the
   Motion Picture Board of Censors and that audiences only claim to have
   seen the sequence. On the 2005 DVD, it is not mentioned about the
   sequence being in the preview screening. Stills from the scene exist,
   but the scenes themselves remain unfound to this day. It is mentioned
   on the 2005 DVD by Doug Turner, that Merian C. Cooper, the director,
   usually relegated his outtakes and deleted scenes to the incinerator (a
   regular practice in all movie productions for decades), so many have
   presumed that the Lost Spider Pit Sequence unfortunately met this fate
   . Director Peter Jackson, and his crew of special effects technicians
   at Weta Workshop, created an imaginative reconstruction for the 2005
   DVD release of the film (the scene was not spliced into the film but is
   intercut with original footage to show where it would have occurred,
   and is part of the DVD extras). The scene is also recreated in their
   2005 remake, with most men surviving the initial fall, but all except
   Jack, Carl and Jimmy are killed after a long battle.

   King Kong was released four times between 1933 and 1952. All of the
   releases saw the film cut for censorship purposes. Scenes of Kong
   eating people or stepping on them were cut, as was his peeling off of
   Ann's dress. Many of these cuts were restored for the 1976 theatrical
   release after an uncensored print was discovered in the United Kingdom
   (which was not covered by the American Production Code).

Reception

Critical reaction

   The film received mostly positive but some negative reviews on its
   first release. Variety concluded "after the audience becomes used to
   the machine-like movements and other mechanical flaws in the gigantic
   animals on view, and become accustomed to the phony atmosphere, they
   may commence to feel the power." The New York Times found it a
   fascinating adventure film: "Imagine a fifty-foot beast with a girl in
   one paw climbing up the outside of the Empire State Building, and after
   putting the girl on a ledge, clutching at airplanes, the pilots of
   which are pouring bullets from machine guns into the monster's body".

   More recently, Roger Ebert wrote in his Great Films review that the
   effects are not up to modern standards, but "there is something ageless
   and primeval about "King Kong" that still somehow works."

Awards

   The now classic film was not nominated for any Academy Awards, although
   it's reasonable to speculate that it could have been nominated for
   Special Effects for its many groundbreaking techniques, if the award
   had existed at the time. As it was, however, the Special Effects
   category would not be introduced until 1939, with The Rains Came
   receiving the honour.

   The film was selected for preservation in the United States National
   Film Registry in 1991.

Famous and Deleted scenes

Famous scenes

   The film includes a number of scenes that have become iconic,
   including:
     * The native ceremony for the "bride" of Kong.
     * The crew being hunted by a carnivorous Brontosaurus-like creature.
     * Kong shaking the crew off a fallen tree over a chasm.
     * Kong battling an Tyrannosaurus-like creature.
     * Kong battling a Plesiosaur-like creature.
     * Kong's fight with a giant Pteranodon-like creature.
     * Kong attacking the native village.
     * Screaming Ann Darrow (Wray) being held in Kong's giant hand. Later
       in life, Wray named her autobiography On the Other Hand ( ISBN
       0-312-02265-4) in memory of her screaming in Kong's grip.
     * Kong's escape and rampage in New York.
     * In the finale Kong carries a screaming Ann to the top of the Empire
       State Building but is gunned down by a swarm of helldiver biplanes.

Deleted scenes

   Known deleted, censored, or never-filmed scenes (some restored or
   reconstructed today).
     * Kong battles three triceratops. Unfilmed but planned.
     * The sauropod more violently kills three sailors in the water.
     * A styracosaur chases the sailors onto the log. Unknown if this was
       filmed or cut later.
     * When Kong drops the log down the chasm, four surviving sailors are
       eaten alive by a giant spider, an octopus-like insect, a giant
       scorpion/crab, and a giant crocodile/lizard. When Merian C. Cooper
       showed the film to a preview audience with the scene intact,
       viewers were either frightened, scared out of the theatre, or
       wouldn't stop talking about the scene. Ultimately, Cooper cut the
       scene. When asked later, he claimed that he cut the scene due to
       pacing.
     * Kong pulls off Ann's clothes and smells them. Censored for the
       1930s rerelease, now in every official print since 1972.
     * A longer scene of Jack and Anne running away from Kong's lair. This
       was cut by Cooper for pacing even though the painstaking
       stop-motion animation had been completed.
     * Kong steps on two natives. Censorship cut.
     * Kong kills two natives and a New Yorker with his teeth. Censorship
       cut.
     * Kong picks a sleeping woman out of the hotel, then realizing she's
       not Ann, drops her to the streets below to her death. Censorship
       cut.
     * Kong breaks up a poker party in the hotel. It's unknown if this was
       filmed or not, but the reason why it was dropped was because it was
       too similar to an almost identical scene in The Lost World.
     * A shot showing Kong's body as he falls off the Empire State
       Building. This was cut because the special effects didn't look
       realistic enough; Kong seemed 'transparent' as he fell to the
       streets below.

Dinosaurs and reptiles

   The dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals depicted on Skull Island
   are never precisely identified in the film. O'Brien based his models on
   well-informed reconstructions, particularly on those of Charles R.
   Knight, which were exhibited in major museums at the time (in
   particular, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City,
   and the Chicago Natural History Museum). The reconstructions are
   surprisingly accurate for their time: paleontologist Robert T. Bakker
   has commented that despite their anatomical inaccuracies, the depiction
   of the Brontosaurus coming out of the swamp and moving on land, and the
   Tyrannosaurus being a swift, active predator are actually more accurate
   than what scientists at the time were teaching. Even so, there are many
   inaccuracies when compared with 21st century knowledge. However, it is
   important to realize that King Kong is not a documentary on prehistoric
   life; it is a movie made for public entertainment, and is not meant to
   be perfectly accurate. With that understood, the animals seen on Skull
   Island include (in order of first appearance):
     * A Stegosaurus (25–30 feet long) appears in a sequence in which it
       is disturbed by Carl Denham's crew. Like an angry rhinoceros, it
       charges the men and they fell it with a gas-bomb. As they walk by
       it, it starts to get up again and is shot.
     * A long-necked Apatosaurus or Brontosaurus (70 feet long) is
       depicted as a sea serpent-like dinosaur. The dinosaur is disturbed
       by the rescue party's raft as it crosses a swamp and capsizes it,
       attacking the men in the water. (The gas bombs and all their guns
       that they brought are lost here.) Several of them are chased onto
       land and one fellow, climbing a tree, is cornered and mauled to
       death by the animal. A common misconseption is that the
       brontosaurus eats the sailor, but it is stated in the script that
       the dinosaur kills and then abandons the body of a sailor
       identified as "Tim." If a scene featuring the dinosaur's return to
       the water was shot, it was cut before production.
     * A large 2-legged lizard-like creature: This creature climbs up a
       vine from the crevasse to attack Jack Driscoll. It falls back into
       the pit when Jack cuts the vine it is climbing. Other than the two
       limbs, the other distinct feature of this unique creature is the
       iguana-like ridge of spikes down its back. The creature bears
       resemblance to the mythical Tatzelwurm.
     * A large theropod which has been identified a both a Tyrannosaurus
       and an Allosaurus. The dinosaur is modeled after after Charles R.
       Knight's depiction of a Tyrannosaurus.. However, it possesses three
       finger per hand, unlike the Tyrannosaur's two. In the documentary
       I'm King Kong! The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper, included on the 2
       disk DVD release of King Kong, Cooper refers to this beast as an
       Allosaurus, not a Tyrannosaurus, which would justify the number of
       fingers. However, the creature was originally intended to be a
       Tyrannosaurus designed for the canceled Willis O'Brien film
       Creation (1931). It may also be worth noting that the Tyrannosaurus
       present in Willis O'Brien's earlier project The Lost World (1925)
       also had a third finger. (The beast, not to be mistaken with the
       film's Allosaurus, appears in a scene in which a juvenile
       Tyrannosaurus is killed by an Agathamus, only to be avenged by an
       adult Tyrannosaur.) The 1932 Kong screenplay refers to the dinosaur
       only as "Meat Eater." Whatever the species, the dinosaur is
       inaccurately depicted as standing erect and dragging its tail along
       the ground, along with swishing its tail (an anatomical
       impossibility). The Meat Eater appears in a lengthy sequence in
       which it attacks Ann, and Kong leaps to her defence to fight the
       dinosaur. (This scene was said to be the most difficult and
       time-consuming sequence of the movie to shoot.)
     * A Plesiosaur-like creature: a highly stylized, serpentine aquatic
       reptile with a long neck and tail as well as two pairs of flippers.
       It inhabits the bubbling swamp area near Kong's cave.
     * A Pteranodon-like creature: A winged reptile, distantly related to
       the dinosaurs. It, like the "Tyrannosaurus" and the "plesiosaur",
       is killed by Kong as the result of attacking Ann.
     * The screenplay also describes a scene not present in the finished
       movie, in which a Styracosaurus prevents the men from crossing back
       over the log to escape from Kong. Willis O'Brien made a model of
       it, but whether it was actually used is unknown. Peter Jackson and
       the WETA crew, on recreating the spider pit sequence, also
       recreated the Styracosaur chasing the men and cutting off their
       escape. O'Brien eventually used his Styracosaur model in Son of
       Kong.

Sequels

   A sequel, The Son of Kong, was also released in 1933. The story
   concerned a return expedition to Skull Island that discovers that Kong
   has left behind an albino son.

Video releases

   The film was released officially for the first time on DVD in the U.S.
   in November of 2005, after long being only available on home video
   releases, and bootleg VHS and DVD releases.

   Warner Home Video and Turner Entertainment (the current copyright
   owners of King Kong) have released the film in a two-disc special
   edition that has been released both with regular DVD packaging and in a
   Collector's Edition featuring both discs in a collectible tin can which
   also includes a variety of other printed extras exclusive to the
   Collector's Edition. As of 2006 the US Special Edition has not been
   released in the United Kingdom.

   At the same time that these two solo editions of King Kong were
   released, Warner Brothers also released a DVD box set featuring the
   original 1933 King Kong, as well as the films The Son of Kong, and
   Mighty Joe Young, which were also released separately.

   King Kong when it was released on a Criterion laserdisc in 1985
   featured the first ever audio commentary track, by Ron Haver, on a home
   video release.

   The film was also part of the film colorization controversy in the
   1980's when it and other classic black and white films were colorized
   for television. In recent years, the colorized version has become
   highly prized among Kong collectors, and there have even been bootleg
   DVD releases that have appeared on eBay, some of which even going as
   far as to contain both versions of the film. Although the colorized
   version was released officially on the 2004 PAL-format Region 2 DVD
   from Universal, it has never been made available on DVD officially in
   the Region 1 NTSC format.

Quotes

     * 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.
       — Carl Denham

     * We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you! Why, in a
       few months his name will be up in lights on Broadway! KONG! The
       Eighth Wonder of the World!

     * No, it wasn't the airplanes, it was beauty killed the beast.

   — Carl Denham; referencing the tale of " Beauty and the Beast".

Trivia

     * In the original script, the gorilla is named "Kong". "King" was
       added to the title by studio publicists. Apart from the opening
       titles, the only time the name "King Kong" appears in the picture
       is on the marquee above the theater where Kong is being exhibited —
       and the marquee was in fact added to the scene as an optical
       composite after the live footage of the theater entrance had been
       shot. However, Denham does refer to Kong in his speech to the
       theatre audience as having been "a king in his native land".
     * The giant gate used in the 1933 movie was burned along with other
       old studio sets for the burning of Atlanta scene in Gone with the
       Wind. The gate was originally constructed for the Babylonian
       segment in D. W. Griffith's 1916 film Intolerance and can also be
       spotted in the Bela Lugosi serial The Return of Chandu (1934).
     * King Kong is often credited as being Adolf Hitler's favorite film
       (unconfirmed but mentioned in many news and magazine articles on
       the film, including a 2005 Wired Magazine story)
     * Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle scenes in
       The Most Dangerous Game (1932).
     * The original metal armature used to bring Kong to life, as well as
       other original props from the 1933 film, can be seen in the book It
       Came From Bob's Basement. It was on display in London until a few
       years ago in the now-closed Museum of the Moving Image.
     * King Kong's height is different in different parts of the movie. He
       appears to be 18 feet tall on the island, 24 feet on stage in New
       York and 50 feet on the Empire State Building.
     * The film's budget was approximately $600,000 USD
     * Paul du Chaillu's travel narrative Explorations and Adventures in
       Equatorial Africa (1861) was a favorite of Merian C. Cooper when he
       was a child. The gorilla chase scene in the book was likely an
       inspiration for King Kong.
     * In the 1933 film, King Kong is displayed at the Palace Theatre in
       New York City. Along with the film itself, the marquee makes
       references to the folktale of " Beauty and the Beast".
       Interestingly enough, the Palace is the same theatre that Disney's
       Beauty and the Beast opened at in 1994 (and ran here until 1999).
       On a side note, by 1933, the Palace had become a full-fledged movie
       house no longer running stage acts.
     * Skull Island is never actually referred to onscreen by this name.
       Denham merely notes that the island's most prominent rock formation
       resembles a giant skull.
     * The film reportedly influnced director Peter Jackson to go into
       filmmaking.
     * It was this film that inspired the King Homer segment in the
       Simpsons Treehouse of Horror III, which was pretty similar to the
       entire film, except for the fact that the woman, (Marge), marrys
       the ape (King Homer), who didn't get shot down from the Empire
       State Building but rather fell from exhaustion while attempting to
       climb it (In typical Simpson comedy, Homer falls from the first
       floor).
     * Aus T.V Series Fast Forward sent-up King Kong in it's last Series
       ('92)

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